Stretched between the lamplight and the cigarette ash
In the corner of the city where the markets crashed
There are boxes of the lonely here and fires of hope
We built a monster
We built a monster

You can take a bit of red, a bit of white and blue
From across the Atlantic laying trails to you
A little flash of lightning and some bully boy charm
We built a monster
We built a monster

This thing can cross oceans in its seven league boots
It can chew the money tree right down to its roots
The ship of a state can go under in minutes
You don't know the flood is coming until you're swimming in it

It ain't come from the hungry, it ain't come from the bored
It ain't tramping out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored
It spins like a tequila worm inside all of us
We built a monster
We built a monster

It can breathe its greed into innocent souls
It can raise up armies, it can blow 'em full of holes
It can dress for occasion if occasion demands
There is power in the chase, there is power in the hand

So the city flickers on like a Reeperbahn night
Hissing like a wildcat just about to fight
And it mutters that we rule by the ladders of degree
We built a monster
We built a monster
We built a monster
We built a monster