In the ghetto...

[Mike Gallo]

At my wifes request I added this Elvis song to a playlist on my MP3 player.

I listened to the song on the way to work today and the words took me for a loop.

This song became popular in the 1970's. I wonder if it would have the same popularity today.

I cut and pasted the lyrics and would like OOT to tell me their thoughts on this song and if they perceive racist undertones.

[ QUOTE ]
As the snow flies
On a cold and gray Chicago mornin'
A poor little baby child is born
In the ghetto
And his mama cries
'cause if there's one thing that she don't need
it's another hungry mouth to feed
In the ghetto

People, don't you understand
the child needs a helping hand
or he'll grow to be an angry young man some day
Take a look at you and me,
are we too blind to see,
do we simply turn our heads
and look the other way

Well the world turns
and a hungry little boy with a runny nose
plays in the street as the cold wind blows
In the ghetto

And his hunger burns
so he starts to roam the streets at night
and he learns how to steal
and he learns how to fight
In the ghetto

Then one night in desperation
a young man breaks away
He buys a gun, steals a car,
tries to run, but he don't get far
And his mama cries

As a crowd gathers 'round an angry young man
face down on the street with a gun in his hand
In the ghetto

As her young man dies,
on a cold and gray Chicago mornin',
another little baby child is born
In the ghetto

[/ QUOTE ]

[otnemem]

I don't perceive any racist undertones.

[Los Feliz Slim]

Wait, if a child is born poor in an unsafe neighborhood with [censored] schools and little chance to escape and it appears to him that society in general doesn't give a [censored] it would be understandable that he would ignore the rules of that society and turn to violence and lawlessness? I thought each person was solely responsible for their own conduct. Now I'm confused.

[luckyjimm]

Have any of you heard how this song is sampled on the ambient house album Chill Out by the KLF? It emerges from silence, as if you'd just switched on the radio driving a car all night through the middle of nowhere. I had never heard In The Ghetto before I heard it on the KLF album, which made its impact on me all the greater.

From Wikipedia:

"Chill Out is a seminal 1990 ambient house concept album by The KLF, portraying a mythical night-time journey up the U.S. Gulf Coast from Texas into Louisiana. The album is a continuous progressive composition, in which sampled music (including Elvis Presley, Fleetwood Mac, Acker Bilk and Tuvan throat singers), vocal samples and sound effects are overlayed with original music (including synthesisers and pedal steel guitar)."

"After recording, the duo thought the sound to be evocative of a trip through the American Deep South. Drummond said "I've never been to those places. I don't know what those places are like, but in my head, I can imagine those sounds coming from those places, just looking at the map."[2] The titles of the parts are poetic descriptions—often complete sentences—incorporating statements of time, place and situation along the Gulf Coast journey."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chill_Out

[NT!]

this song must be racist if eric cartman sang it

mike, i have an excellent cover of this song by the english punk band Leatherface, they also did a version of Fools Rush In that pwns so hard

[Mike Gallo]

[ QUOTE ]
People, don't you understand
the child needs a helping hand
or he'll grow to be an angry young man some day

[/ QUOTE ]


Lets get this straight, if a child in the ghetto doesnt get a helping hand he will grow up to be an angry young man? Thats slightly racist to me. That means every young man growing up in a "ghetto" will grow up angry and rob and steal.

[Mike Gallo]

[ QUOTE ]
mike, i have an excellent cover of this song by the english punk band Leatherface, they also did a version of Fools Rush In that pwns so hard

[/ QUOTE ]

NT,

I will check it out later on tonight. Thanks for the heads up.

[NT!]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
mike, i have an excellent cover of this song by the english punk band Leatherface, they also did a version of Fools Rush In that pwns so hard

[/ QUOTE ]

NT,

I will check it out later on tonight. Thanks for the heads up.

[/ QUOTE ]

might be hard to find. it's on their debut album, "Cherry Knowle". the other one is a live version from an earlier EP which I found on Napster or something like seven years ago.

i'm away from my home computer or i'd send it to you, let me know if you can't find it

[Droogie]

People living in the ghetto = a race?

Ok than.

[pepper123]

obviously the snow in the first line is a simile (metaphor? ohhhh if only that thread hadn't been moved!) for white people duh