Ordinary People lyrics

Song information

Artist: Neil Young
Album: Soundtrack Exclusives & Rarities

Lyrics

In a dusty town
A clock struck high noon
Two men stood face to face
One wore black and one wore white
But of fear there wasn't a trace
Two hundred years later
Two hot rods drag race
Through the very same place
And a half a million people
Moved in to pick up the pace
A factory full of people
Makin' parts to go to outer space
A train load of people
They were aimin' for another place
Out of town people
There's a man in the window
With a big cigar
Says everything's for sale
The house and the boat
And the railroad car
The owner's gotta go to jail
He acquired these things
From a life of crime
Now he's selling them
To raise his bail
He was rippin' off the people
Sellin' guns to the underground
Tryin' to help the people
Lose their ass
For a piece of ground
Rippin' off the people
Skimmin' the top when
There was no one around
Tryin' to help the people
He was dealing antiques
In a hardware store
But he sure had a lot to hide
He had a backroom full
Of the guns of war
And a ton of ammunition besides
Well, he walked with a cane
Kept a bolt on the door
With five pit bulls inside
Just a warning to the people
Who might try to break in at night
Protection from the people
Selling safety
In the darkest night
Tryin' to help the people
Get the drugs
To the street all right
Ordinary people
Well, it's hard to say
Where a man goes wrong
Might be here
And it might be there
What starts out weak
Might get too strong
If you can't tell foul from fair
But it's hard to judge
From an angry throng
Of hands stretched into the air
The vigilante people
Takin' law into their own hands
Conscientious people
Crackin' down on
The druglord's land
Government people
Confiscatin' all
The dealer's land
Patch-of-ground people
Down at the factory
They're puttin' new windows in
The vandals made a mess of things
And the homeless
Just walked right in
Well, they worked here once
And they live here now
But they might work here again
They're ordinary people
And they're livin' in a nightmare
Hard workin' people
And they don't know
How they got there
Ordinary people
And they think that you don't care
Hard workin' people
Down on the assembly line
They keep puttin'
The same thing out
But the people today
They just ain't buyin'
Nobody can figure it out
Well, they try like hell
To build a quality end
They're workin' hard
Without a doubt
They're ordinary people
And the dollar's
What it's all about
Hard workin' people
But the customers are walkin' out
Lee iacocca people
Yeah, they look
But they just don't buy
Hard workin' people
Two out of work models
And a fashion slave
Try to dance away
The michelob night
The bartender poured
Himself another drink
While two drunks sat
Watchin' the fight
The champ went down
Then he got up again
And then he went out like a light
He was fightin' for the people
But his timing wasn't right
For las vegas people
Who came to see a las vegas fight
High rollin' people
Takin' limos
Though the neon night
Fightin' for the people
And then a new rolls royce
And a company car
They went flyin' down the street
Each one tryin'
To make it to the gate
Before employees manned the fleet
The trucks full of products
For the modern home
Set to roll out into the street
Of downtown people
Tryin' to make their way to work
Nose-to-the-stone people
Some are saints, and some are jerks
Hard workin' people
Stoppin' for a drink
On the way to work
Alcoholic people
Yeah, they're takin' it
One day, one day at a time
Out on the railroad track
They're cleanin' up number 9
They're scrubbin' the boiler down
Well, she really is lookin' fine
Ah, she's lookin' so good
They're gonna
Bring her back on line
Ordinary people
They're gonna bring
The good things back
Nose-to-the stone people
Put the business back on track
Ordinary people
I got faith in the regular kind
Hard workin' people
Patch-of-ground people