Gospel version
Verse
They have shuttered al their windows
They have bolted all their doors
They have put on their sunglasses
Cos their killing gorgeous George

Verse
The television cameras are recording every scene
You will see it on the tv
Like a badly scripted dream
You will recognize your neighbor
He’s a cop flown in from Queens
There’s a wicked fascination
In the black baton he swings

Verse
And the sergeant who gives orders
Will be sweeping up the floor
And he’ll say he never saw it
Saw them killing gorgeous George

Bridge
There’s a place where the children hide
To erase those tears they cry
No more pennies from a gentle man
No more paintings of a rich and distant land

Verse
The papers need a story
They’ll be thirsty for a trial
An angry call for justice
Though the man was just a child

Verse
He never understood a word
Deaf and dumb since birth
But they’ll justify the murder
Cos he never wore a shirt
And the cops who gravely beat him
Will deny that there was hate
But a neighbor from his window
Got the whole thing down on tape

Verse
Yes we’ll watch the deadly replay
Least a thousand times or more
Then we’ll sit and stir our coffee
While they’re killing gorgeous George

Bridge
There’s a place where the children hide
To erase those tears they cry
No more pennies from a gentle man
No more paintings of a rich and distant land
If there’s a lesson here anywhere
It doesn’t matter cos nobody cares
And there’s nothing you and I can do
Gorgeous George is just another face in the news
Spoken bridge
There’s a picture of his family
Fell from his pocket When he died
A happy congregation against a pale blue sky
Smiling with his mother in a pair of faded jeans
Now he’s lying in the gutter
On the boulevard of broken dreams

Bridge
Yes we’ll watch the deadly replay
Least thousand times or more
Then we’ll sit and stir our coffee
While they’re killing gorgeous George
Killing gorgeous George

[Gospel solo] We got a whole lotta trouble
Right here in America
Talkin’ usa
Listen what I say