Well, I think this is a pretty good transcription. Thanks for forcing me to take another look at this album. I really like this cut.
-Joe Offer-

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IN THE HEAT OF THE SUMMER
(Phil Ochs, as sung by Kim & Reggie Harris)
(Harris lyrics in italics)

So wrong, so wrong,
But we've been down too long
And we had to make somebody listen.

In the heat of the summer
When the pavement was burning
The soul of a city was ravaged in the night
Just as the city sun was sinkin'

Now no one knows how it started
Why the windows were shattered
But deep in the dark, someone set the spark
And then it no longer mattered.

So wrong, so wrong,
But we've been down too long
And we had to make somebody listen.

Almost thirty years after
Those long, hot summers
The City of the Angels was ravaged in the night
Millions lost, and fifty-two lives
Simi Valley verdict,
Too many lies were caught by the eye of the camera.

Oh, but we know why this one started,
More than hot anger exploded.
We all saw the sequence again and again,
Video witness proclaiming the sin
It was hard to believe when that decision came in
Just what could the jury be thinkin'?

So wrong, so wrong,
But we've been down too long
And we had to make somebody listen.

Down the street they were rumblin'
All the tempers were ragin'
Oh, where, oh, where are the silver tongues
Who forgot to listen to the warning?

On and on come the angry
No longer following reason
All the stores were the targets now
Where just the other day they were buyin'

So wrong, so wrong,
But we've been down too long
And we had to make somebody listen.

"No, no, no," moaned the mayor.
"No, no, no," cried Rodney King
"No, no, no, no, no,
It's not the way of order
Stay in your homes, put down your guns
We'll tell you what to do in the morning."

"For shame, for shame," said reporters
"Why hurry to your hunger?
Now the rubble lies in your broken neighborhoods
So see what your rage has unraveled."

When the fury was over
Shame replaced the anger.
Will we live to see justice done?
Jobs and education, instead of drugs and guns
We all have to listen, or more violence will come
In the heat of the summer.

So wrong, so wrong, but we've been down so long
And we had to make somebody listen
(repeat chorus several times)

(Ochs lyrics not used by Kim & Reggie Harris are below)

Drunk with the memory of the ghetto
Drunk with the lure of the looting
And the memory of the uniforms shoving with their sticks
Asking, "Are you looking for trouble?"

"No, no, no," moaned the mayor.
"It's not the way of the order.
"Oh stay in your homes, please leave us alone
"We'll be glad to talk in the morning."

"For shame, for shame," wrote the papers.
"Why the hurry to your hunger?
"Now the rubble's resting on your broken streets
"So you see what your rage has unraveled."

Barricades sadly were risin
Bricks were heavily flyin
And the loudspeaker drowned like a whisperin' sound
When compared to the angered emotions

And when the fury was over
And the Shame was replacing the anger.
So wrong, so wrong, but we've been down so long
And we had to make somebody listen
In the heat of the summer......

JRO