In the heat of the summer When the pavements were burnin' Soul of a city was ravaged in the night After the city sun was sinkin' 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 street they were rumblin' All the tempers were ragin' Oh, where, oh, where are the white silver tongues Who forgot to listen to the warnings? On and on came the angry No longer following reason And all the stores were the target now Where just the other day they were buyin' Drunk with the memory of the ghetto Drunk with the lure of the looting And the memory of the uniforms shoving with their sticks Asking, "Are you looking for trouble?" "No, no, no," moaned the mayor "It's not the way of the order" "Oh, 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's resting on your broken streets So see what your rage has unraveled" Barricades sadly were risin' Bricks were heavily flyin' And the loudspeaker drowned like a whisperin' sound When compared to the angered emotions And when the fury was over And the shame was replacing the anger So wrong, so wrong, but we've been down too long And we had to make somebody listen In the heat of the summer