artist : Bobby Womack
year charted : 1973
chart : #56 Billboard Hot 100, #19 R&B
album : Across The 110th Street Soundtrack (1972)
about the song :
The film's title song was critically-praised but did not do well on the chartswas later featured in Quentin Tarantino's 1997 blaxploitation homage Jackie Brown
was also heard in Ridley Scott's 2007 American Gangster
was a background song for the video game True Crime: New York City
about the singer :
On January 14, 2009 Womack was announced as one of the 2009 inductees to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He was inducted on April 4
Bobby Womack factfile
lyrics :
I was the third brother of five,
Doing whatever I had to do to survive.
I'm not saying what I did was alright,
Trying to break out of the ghetto was a day to day
fight.
Been down so long, getting up didn't cross my mind,
I knew there was a better way of life that I was just
trying to find.
You don't know what you'll do until you're put under
pressure,
Across 110th Street is a hell of a tester.
Across 110th Street,
Pimps trying to catch a woman that's weak
Across 110th Street,
Pushers won't let the junkie go free.
Across 110th Street,
Woman trying to catch a trick on the street.
Across 110th Street,
You can find it all in the street.
I got one more thing I'd like to y'all about right now.
Hey brother, there's a better way out.
Snorting that coke, shooting that dope man you're
copping out.
Take my advice, it's either live or die.
You've got to be strong, if you want to survive.
The family on the other side of town,
Would catch hell without a ghetto around.
In every city you find the same thing going down,
Harlem is the capital of every ghetto town.
Across 110th Street,
Pimps trying to catch a woman that's weak
Across 110th Street,
Pushers won't let the junkie go free.
Across 110th Street,
A woman trying to catch a trick on the street, ouh baby
Across 110th Street,
You can find it all in the street.
Yes he can, oh
Look around you, just look around you,
Look around you, look around you, uh yeah
