Charted: 1982 Peaked at #62 Sugar Hill -- 584 From the album "The Message" B-Side "The Message" (Instrumental) Featuring Mel Melle and Duke Bootee
It's like a jungle sometimes It makes me wonder How I keep from going under (repeat)
My brother's doing bad, sold my mother's TV Says she watches too 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 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 Midrange, migrained, cancered membrane Sometimes I think I'm going insane, I swear I might hijack a plane
Chorus: Don't push me, 'cause, I'm close to the edge I'm trying 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 was born, with no state of mind Blind to the ways of mankind God is smiling on you, but, he's frowning too 'Cause, only God knows what you go through You grow in the ghetto, living second rate And your eyes will sing a song of deep hate The places you play and where you stay Looks like one great big alley way 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, I'm no fool But then, you wind up dropping out of high school Now you're unemployed, all null 'n void Walking around like you're Pretty Boy Floyd Turned stickup kid, look what you done did Got sent up for an eight year bid Now your manhood is took and you're a Maytag Spend the next two years as an undercover fag Being used and abused and served like hell 'Til 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
Chorus