Lights of the city Like j**els in the night Their music is the siren and the scream Faces in the city Won't look you in the eye The faces of the wounded and the mean Shadows on the highway Ravens In the yard Who is that coming this way? Dealers in the school yard In a West Virginia town How did things ever, ever get this way? American nights, Ameri-can days American nights, American days A young mans life is hanging by a gun Everyone should have one so they say. He'd be better off in the front lines of the war Safer than he is In the cities here today. If Times Square was a circus Than the animals are free Standing in the neon with the clowns. The slamming of the taxis And the hookers looking cool. No one's really safe when the circus is in town. American nights, Ameri-can days American nights, American days Oh, somewhere the river flows Somewhere that's all we know. Someday it will begin Oh, someday, hearts will win. American nights, Ameri-can days American nights, American days