In the Heat of the Summer

In The Heat Of The Summer - Judy Collins

In the heat of the summer

When the pavements were burning

The soul of a city was ravaged in the night

After the city sun was setting

Now no one knows how it started

Why the windows were shattered

But deep in the dark someone set the spark

And then it no longer mattered

Down the streets they were rumbling

Birds were already flyin'

Oh where oh where are the white silver tongues

Who forgot to listen to the warnings

Drunk with the memory of the ghetto

Drunk with the lure of the looting

With the memory of the uniforms shoving with their sticks

Asking are you looking for trouble

No no no moaned the mayor

That's not the way of the order

Stay in your homes please leave us alone

We'll be glad to talk in the morning

For shame for shame wrote the papers

Why the hurry to your hunger

Now the rubble is resting on your broken streets

And you see what your rage has unraveled

And when the fury was over

Shame was replacing the anger

So wrong so wrong but we've been down so long

And we had to make somebody listen

In the heat of summer