Sleep like a baby, my little lady,
Dream till the sunrise creeps into your eyes,
Dream till the sunrise turns on the day

In the Avenues and Alleyways,
While you sleep there's a whole world coming alive,
Able and his brother, fighting one another in and out of every dive,
The Avenues and Alleyways,
where the strong and the quick alone can survive,
Look around the jungle, see the rough and tumble,
Listen to a squealer cry,
Then a little later in the morning paper,
Read about the way he died

Wake up my pretty, go to the city,
Stay through the daytime,
Safe in the sunshine,
Stay till the daytime turns into night

In the Avenues and Alleyways,
Where a mans gotta work out which side he's on,
Any way he chooses chances are he loses,
No one gets to live too long,

The avenues and alleyways,
Where the soul of a man is easy to buy,
Everybody's wheeling,
Everybody's steeling,
All the low are living high,
Every city's got em,
Can we ever stop em?
Some of us are gonna try