New Street People Song (Cold Weather Version)

Author/Singer: Christine Lavin

its 3 degrees Fahrenheit snow is falling down,
people are huddled in doorways all over town
stamping their feet to keep warm, blowing on their hands
it’s sad to see this misery in such a wealthy land,
the land such a wealthy land.
some speak English, some speak French, some Spanish
and Japanese (arigato)
they have more in common than a shivering in their knees
all of them are slave to the demon cigarette
this song is about people who smoke, if you haven’t figured that out yet
smokers are the new street people that you see wherever you go
coughing hacking lighting up in the wind and the rain and the snow
in the fog and the hill and the dust and the heat
cigarette smokers have become the uptown equivalent of the valory bum
(bum bum bum bum bum)

now i can hear you smokers getting mad at me
but come on we’ve tried everything to get you to quit
we’ve begged we’ve pleaded we’ve read you gruesome statistics
and still you smoke!
now were trying a new tactic, embarrassing you into quitting
think of this song as tough love (tough love)
its only a matter of time before street venders get wise,
its hard enough selling hot dogs without the smoke getting
in their eyes (smoke gets in their eyes)
and in their hair and in their lungs and buns and hotdog meat
they’ll ask the city to pass a law to ban smoking on the street
the street, no smoking on the street
if they cant smoke on the street or in the buildings up above
where will smokers go to partake of what they love?
restaurants? (no) bars? (uh uh) taxi cabs? (no way)
smokers are the most oppressed minority today
smokers are the new street people that you see wherever you go
coughing hacking lighting up in the wind and the rain and the snow
in the fog and () and the dust and the heat
cigarette smokers have become the uptown equivalent of the valory bum
(bum bum bum bum bum)

so if you see a smoker on the sidewalk pity her, pity him
their bad habits force them to be on the outside looking in
and all the world power and nicotine patches haven’t helped a bit
in summer they wheeze in winter they freeze and still they just don’t quit
don’t quit, and still they just don’t quit
years ago i saw a bumper sticker i still recall today, it said:
(kissing a smoker is just like licking a dirty ashtray)
if that doesn’t make you think twice about
how smoking offends
go lick a dirty ashtray and tell me would you want to do that again (no)
again (yuck), would you ever do that again (uh uh)
smokers are the new street people that you see wherever you go
coughing hacking lighting up in the wind and the rain and the snow
in the fog and () and the dust and the heat
cigarette smokers have become the uptown equivalent of the valory bum
(bum bum bum bum bum)
TOUGH LOVE!

Listen the audio track here (sample): http://www.madmusic.com/samples/c/h/Christine_Lavin_+_The_New_Port_Richey_Bodacious_Butt_Kickers_-_New_Street_People_(cold_weather_wersion)__The.mp3

Source: http://www.songresource.com/christine-lavin/new-street-people-cold-weather-version-lyrics/