Trouble Every Day

(album: Freak Out! - 1966)

Well I'm about to get sick
From watching my TV
Been checking out the news
Until my eyeballs fail to see
I mean to say that every day
Is just another rotten mess
And when it's gonna change, my friend
Is anybody's guess

So I'm watching and I'm waiting
Hoping for the best
Even think I'll go to praying
Every time I hear 'em saying
That there's no way to delay
That trouble coming every day
No way to delay
That trouble coming every day

Wednesday I watched the riot...
Seen the cops out on the street
Watched 'em throwing rocks and stuff
And choking in the heat
Listened to reports
About the whisky passing 'round
Seen the smoke and fire
And the market burning down
Watched while everybody
On his street would take a turn
To stomp and smash and bash and crash
And slash and bust and burn

And I'm watching and I'm waiting
Hoping for the best
Even think I'll go to praying
Every time I hear 'em saying
That there's no way to delay
That trouble coming every day
No way to delay
That trouble coming every day

Well, you can cool it,
You can heat it...
'Cause, baby, I don't need it...
Take your TV tube and eat it
'N all that phony stuff on sports
'N all the unconfirmed reports
You know I watched that rotten box
Until my head begin to hurt
From checking out the way
The newsman say they get the dirt
Before the guys on channel so-and-so

And further they assert
That any show they'll interrupt
To bring you news if it comes up
They say that if the place blows up
They will be the first to tell,
Because the boys they got downtown
Are working hard and doing swell,
And if anybody gets the news
Before it hits the street,
They say that no one blabs it faster
Their coverage can't be beat

And if another woman driver
Gets machine-gunned from her seat
They'll send some joker with a brownie
And you'll see it all complete

So I'm watching and I'm waiting
Hoping for the best
Even think I'll go to praying
Every time I hear 'em saying
That there's no way to delay
That trouble coming every day
No way to delay
That trouble coming every day

Hey, you know something people?
I'm not black
But there's a whole lots a times
I wish I could say I'm not white

Well, I seen the fires burning
And the local people turning
On the merchants and the shops
Who used to sell their brooms and mops
And every other household item
Watched the mob just turn and bite 'em
And they say it served 'em right
Because a few of them are white,
And it's the same across the nation
Black and white discrimination
Yelling "You can't understand me!"
'N all that other jazz they hand me
In the papers and TV and
All that mass stupidity
That seems to grow more every day
Each time you hear some nitwit say
He wants to go and do you in
Because the color of your skin
Just don't appeal to him
(No matter if it's black or white)
Because he's out for blood tonight

You know we got to sit around at home
And watch this thing begin
But I bet there won't be many live
To see it really end
'Cause the fire in the street
Ain't like the fire in the heart
And in the eyes of all these people
Don't you know that this could start
On any street in any town
In any state if any clown
Decides that now's the time to fight
For some ideal he thinks is right
And if a million more agree
There ain't no Great Society
As it applies to you and me
Our country isn't free
And the law refuses to see
If all that you can ever be
Is just a lousy janitor
Unless your uncle owns a store
You know that five in every four
Just won't amount to nothing more
Gonna watch the rats go across the floor
And make up songs about being poor

Blow your harmonica, son!