| Growing up on the streets of Birmingham
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| Where your home was pouring and your life was damned
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| I was a hungry black boy living with the world on my back
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| Billie was a white man’s son living in a one room shack
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| And split those days in the Alabama heat
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| We shared what we had but we never have enough to eat
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| Mamma said it didn’t look right, black just don’t mix with white
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| But Billy was my friend and we swore one rainy night
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| To be blood brother
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| Lord, I loved him like no other
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| We were blood brother right to the end
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| To the end, well, well, well
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| Turned eighteen and we had no place to go
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| 'Coz how long can you watch carnival
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| Billy said he got the money, put us on the first Greyhound bus
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| New York City lights gonna be greetin' us
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| Oh, the uptown life can cost you poverty
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| We’re too amused but we suffered in dignity
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| Billy couldn’t take nine to five, his soul can’t stay alive
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| He said to me one day, we ain’t gonna beat the crime
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| You’re my blood brother
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| And I loved him like no other
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| We were blood brother right till the end
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| Well, well, well, yeah
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| So I watched him change as the days went by
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| And the money rolled in, we were livin' high
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| He didn’t have to tell me he was breakin' the law
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| I knew it was him, the men was lookin' for
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| And the story goes that he caught a knife
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| And he pushed his luck and it cost his life
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| I sat down and I cried on that rainy night
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| When I heard heard it on the news
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| One had died
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| We were blood brother
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| And I loved him like no other
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| He was my blood brother
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| And I loved him like no other
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| They were blood brother
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| And he loved him like no other
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| They were blood brother
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| And he loved him like no other |