I stepped out on a celluloid night That flickered on a black and white reel Looking for something that I could not explain I could only feel These were the songs upheld by the shades That spoke to me as I left town Israelite's, the harder they come, 56-47 I hear them now And the words of the prophets never sounded As good as the echo of a hard one drop To be forever enslaved by the sound the creator made Don't let it stop Come again, midnight passenger There to accompany down To the end of the souls lost avenue Feel it now I kept walking in the dust all night Looking for a diamond in the crush Halfway under in bars like a ship that was going down or coming up It was not the sun that stung, But the feel of loss and the voice of suffering and fate Till I just stopped listening to the chatter of all those yesterdays crime pays We will show up with all our secret problems And if we can't find land There's a tone written into soul songs that understands We will be free