The film’s opening scene shows a lonely broken store
With the owner testing out some tones and preparing for war
His business is always booming but his employees are underpaid
And as the years went by he dissolved away since his soul had never stayed

His brother’s a bum on James Street
And he lives in a cardboard log
And he has no life laid out for him
Because he loses every job
With gas prices jumping and the pavement cracked
We cover the world in fog

They’re all locked up in prisons in a concrete zoo
And they’re no different from me or you
They get whipped and bled while we stare along
And we don’t consider what we’ve done wrong
We’ve got ghosts in our heads and they don’t mean well
They just want the present to go to hell
Now I’m dead inside as I walk on by
And I wish the human race could cry

As the city drowns in endless grey and the students run across the road
There’s a man in black that’s here to stay and he carries a heavy load
He’s a man who never asks for much as the money burns in his eyes
And he shuts the world down just this once, as a bullet pierces through his hide

Over on the corner of Third Street
There’s a hole in the attic shop
Where there’s a man who hourly slaves away
With his hands wet from a mop
As cement rains down on every head
The beggars rise to the top

They’re all locked up in prisons in a concrete zoo
And they’re no different from me or you
They get whipped and bled while we stare along
And we don’t consider what we’ve done wrong
We’ve got ghosts in our heads and they don’t mean well
They just want the present to go to hell
Now I’m dead inside as I walk on by
And I wish the human race could cry

Sleeping safe in an old hotel room
There’s a man with an average job
He’s just whistling his own tunes
And he’s working with a mob
But from the other room comes a muffled cry
That he tried hard to supress
There’s a woman who he left there to die
But you’ll never hear him confess

There’s a kid with a terminal illness
Rotting in a hospital bed
While the doctors all feign wellness
As they drain blood from his head
Yet even he laughs as he walks past
All of the living dead

As the workmen walk on by they talk down to them all
They lead them around on wired walks
and they don’t give them a call
While these people sit around their souls twist and congeal
One day they’ll wake, no longer hide
They’ll show us what is real

They’re all locked up in prisons in a concrete zoo
And they’re no different from me or you
They get whipped and bled while we stare along
And we don’t consider what we’ve done wrong
We’ve got ghosts in our heads and they don’t mean well
They just want the present to go to hell
Now I’m dead inside as I walk on by
And wish the human race could cry

They’re all locked up in prisons in a concrete zoo
And they’re no different from me or you
They get whipped and bled while we stare along
And we don’t consider what we’ve done wrong
We’ve got ghosts in our heads and they don’t mean well
They just want the present to go to hell
Now I’m dead inside as I walk on by
And wish the human race could cry