[Verse 1]
"No panhandling," they say, "It isn't a job"
Oh, but I disagree, ya ignorant slob
But there may come a day
When you're found down and out
And the hateful replies will fill you with doubt
Ya might be a skater, ya might be a punk
Just give us a quarter so we can get drunk
And thank you for shopping and please come again

[Chorus]
You suffer to know, try even harder to see
Making sense of your life in a fucked reality
From Decatur Street up to Avenue A
From El Guadalupe in Texas to the San Francisco Bay
You turned a spangin' job into a lifelong career
For a tin o' tobacco and a forty of beer
Now you're drinkin' and you're thinkin':
"Is my bad luck running out?"

[Verse 2]
You're stopped by the cops, and ya hope and ya wish
And you're askin' real nice for them to let ya go
They ask if they were shot in the street
Would you laugh in their face? And ya can't say no
After all of the times that you barely scraped by
With the lice in your hair and the gleam in your eye
Now you're drinkin' and you're thinkin':
"Is my bad luck running out?"
[Chorus]
With the cobra, we drank, and the shit we were talkin'
In the Tenderloin gutter, we were Crack City rockin'
Yeah, when we were alive, we were wicked and young
With the good times we had and the songs that we sung
Now it's sad that you died, and I wish you would stay
But I sold all my stamps at the end of the day
And now I'm drinkin' and I'm thinkin':
"Is my bad luck running out?"

["Raga-Toasting" Interlude: Popeye]
Bad luck, man
Plenty of that to go around
My good friend gone
Who was always there to share it with me

[Verse 3]
After all of the times that you barely scraped by
With the lice in your hair and the gleam in your eye
Now you're drinkin' and you're thinkin':
"Is my bad luck running out?"

[Chorus]
I got assaulted by Officer Friendly
On the Fourth of July, stick a needle in my eye
I said, "I didn't do nothin'" and "What's this all about?"
He said, "Resisting arrest!" as he pulled his baton out
Spitting bile and blood as they left me for dead
My thoughts leaked out through a fissure in my head
And the last one left was:
"Is my bad luck runnin' out?"