[Verse 1]
When Charlie speaks of Lester, you know someone great has gone
The sweetest swinging music man had a Porkie Pig hat on
A bright star in a dark age
When the bandstands had a thousand ways
Of refusing a black man admission
Black musician in those days they put him in an
Underdog position, cellars and chitlins

[Verse 2]
When Lester took him a wife, arm and arm went black and white
And some saw red and drove them from their hotel bed
Love is never easy, it's short of the hope we have for happiness
Bright and sweet, love is never easy street
Now we are black and white
Embracing out in the lunatic New York night
It's very unlikely we'll be driven out of town
Or be hung in a tree, that's unlikely

[Verse 3]
Tonight these crowds are happy and loud
Children are up dancing in the streets
In the sticky middle of the night
Summer serenade of taxi horns and fun arcades
Where right or wrong under neon
Every feeling goes on for you and me
The sidewalk is a history book and a circus
Dangerous clowns balancing dreadful and wonderful perceptions
They have been handed day by day, generations on down
[Verse 4]
We came up from the subway on the music midnight makes
To Charlie's bass and Lester's saxophone in taxi horns and brakes
Now Charlie's down in Mexico with the healers
So the sidewalk leads us with music to two little dancers
Dancing outside a black bar, there's a sign up on the awning
It says "Pork Pie Hat Bar" and there's black babies dancing tonight