A73-581 was the number
they burned it in my brain
I could feel it in my veins
We could run, we could run, we could run
We were running away

And the fourteen dollars
I made on the bus ride from Chino
I laid it on the third
He was due and I was due
For a change, for a change
I'm tired of living a lie

And they were writing their names up in the sky
And we would watch them
as they brought the horses by
And I felt like I was ready to die
When the bell went off
and the races would start at Hollywood Park

For fifteen years I had lived in a room
with my heart on my sleeve
And my throat dry from heaving the words
You can change, you can change
If you're ready to try

And we would laugh as the horses thundered by
And I would tip my brand new hat up to the sky
And nothing could come between you and I
As the horses ran wild
through the dark at Hollywood Park

And when they tore it down
there was a wrecking sound
And it rattled through my bones
And then a cry went out
through the streets that night
'Cause we knew we'd lost our home

And there's only the wreckage
and this dirt still on my hands
And the roar of the ghosts
as they stood up in the stands

Where do we go?
Who are all of these voices I've never heard?
And what becomes of us now?
Buried in concrete and broken earth

As I stare out from the highway
at these miles and miles of graves
Under convenience stores and corner malls
all the countless roads they paved

Yeah I wonder if it's lucky
or if you just forget the cost
Or the price of the admission
for all endless bets you lost

In fifty years I will dream of this moment from a bed
Tired from lifting, my legs tired from drifting around
Through the dust, through the dust
In all the time that I would spend

But I never claimed I knew how this would end
Or the order of the horses at the bend
All I knew is I would be back again
And we'd stand here as the world fell apart

At Hollywood Park