I am a backseat driver from America
They drive to the left on Falls Road
And the man at the wheel's name is Seamus
We pass a child on the corner he knows
And Seamus says: "Now, what chance has that kid got?"
And I say from the back: "I don't know"
He says: "There's barbed wire at all of these exits
And there ain't no place in Belfast for that kid to go"

It's a hard life, it's a hard life, it's a very hard life
It's a hard life wherever you go
And if we poison our children with hatred
Then the hard life is all that they'll know
And there ain't no place in Belfast for that kid to go

A cafeteria line in Chicago
The fat man in front of me
Is calling black people trash to his children
He's the only trash here I see
And I'm thinking this man wears a white hood
In the night when his children should sleep
But they'll slip to their window and they'll see him
And they'll think that white hood's all they need

It's a hard life, it's a hard life, it's a very hard life
It's a hard life wherever you go
And if we poison our children with hatred
Then the hard life is all that they'll know
And there ain't no place in Chicago for those kids to go

I was a child in the sixties
Dreams could be held through TV
With Disney, and Cronkite, and Martin Luther
And I believed, I believed, I believed
Now, I am the backseat driver from America
And I am not at the wheel of control
And I am guilty, I am war, I am the root of all evil
Lord, and I can't drive on the left side of the road

It's a hard life, it's a hard life, it's a very hard life
It's a hard life wherever you go
And if we poison our children with hatred
Then the hard life is all that they'll know
And there ain't no place in this world for these kids to go
It's a hard life wherever you go