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lyrics

Tough Luck - Somerville MA 9/28/07

When I was a young boy, my mama she died
And my daddy fell into a bottle.
And it drank him to death
And in his last dying breath,
Said, “Better go to your uncle’s tomorrow”

So I went up to Yonkers where I knew that he lived
Oh, I knocked at the door and I waited.
And he said, “Come on in kid,
You piece of shit
And pay the debt that your daddy evaded.”

He said,
Tough luck, living is rough
So don’t come a cryin’ at my door.
It’s not so bad, and It’s all I’ve had.
But it’s living, ain’t that what you’re here for?

I stayed there for 3 years and seventeen days
And the black eyes and belts weren’t easy
But I stuck it out
‘cause that’s all I knew how
to do, and no one else gonna feed me.

But my cousin Sara had a different mind.
She screamed “I won’t let him hit me another time.
So we both ran away.
On an October day.
Wondering what kind of world that we’d find

After a while we went back to New York.
Sara had a friend in the city.
Said he’d give her a job,
If I don’t come along
Said, “You’ll do alright girl, you’re lookin’ pretty.”

And we lived like that for most of a year,
Under the towering skyscrapers
And real late every night
Sara turned on the light
Went to the street to let some stranger rape her

She said,
Tough luck, living is rough
But it’s living and that’s why I’m working
It’s not so bad, and it’s all I’ve had.
So bring every monster out of his lurking.

But when she came in with blood on her face,
I cried out that there had to be justice.
She said, “Just don’t call the pigs,
They’ll take me into the digs”
You know the law is just for the righteous.

I said, “Hey cous’ tell me what was his name?
Its time that we do some talking”
“It was Johnson and Starr
At the Crosstown Bar
But don’t go they’ll just give you a sockin’.”

But I went outside to the freezing air.
Said, “I’m gonna kill those bastards”
And I bought me a gun
And started to run
Down the streets of the answers I’m after.

I went up to the bar and said pour it hard
I better be numb to the next sting.
Then I saw the man
With blood on his hands
All over town, they could here my shots ring:

I said,
Tough luck, living is rough.
But it’s living, and it’s all I can see to.
It’s not so bad and it’s all I’ve had.
Oh, it’s clear when the world doesn’t need you.

credits

from The Disappearing Man (early demos), released February 21, 2009

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Jahn Sood New York

Jahn Sood is a songwriter, impresario and colored-pencil wielder who lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.

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