When you're too happy
and you'd rather be lonely,
You can always go downtown
When it's worth knowing
The economy's slowing
It can help to go downtown
Just wait around for traffic where the cars can now go faster
Hang out by the pawn shop that was once a Hughes and Hatcher
You'll get the blues
The scenery is funky there
You'll prob'ly get into trouble, you can't be too careful in
Downtown, wretched old place for sure
Downtown, you're gonna hate it there
Downtown's wonderful heyday is through

Go hang around the boarded shops where your parents bought their groovy clothes downtown
Maybe you know some other places to go to that have long been closed downtown
Just reminisce about the times when people all went shopping
But that in the day when everybody had a job and
They'd come again
The silence is creepy there
You'll prob'ly get into trouble, you can't be too careful in
Downtown, center of urban blight,
Downtown, dangerous place at night,
Downtown, Wal-Mart will be all right now

(da da da da, da da da da da da da da, da da da da da, downtown)

And you may meet somebody there to talk with and relate to
A homeless person just like you who needs a house and job to
Keep them alive
So maybe I'll see you there
We'll prob'ly get into trouble, you can't be too careful in
Downtown, you're gonna hate it there,
Downtown, nothing there anymore,
Downtown, poverty's waiting for you

Downtown, downtown, downtown, downtown...