It's A Hard Life Wherever You Go Lyrics - From A Distance - Nanci Griffith

I am a backseat driver from America 

They drive on the left on falls road 

The man at the wheel's name is Shamus 

We pass a child on the corner he knows 

And Shamus says, "Now what chance has that kid got?" 

And I say from the back, "I don't know" 

He says, "There's barbed wire at all these exits 

And there ain't no place in Belfast for that kid to go" 

It's a hard life, it's a hard life 

It's a very hard life 

It's a hard life wherever you go 

If we poison our children with hatred 

Then, the hard life is all that they'll know 

And there ain't no place in Belfast for that kid to go 

A cafeteria line in Chicago 

The fat man in front of me 

Is calling black people trash to his children 

And he's the only trash here I see 

And I'm thinking this man wears a white hood 

In the night when the children should sleep 

But, they'll slip to their window and they'll see him 

And they'll think that white hood's all they need 

It's a hard life, it's a hard life 

It's a very hard life 

It's a hard life wherever you go 

If we poison our children with hatred 

Then, the hard life is all that they'll know 

And there ain't no place in Chicago for those kids to go 

I was a child in the sixties 

Dreams could be held through TV 

With Disney and Cronkite and martin Luther 

And, I believed, I believed, I believed 

Now, I am the backstreet driver from America 

I am not at the wheel of control 

I am guilty, I am war, I am the root of all evil 

Lord, I can't drive on the left side of the road 

It's a hard life, it's a hard life 

It's a very hard life 

It's a hard life wherever you go 

If we poison our children with hatred 

Then, the hard life is all that they'll know 

And there ain't no place in this world for these kids to go