Harry Chapin - Copper Lyrics
If you were looking for a way to make me mad it was a sure fire way you foundActing like a half wit fool, laying your money aroundWell I came back here to tell you Lou, 'bout what you almost didDon't you ever put the cash on the counter Lou, when I'm with my kidYeah the kid's thirteen he's growing Lou, two years and he'll be bigger than meStill he thinks I'm strong as a blacksmith and straighter than the tall oak treeI raised him alone ten years now since his Mama ran awayAnd you ain't gonna blow his image of me for the stunt like you pulled todayChorus:They took the copper right out of the penny LouThey got the pig locked up in the penBut you're in big trouble with me, yes youIf you ever do that againTen bucks a week protection don't mean I can't knock you downYou've got to treat me like a living saint Lou, whenever my son's aroundYeah the kid wants to be a policeman just like meYou know he'll be a good one the way I started out to beAnd he just might end up police chief, now wouldn't that be something to see?'Cause then the kid would kick right off of the force all the two-bit grifters like meChorusI guess it was when my old lady left me and she took off with a salesman guyI started to see things so differently, cut your own slice out of the pieYeah I grew up and it came clear to me all the smart cops on the makeYou get a silver badge not an old tin star when you're on the takeIt's pimps and whores, punk gang wars, robberies and homicidesWhen you walk the beat with the creeps on the street, well there ain't no way to hideI spent half my life without no wife ridin' herd on the scum of the earthI learned the tricks of the trade from the gutter
