Tulsa '67 lyrics
Tulsa '67
[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 h? loved who up and moved away
We got no par?nts, 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, sung]
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
Last Update: June, 27th 2024