"Is this what my life amounts to?"
Says the man with the carnation in his lapel,
"I didn't know it worked this way
I thought every dog had his day"
And he'd believed in the dream
He'd waited on every corner
But now forsaken he explains
It wasn't the temptation of a woman
It was American money
I tell you it made him what he is today
It was American money
He imagined stuffing pictures of Washington
In the pocket of his raincoat
"So where has my family gone to?"
Says the man
From the fortieth floor of his hotel
Well everybody has to pay
But maybe it's in different ways
'Cause he'd believed in the dream
Why he'd met it on every corner
But he never could explain
What could made a man lose his sense of decency
It was American money
I tell you it made him what he is today
It was American money
So don't underestimate the power of
The dollar in your pocket
American money
And there's pictures of Washington
Falling from his pockets
Now they got guns in outer space
And nobody's going to win that race
'Cause when there's nowhere left to hide
You won't be taking sides
Though you believed in the dream
And it was waiting on every corner
But now it's coming down around you
Like bankers jumping from the windows of Wall Street
American money
I tell you it made us what we are today
It was American money
So don't underestimate the power
Of the dollar in your pocket
American money
I tell you, made us what we are today
It was American money
We'd imagined stuffing pictures of Washington
In the pockets of our raincoats