the last bastion of true freedom
the freeloaders and squatters on the land

the artists and students, the riff-raff and low-life
these buildings have no future and they know it

and there is a plan, an incredible plan
to build up the city of the future
and all they must do is make these buildings disappear
and then their way it is perfectly clear

we're all in the same project together
we speak the same language of economics

and it makes a lot of sense and it makes a lot of dollars
and if it makes a lot of homeless with no future, so what

that the towers will be built is not debated
we hear them babbling in the press
words like urban planning and revitalization
they take away their homes and give them housing instead

though they have the gift of tongues they have no love
only the clanging of the factory bell

destroying the beauty, the chaos and understanding
that is learned from that school called no future

and what doth it profit a man to leave another homeless
we who dare question this vanity
know that a profit is not without honor
except among family in its own country

without the past there can be no future
the man ranting on the corner's been misunderstood

they have destroyed his past and given him no future
they look at their creation and they say it is good

© 1985 John S. Hardy Music Co. ASCAP