I want to tell you about my hometown

It's a dusty old jewel in the South Puget Sound

Well the factories churn and the timbers all cut down

And life goes by slow in Tacoma



People they laugh when they hear you're from my town

They say it's a sour and used up all place

I defended its honor, shrugged off the put downs

You know that you're poor, from Tacoma



Buildings are empty like ghettos or ghost-towns

It gives me a chill to think what was inside

I can't seem to fathom the dark of my history

I invented my own in Tacoma



There was nothing to put me in love with the good life

I'm in league with the the gangs guns, and the crime

There was no hollow promise that life would reward you

There was nowhere to hide in Tacoma



People who built it they loved it like I do

There was hope in the trainyard of something inspired

Once was I on it, but it's been painted shut

I found passion for life in Tacoma



Well I don't make it home much, I sadly neglect you

But that's how you like it away from the world

God bless California, make way for the Wal-Mart

I hope they don't find you Tacoma