A thousand miles from Memphis,
There's a crime that left the coroner breathless.
It's like the newspapers tell it –that it's a matter of time.
Tom takes the turnpike for Trenton
And the pistol shakes in the glove compartment.
He's got the dirt on his fingers and something worse on his mind.
If I wake in the resurrection,
Stuck here with our thoughts in Trenton,
I'll stand beside you.
Kiss the ground like a radical mind,
'Til we're tossed down to the ground.
Ghosts of this capital town.
Yankee streets that can't stand the heat,
If the heat's not settling down.
I'm gonna write me a letter
To a woman in Memphis
I'm gonna give her the words I never managed to say.
Sweet Virginia, the life that I would give you
If not for my offenses.
I never state my intentions until the time slips away.
If I wake in the resurrection,
Stuck here with our thoughts in Trenton,
I'll stand beside you.
Kiss the ground like a radical mind,
'Til we're tossed down to the ground.
Ghosts of this capital town.
Yankee streets that can't stand the heat,
If the heat's not settling down.
Yankee streets that can't stand the heat,
If the heat's not settling down.
Yankee streets, you suffer like you mean it,
And another day is gone and you're still barely bleeding.
Yankee streets that can't stand the heat,
If the heat's not settling down.
Yankee streets, you suffer like you need,
And another day is gone and you're still barely breathing.
Yankee streets that can't stand the heat,
If the heat's not settling down.
Down down.
Yankee streets that can't stand the heat,
If the heat's not settling down.
Yankee streets that can't stand the heat,
If the heat's not settling down.
(You said you loved me but you left.)
Yankee streets that can't stand the heat,
If the heat's not settling down.
Yankee streets that can't stand the heat,
If the heat's not settling down.