Walking down Madison   I swear I never had a gun   No I never shot no one   I was only having fun      Walking down Madison   Swear I never had a gun   I was philosophizing some   Checking out the bums      See you give 'em your nickels   Your pennies and dimes   But you can't give 'em hope   In these mercenary times, oh no      And you feel real guilty   About the coat on your back   And the sandwich you had, oh no      From an uptown apartment   To a knife on the A train   It's not that far   From the sharks in the penthouse   To the rats in the basement   It's not that far      To the bag lady frozen asleep in the park   Oh no, it's not that far   Would you like to see some more?   I can show you if you'd like to      Walking down Madison   I swear I never had a gun   No I never shot no one   Wouldn't do it just for fun      Walking down Madison   Trying to keep my head screwed on   I was philosophizing some   Checking out the nuns      When you get to the corner   Don't look at those freaks   Keep your head down low   And stay quick on your feet, oh yeah      The beaming boy from Harlem   With the airforce coat   The ones who died, the ones who tried   The ones that sit and gloat      From an uptown apartment   To a knife on the A train   It's not that far   From the sharks in the penthouse   To the rats in the basement   It's not that far      To the bag lady frozen asleep   On the church steps   It's not that far   Would you like to see some more?   I can show you if you'd like to      Within every city and town there's a Madison   Frozen lives for whom nothing's happening   Hungry children is a mother's dilemma   Dumpster diving to feed her baby Emma   So you walk on by like it doesn't affect you   The held out hand that you pay no respect to   Nickels and dimes won't even buy your guilt   Another wino burnt to death in his quilt      It's a cardboard city, newspaper metropolis   The system can't cope or keep on top of this   The authorities come as you're not for display   Do they solve the problem, no, they move him away   They're in a vicious circle of no fixed abode   The social won't pay 'em the money they're owed   When you've got no money you can't pay rent   Hypothermia kills 'cos the system is bent      From an uptown apartment   To a knife on the A train   It's not that far   From the sharks in the penthouse   To the rats in the basement   It's not that far      To the bag lady frozen asleep in the park   Oh no, it's not that far   And do you want to see some more?   I can show you if you'd like to      From an uptown apartment   To a knife on the A train   It's not that far   From the sharks in the penthouse   To the rats in the basement   It's not that far      To the bag lady frozen asleep   On the church steps   It's not that far