Downtown L.A. is a depressing place

You can see young men with deep lines in their face

They could all be something if somebody cared

But nobody knows they're even down there

Old woman walking with a sack on her back

Picking up the garbage people put out back

Men down there trying to walk the line

Trading their soul for a bottle of wine



In the inner city it ain't no good

It's a long, long way from Hollywood

Bad kind of people got a hold of the street

They got something that the poor people need

At two in the morning they bust your head

Fat chance walking you'll end up dead

It's the law of the jungle with a gun and a knife

If you stay long enough you lose your life



Man down there he couldn't be lying

He was sleeping in the street and he couldn't keep from crying

Said he'd been there for twenty one years

Through the bars and the brawls and the blues and the tears

Prop up the front the back falls down

All around the canyons of L.A. town

When he asked me for a dollar I looked him in his face

Downtown L.A. is a depressing place.