I wanna tell you about my hometown   It's a dusty old jewel in the South Puget Sound   Well, the factories churn and the timbers all cut down   And life goes by slow in Tacoma      People they laugh when they hear you're from my town   They say it's a sour and used up old place   I defended its honor, shrugged off the putdowns   You know that you're poor from Tacoma      The buildings are empty like ghettos or ghostowns   It gives me a chill to think what was inside   I can't seem to fathom the dark of my history   I invented my own in Tacoma      There was nothing to put me in love with the good life   I'm in league with the the gangs and the guns and the crime   There was no hollow promise that life would reward you   There was nowhere to hide in Tacoma      People who built it, they loved it like I do   There was hope in the train yards that something inspired   Once was I on it but it's been painted shut   I found passion for life in Tacoma      Well, I don't make it home much, I sadly neglect you   But that's how you like it away from the world   God bless California, make way for the Wal-Mart   I hope they don't find you Tacoma