"King Heroin" Lyrics

Ladies and gentlemen
Fellow Americans
Lady Americans
This is James Brown

I wanna talk to you about one of our
Most deadly, killers in the country today
I had a dream the other night, and I
Was sittin' in my living room

Dozed off to sleep
So I start to dreamin'
I dreamed I walked in a place and
I saw a real strange, weird object

Standin' up talkin' to the people
And I found out it was heroin
That deadly drug that go in your veins
He says

I came to this country without a passport
Ever since then I've been hunted and sought
My little white grains are nothin' but waste
Soft and deadly and bitter to taste

I'm a world of power and all know it's true
Use me once and you'll know it, too
I can make a mere schoolboy forget his books
I can make a world-famous beauty neglect her looks

I can make a good man forsake his wife
Send a greedy man to prison for the rest of his life
I can make a man forsake his country and flag
Make a girl sell her body for a five-dollar bag

Some think my adventure's a joy and a thrill
But I'll put a gun in your hand and make you kill
In cellophane bags, I've found my way
To heads of state and children at play

I'm financed in China, ran in Japan
I'm respected in Turkey and I'm legal in Siam
I take my addicts and make 'em steal, borrow, beg
Then they search for a vein in their arm or their leg

So, be you Italian, Jewish, Black or Mex
I can make the most virile of men forget their sex
So now, no, my man, you must, you know, do your best
To keep up your habit until your arrest

Now the police have taken you from under my wing
Do you think they dare defy me, I who am king
Now, you must lie in that county jail
Where I can't get to you by visit or mail

So squirm, with discomfort, wiggle and cough
Six days of madness, you might throw me off
Curse me in name, defy me in speech
But you'd pick me up right no if I were in your reach

All through your sentence you've become resolved to your fate
Hear now young man and woman, I'll be waitin' at the gate
And don't be afraid, don't run, I'm not chased
Sure my name is Heroin, you'll be back for a taste

Behold, you're hooked, your foot is in the stirrup
And make, haste, mount the steed and ride him well
For the white horse of heroin will ride you to Hell, to Hell
Will ride you to Hell until you are dead
Dead, brother, dead

This is a revolution of the mind
Get your mind together
And get away from drugs
That's the man
Back, back