America The Ugly

(album: I Witness Life - 1970)

There was a man came to see the USA from a foreign land
To photograph the progress of dear old Uncle Sam
He got off the boat in New York went down to the Bowery
I know what the man went to photograph and to see
There were hopeless hungry living dead
Winos who sell their souls for a bottle of a cheapest red
That's the picture that he wanted
And that's what he got they say America the ugly today

He went to the Appalachians and he saw what we all have seen
Where people live on bread and soup fat back and pinto beans
He saw the hungry children and he photographed the ragged clothes
I guess we're gonna try to tell him that it ain't so
There were good men standing around with nothing to do
Pregnant young women who didn't even have a pair of shoes
The man got his pictures and what are we going to say America the ugly today

Then he went to the medicare centers and he saw the old people there
It seems that the young generation just didn't want 'em in their hair
He saw the poor man working it out while the mighty rich lives high
And my friend that brings a gleam to the enemy's eyes
There were some folks had plenty and some had none at all
The enemy knows when a heart gets hard the country is bound to fall
If we get heads and hearts together we won't have to hear them say
America the ugly today America the ugly today