Todd Rundgren - Back on the Street lyrics

They tell me I've paid back the debt I owed Forty-four months since the slammer door closed They give me a suit and put me back on the road And my thoughts are racing Where do I go? What am I supposed to live on? What happens when the twenty-five dollars is gone? That leaves me lots of time to wonder why I was born But the countdown is on Everybody's dancing The music sounds entrancing But you can't find the beat It's the ticking of a thousand human time bombs Who are back on the street Oh the names have been changed But the story's the same History will repeat Add it all up and then divide it by zero 'Cause you're back on the street I can't stand the strain of this job no more I must have forgot what I took it on for I make lots of money, yet still I want more And my head is blazing I think that I'll check out the shops downtown Sometimes it helps to buy things when I feel brought down At this hour I might dodge those hippie low-life's around But the countdown is on Once you had to stand out Looking for a handout Free love and body heat And that money's just a crumpled green be When you're back on the street Back on the street again Said you're back on the street again The countdown is on And nobody knows when Spreading like a cancer Looking for the answer In everyone you meet And each in his way has a hustle to play When he's back on the street