Tulsa ’67

Lyrics

[PONYBOY, spoken] When I stepped out into the bright sunlight from the darkness of the movie house, I had only two things on my mind: Paul Newman and a ride home (sung) I've never been out of Tulsa before I wonder what it would be like I've never known anybody to leave Most people get stuck here for life My brother could've been a football star People say he had a ticket out My other brother suffers from a broken heart From a girl hе loved who up and moved away We got no parеnts, we fend for ourselves There's no one to show us the way My brothers are trying, but they're always out Just working their poor lives away My name is Ponyboy, the youngest of the three I know there's so much more to life than what's in front of me So I sneak into the movies just to glimpse the other side Rather take a risk and see it than to never even try When I am looking up and Newman's on the screen The entire world just melts away And for a moment I'm not worried 'bout a thing I just sit back and let the movie start to play But unlike in the movies and the books I like to read Nothing in this town plays out the same They tell me it was different back when we could all agree Somewhere down the line we lost our way We had places to go, we had things to do So they took one town and they split it in two The money went west, take the grease to the east The train ran down the belly of the beast Here we are now, I'm talkin' to you When I get to the end, tell me what you would do In the town that's torn in two What's a Greaser from the East Side supposed to do? This is [PONYBOY & ENSEMBLE] Tulsa 1967 And there's just one thing you need to know You got Greasers and Socs, that's how it's always been And that's probably how it's always gonna go [PONYBOY] There's another side of Tulsa that I hardly ever see It's like some kind of fairy tale land The grass is always greener and the streets are always clean All the girls are pretty there and all the guys are mean We call them Socs 'cause they live like socialites Barbecues and graduation days With better clothes and better cars and better lives [PONYBOY & ENSEMBLE] Just one town Two very different ways [PONYBOY] Over on the East Side, the story's not the same Another rundown building, another broken window pane The cars no longer runnin', sitting idle in the yard They're building up the West Side while the East Side falls apart (spoken) That right there's my best friend in the whole world: Johnny Cade. Just last week, some Socs beat the living hell out of him. He hasn't been the same since [JOHNNY] This town, it only holds ya down, there's judgement everywhere People think they know you by the way you wear your hair [PONYBOY & JOHNNY] If you're not born into money, then you're born into despair [PONYBOY, JOHNNY, & GREASERS] And they'll do all that they can to keep your poor ass there [PONYBOY] We gave ourselves a name 'cause we don't have a lot We stick together 'cause each other's all we got [PONYBOY & GREASERS] We take a lot of pride in how we grease our hair People look us up and down and we don't even care 'Cause we're Greasers [PONYBOY] Making something out of nothing, but it's something that a Soc ain't got [GREASERS] We are Greasers [PONYBOY] Ain't never gonna change and it really don't matter if you like it or not [GREASERS] This is [PONYBOY & GREASERS] Tulsa 1967 And there's just one thing you need to know [PONYBOY] Just one thing [PONYBOY & GREASERS] You got Greasers and Socs, that's how it's always been [ENSEMBLE] And that's probably how it's always gonna go [PONYBOY] In the town that's torn in two [ENSEMBLE] And that's probably how it's always gonna go [PONYBOY] What's a Greaser from the East Side supposed to do? [ENSEMBLE] And that's probably how it's always gonna go [PONYBOY] Hey-ey-ey, hey-ey-ey-ey-ey [PONYBOY & ENSEMBLE] That's probably how it's always gonna go