I remember waking in a Memphis morning
In an old motel off a southern highway
I was a pale poor kid from an English city
She was a coal black dancer from Mississippi
Rita Jean and her British bobby
Well they turned some heads in that motel lobby
In the heat of the night that's the way things are
When you cross that line on the color bar
You gotta hold fast to the hungry years
You gotta know just who you are
You gotta hold fast to the hungry years
Break down the color
Break down the color
Break down, break down the color bar
Well, she lay like midnight on a pale moon
In the skinny arms of my uncool youth
Oh, the summer rain and our sweat poured down
I was born dumb and poor but I'm all grown now
Local steam and them flashin' lights
Put some heat in the morning when reality bites
In a cold red face I saw the sign of the times
I saw a hundred mean years
At the back of his mind
You gotta hold fast to the hungry years
You gotta know just who you are
You gotta hold fast to the hungry years
Break down the color
Break down the color
Break down, break down tha color bar
Long distance calling America
I'm driftin' like a fog on the Mississippi Delta
After all these years
I know what they're talkin' about
I know just what they're hiding
In the deep, deep south
You gotta hold fast to the hungry years
You gotta know just who you are
You gotta hold fast to the hungry years
Break down the color
Break down the color bar, break down
You gotta hold fast to the hungry years
You gotta know just who you are
You gotta hold fast to the hungry years
Break down the color
Break down the color
Break down, break down the color bar