Well I kissed the day, I was on my way 

From those cold gray blocks of stone 

For seventeen years of squalor filled tears 

A time now with innocence lost 

As the sun split the room 

With its rays filled with gloom 

Turnin' all hope to despair 

And the only thing left 

Was to flee from the nest 

That was Life In A Tenement Square:



I remember the song where the rats sang along 

And danced for their daily bread 

While the damp washed the walls 

That were twenty feet tall 

Not a child in the house was fed 

On the porter filled face 

Of the men left a trace 

Of the coin they had already spent 

While our mothers asked God 

What was Hell ever for 

When you lived in a Tenement Square



Grab what's left of the coal 

From the ol' cubbyhole 

These cinders need more to be a fire 

While the ghosts of the soldiers 

That lived there before us 

Laugh with their guns by their side 

I hear them laugh, with their guns by their side



Now politicians they dwell 

In that forgotten Hell 

Our misery's been turned into mews 

Where the fat of the land 

Now hog, hand-in-hand 

A crime now of life was ever true 

As the sun split the room 

With its rays filled with gloom 

Turnin' all hope to despair 

And the only thing left 

Was to flee from the nest 

That was Life In A Tenement Square...