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Down in Oakland

from Reason to Believe by Westerly

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lyrics

He got his hands on a handgun in the backstreets of the bay
He’s got the kind of rage that makes you foolish and bold
Said you don’t disrespect my family
You don’t walk over my friends
You don’t talk to my woman
You were told
Cause young men have fire in their stomachs and it burns in their bones
Cause a man aint a man if he can’t hold his own
So he started something he didn’t understand
When he kicked in that front door
And sent a boy out on a stretcher from his home
Threw himself out into the great unknown

That hour cost 28 years
A 47 year old man steps out on broadway
A little different and a little bit the same
He learned from hard men how to take a hit
And from wise men when to fall
And from the prophets how to stand back up again
Said I’m gonna stand up again

But the world is breaking down in Oakland in the San Francisco Bay
Cause with a record there aint no place to go
And their pushing out the neighbors so there’s no one that you know
Your body’s free but the state still wants your soul
You got no place to go

He looked for work down by the water in the docks along the bay
With the fervor of the hungry and the bold
The markets booming in this city they said just not for men like you
So when the winter came he found himself out in the cold
Cause there’s no redemption in a town that’s lost its soul

Cause the world is breaking down in Oakland in the San Francisco Bay
Along the freeway down telegraph avenue
And he knows it he’s seen the highrise where the market used to be
The way each neighborhood is called something new
The way the world goes on without you

So tell the landlords and the developers and the market too
That you might own it all but it don’t belong to you
He said you can beat me try and break me
Chain me up or tie me down
But you can’t erase me from this place this is my home
Cause the world is breaking down in Oakland in the San Francisco Bay
Cause with a record there aint no place to go
He said you can beat me try and break me
Chain me up or tie me down
But you can’t erase me from this place this is my home

credits

from Reason to Believe, released May 22, 2020

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Westerly California

East Bay Indie-Folk for people who want to be considered both hip and pretentious

Sterling Spence, Brandon Seinturier, Chance Cochran, Scott Wilson, Gordon Allen, and Leah Woodard.

www.facebook.com/westerlytheband

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