The Message (12" version)

It's like a jungle sometimes, it makes me wonder
How I keep from going under
It's like a jungle sometimes, it makes me wonder
How I keep from going under

My brothers doin' bad, stole my mothers TV
Says, she watches to much, is just not healthy
"All my Children" in the daytime, "Dallas" at night
Can't even see the game or the Sugar Ray fight
The bill collectors, they ring my phone
And scare my wife, when I'm not home
Got a bum education, double-digit inflation
Can't take the train to the job, there's a strike at the station
Neon king kong standin' on my back
Can't stop to turn around, broke my sacroiliac
A midrange migraine, cancered membrane
Sometimes I think I'm going insane, I swear I might hijack a plane!

Don't push me
'Cause I'm close to the edge
I'm tryin'
Not to lose my head

It's like a jungle sometimes, it makes me wonder
How I keep from going under
It's like a jungle sometimes, it makes me wonder
How I keep from going under

A child is born, with no state of mind
Blind to the ways of mankind
God is smiling on you, but he's frownin' too
Because only God knows, what you go through
You grow in the ghetto, livin' second rate
And your eyes will sing a song of deep hate
The place that you play and where you stay
Looks like one great big alleyway
You'll admire all the number-book takers
Thugs, pimps and pushers and the big money-makers
Driving big cars, spending twenties and tens
And you wanna grow up to be just like them
Smugglers, scramblers, burglars, gamblers
Pickpockets, peddlers and even pan-handlers
You say, "I'm cool, huh, I'm no fool"
But then you wind up droppin' out of high school
Now you're unemployed, all non-void
Walking 'round like you're pretty-boy-Floyd
Turned stickup-kid, look what you done did
Got sent up for a eight-year bid
Now your manhood is took and you're a may tag
Spend the next two years as an undercover fag
Being used and abused and served like hell
Till one day you was found hung dead in a cell
But now your eyes sing the sad sad song
Of how you lived so fast and died so young

So, don't push me
'Cause I'm close to the edge
I'm tryin'
Not to lose my head (Huh-ha huh-hah)

It's like a jungle sometimes, it makes me wonder
How I keep from going under (Ha ahuh-ha huh-hah)
It's like a jungle sometimes, it makes me wonder
How I keep from going under (Ha ahuh-ha huh-hah)