A bunch of wild boys was hanging around At the local neighborhood saloon And some cat kept dropping quarters down in the jukebox Playing all the favorite tunes And back by the bar playing cards looking hard Was big bad Solomon Jones And watching over his luck Was the love of his life Is the lady that was known as Simone When out of the night which was dark and cold Into the smoke-filled dimly-lit room Stumbled in a thug Who was smelling like bud And his eyes looked high as the moon He looked like a man with his foot in the grave And his lifetime about to be out Yet he slapped down some hundred-dollar bills on the bar And he yelled out "drinks on the house" Now nobody could place where this dude was from But we knew that he was far from home But we drank to his health And the last to drink was big bad Solomon Jones Now there are some G's Who just run the streets And they live life in and out of jail And such was he, that kind of OG That looked like he'd been through hell With his hair in cornrows A mean mug grill Like a dog who's day is done He lit up the green stuff in his cigar And took hits one by one Now I got to thinking who this cat could be And what the hell is- going on Well I turned around and who was staring at him The lady that was known as Simone And the white t-shirt all stained with dirt He was trying not to be rude But he was trying to find another Good song on the jukebox So he could just set the mood Have you ever been out in the city streets With the gang-made players so clear Where the police and gangsters control the block And gunshots is all that you hear When the only sounds are the drums of war And you left out in the cold A half-dead man in a half-dead world And a yellow-brick road to go Then all of a sudden the music changed And everyone just held their post