Lyrics Gil Scott–Heron – Blue Collar

I been down in Pennsylvania,
Where I was working in the mine.
And I been down in Cincinnati;
They laid me off the assembly line.

I was down in Kansas City,
Where even the blues sell by the pound
And I been down in New York City, brother,
And that ain’t no place to be down.
Yeah, I’m a-looking at the face of the children;
You see, we’re looking for a higher ground,
And you can’t name where we ain’t been down.
‘Cause there ain’t no place we ain’t been down.

We fell down somewhere
Between the cities and the towns.
We went down, I know,
Between the smiles and the frowns.
And if they call me in the morning,
I mean, I’d recognize the sound,
‘Cause you can’t name where we ain’t been down.
There ain’t no place we ain’t been down.

Standing in the shadows
It sho’nuff (sure enough) looks like rain.
I see the steel-gray clouds above me
Yeah, well the anguish and the pain.
Yeah, I been looking everywhere for peace,
But I swear, there just ain’t none around.

We been down
Between the cities and the towns.
Yeah, been down somewhere
Between the smiles and the frowns.
And if they call me in the morning,
I mean, I’d recognize the sound,
‘Cause you can’t name where I ain’t been down.
There ain’t no place I ain’t been down.