Only The Strongest Survive


Lyrics by Woodriver

Music by George Willson

(I grew up) I grew up in the part of town where most people won't even put their feet
(Cursed by crime) Cursed by crime and unemployment misery was bound to rule those streets
In a ramshackle house in the middle of this ghetto I spent my childhood years
Polluted by endless anxiety, fear for your life and oceans full of tears

(My father) My father was working for the maffia and my mother barely saw him around
(Only the drugs) Only the drugs could give her some comfort and the only friend she ever found
And the few times my father was home he only cared for his cigarettes and alcohol
He used my mother like a dirty slave, beating her just to show he was in control

And when I had finally cried myself to sleep I could hear my father coming in
His laughter filled with a mob's coldness and his eyes glowing with loveless sin
And as he pulled down my pants I could feel every part of my soul slowly dying
While I heard my mother shaking at my door only able to keep on shouting and crying

When these had been the only images I'd ever known seven years from my birth
My father had decided that I was man enough to show what I was really worth
He took me out to his area one day to show me what "Daddy was doing for
living"
And what I saw through the eyes of a child was the life I was one day bound to be given

Gunshots in the dead of the night
Women raped under constant fight
Evil threats and pointing guns
Causing widows with fatherless sons

Sirens roaring in the back of my head
Nightmares 'bout seeing myself laying dead
Uniforms always on the hunt after me
Nowhere that I can feel safe and free

Chorus
From those days I learned that the only way to stop people from hurting me
Is to always show no mercy cos in my world only the strongest survive
(Only the strongest survive...only the strongest survive...)
And I also learned that the only way to stop people from deserting me
Is to give them no choice cos in my world only the cruelest stay the longest alive
(Cruelest stay the longest alive...cruelest stay the longest alive)

(At the age) At the age of nine my father bought me my first gun as my only christmas gift
(And it did..) And it didn't take long before the police found a bullet of mine in a drowned corpse they had to lift
When I was twelve I felt how my body was burning so I went out and bought myself a whore
But after years of abuse from my father there were no feelings left for me to feel anymore

(My father) My father dragged deeper and deeper into crime for every day that passed
(Enemies) Earning enemies in every corner he knew that anyday could be his last
The fear made him beat my poor mother harder than he'd ever done before
And the nights when he pushed into me more brutally than ever become more and more

One day the police found the corpse of man laying in the corner of an alley wall
My father's death tore my mother apart and she was bound to follow him in his fall
So in the bathroom the next morning I saw my mother hanging at the end of a rope
But I couldn't cry or even feel a thing after all the pains my life had given me to cope

The only ones left that I could still turn to were the gang and its members
And with my rage and coldness I soon became the most sinister leader anyone could ever remember
And by the time I turned thirteen my every chance for a worthy life was already long gone
And as my teenage years passed by the story of my life went on and on and on

Gunshots in the dead of the night
Women raped under constant fight
Evil threats and pointing guns
Causing widows with fatherless sons

Sirens roaring in the back of my head
Nightmares 'bout seeing myself laying dead
Uniforms always on the hunt after me
Nowhere that I can feel safe and free

Chorus
From those days I learned that the only way to stop people from hurting me
Is to always show no mercy cos in my world only the strongest survive
(Only the strongest survive...only the strongest survive...)
And I also learned that the only way to stop people from deserting me
Is to give them no choice cos in my world only the cruelest stay the longest alive
(Cruelest stay the longest alive...cruelest stay the longest alive...)