In a dusty town
a clock struck high noon,
Two men stood face to face.
One wore black and one wore white,
But of fear there wasn´t a trace.
Two hundred years later
two hot rods drag race
through the very same place,
And a half a million people,
moved in to pick up the pace.
A factory full of people,
Makin´ parts to go to outer space.
A train load of people,
They were aimin´ for another place.
Out of town people.

There´s a man in the window
with a big cigar,
Says everything´s for sale.
The house and the boat
and the railroad car.
The owner´s gotta go to jail.
He acquired these things
from a life of crime,
Now he´s selling them
to raise his bail.
He was rippin´ off the people.
Sellin´ guns to the underground.
Tryin´ to help the people,
Lose their ass
for a piece of ground.
Rippin´ off the people.
Skimmin´ the top when
there was no one around.
Tryin´ to help the people.

He was dealing antiques
in a hardware store,
But he sure had a lot to hide.
He had a backroom full
of the guns of war,
And a ton of ammunition besides.
Well, he walked with a cane,
Kept a bolt on the door
with five pit bulls inside.
Just a warning to the people,
Who might try to break in at night.
Protection from the people,
Selling safety
in the darkest night.
Tryin´ to help the people.
Get the drugs
to the street all right.
Ordinary people.

Well, it´s hard to say
where a man goes wrong,
Might be here
and it might be there.
What starts out weak
might get too strong,
If you can´t tell foul from fair.
But it´s hard to judge
from an angry throng,
Of hands stretched into the air.
The vigilante people.
Takin´ law into their own hands.
Conscientious people.
Crackin´ down on
the druglord´s land.
Government people.
Confiscatin´ all
the dealer´s land.
Patch-of-ground people.

Down at the factory,
they´re puttin´ new windows in.
The vandals made a mess of things,
And the homeless
just walked right in.
Well, they worked here once,
and they live here now,
But they might work here again,
They´re ordinary people.
And they´re livin´ in a nightmare.
Hard workin´ people.
And they don´t know
how they got there.
Ordinary people.
And they think that you don´t care.
Hard workin´ people.

Down on the assembly line,
they keep puttin´
the same thing out.
But the people today,
they just ain´t buyin´.
Nobody can figure it out.
Well, they try like hell
to build a quality end,
They´re workin´ hard
without a doubt,
They´re ordinary people.
And the dollar´s
what it´s all about.
Hard workin´ people.
But the customers are walkin´ out.
Lee Iacocca people.
Yeah, they look
but they just don´t buy.
Hard workin´ people.

Two out of work models
and a fashion slave,
Try to dance away
the Michelob night.
The bartender poured
himself another drink,
While two drunks sat
watchin´ the fight.
The champ went down,
then he got up again,
And then he went out like a light.
He was fightin´ for the people,
But his timing wasn´t right.
For Las Vegas people,
Who came to see a Las Vegas fight.
High rollin´ people,
Takin´ limos
though the neon night.
Fightin´ for the people.

And then a new Rolls Royce
and a company car,
They went flyin´ down the street.
Each one tryin´
to make it to the gate,
Before employees manned the fleet.
The trucks full of products
for the modern home,
Set to roll out into the street,
Of downtown people,
Tryin´ to make their way to work.
Nose-to-the-stone people,
Some are saints, and some are jerks.
Hard workin´ people,
Stoppin´ for a drink
on the way to work.
Alcoholic people,
Yeah, they´re takin´ it
one day, one day at a time.

Out on the railroad track,
they´re cleanin´ up number 9.
They´re scrubbin´ the boiler down,
well, she really is lookin´ fine.
Ah, she´s lookin´ so good,
they´re gonna
bring her back on line.
Ordinary people.
They´re gonna bring
the good things back.
Nose-to-the stone people.
Put the business back on track.
Ordinary people,
I got faith in the regular kind.
Hard workin´ people.
Patch-of-ground people.