What Made America Famous? - Harry Chapin

It was the town that made America famous

The churches full and the kids all gone to hell

Six traffic lights and seven cops and all the streets kept clean

The supermarket and the drug store and the bars all doing well

They were the folks that made America famous

The local fire department stocked with shorthaired volunteers

And on Saturday night while America boozes

The fire department showed dirty movies

The lawyer and the grocer seeing their dreams

Come to life on the movie screens

While the plumber hopes that he won’t be seen

As he tries to hide his fears and he wipes away his tears

But something’s burning somewhere.

Does anybody care?

We were the kids that made America famous

The kind of kids that long since drove our parents to despair

We were lazy long hairs dropping out, lost confused, and copping out

Convinced our futures were in doubt and trying not to care

We lived in the house that made America famous

It was a rundown slum, the shame of all the decent folks in town

We hippies and some welfare cases

Crowded families with coal black faces

Cramped inside some cracked old boards

The best that we all could afford

But still too nice for the rich landlord

To tear it down, and we could hear the sound

Of something burning somewhere.

Is anybody there?

We all lived the life that made America famous

The cops would make a point to shadow us around our town

And we «love children» put a swastika on the bright red firehouse door

America, the beautiful, it makes a body proud

And then came the night that made America famous

Was it carelessness or someone’s sick idea of a joke?

In the tinderbox trap that we hippies lived in, someone struck a spark

At first I thought I was dreaming

Then I saw the first flames gleaming

And heard the sound of children screaming

Coming through the smoke.

That’s when the horror broke

Something’s burning somewhere.

Does anybody care?

It was the fire that made America famous

The sirens wailed and the firemen stumbled sleepy from their homes

And the plumber yelled: «Come on let’s go!»

But they saw what was burning and said: «Take it slow

Let 'em sweat a little, they’ll never know

And besides, we just cleaned the chrome.»

Said the plumber: «Then I’m going alone.»

He rolled on up in the fire truck

And raised the ladder to the ledge

Where me and my girl and a couple of kids

Were clinging like bats to the edge

We staggered to salvation

Collapsed on the street

And I never thought that a fat man’s face

Would ever look so sweet

I shook his hand in the scene that made America famous

And a smile from the heart that made America great

We spent the rest of that night in the home of a man I’d never known before

It’s funny when you get that close, it’s kind of hard to hate

I went to sleep with the hope that made America famous

I had the kind of a dream that maybe they’re still trying to teach in school

Of the America that made America famous… and

Of the people who just might understand

That how together, yes we can

Create a country better than

The one we have made of this land

We have a choice to make each man

Who dares to dream, reaching out his hand

A prophet or just a crazy God damn

Dreamer of a fool — yes a crazy fool

There’s something burning somewhere

Does anybody care?

Is anybody there?

Is anybody there?