In the Ghetto

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“In the Ghetto” (originally titled “The Vicious Circle”) is a song recorded by Elvis Presley and published by Elvis Presley Music in 1969. It was written by Mac Davis and made famous by Elvis Presley who had a major comeback hit with the song in 1969. It was released in 1969 as a 45 rpm single with “Any Day Now” as the flip side.
It is a narrative of a generational poverty: a boy child is born to a mother who already has more children than she can feed in the ghetto of Chicago; the boy grows up hungry, steals and fights, purchases a gun and steals a car, attempts to run, but is shot and killed just as his own son is born, with the strong implication that the newborn’s fate will be the same as his father’s and the circle unbroken. The feeling of an inescapable circle is created by the structure of the song, with its simple, stark phrasing; by the repetition of the phrase “in the ghetto” as the close of every fourth line; and finally by the repetition of the first verse’s “and his mama cries” just before the beginning and as the close of the last verse.
“In the Ghetto” was recorded during Presley’s session in the American Sound Studio in Memphis, Tennessee. It was Presley’s first creative recording session since the ’68 Comeback. Other hits recorded at this session were “Suspicious Minds”, “Kentucky Rain”, and “Don’t Cry Daddy”.
The song was Presley’s first Top 10 hit in the US in four years, peaking at number 3, and his first UK Top 10 hit in three years.

By Elvis Presley

Lyrics

As the snow flies,
On a cold and grey Chicago morning
A poor little baby child is born,
In the ghetto
And his mama cries
Cause if there is one thing she don’t need
It’s a nother hungry mouth to feed (in the ghetto)
Bridge:
People don’t you unterstand
The child needs a helping hand
Or he’ll gonna be an angry young man someday
Take a look at you and me
Are we too blind to see
Or do we simply turn our heads and look the other way
Well the world turns,
And a hungry little boy with a running nose
Plays in the street and a cold wind blows,
In the ghetto (in the ghetto)
And his hunger burns
So he starts to roam the streets at night
And he learns how to steel and he learns how to fight,
In the ghetto (in the ghetto)
And then one night in desperation
The young man breaks away
He buys a gun steals a car tries to run
But he don’t get far,
And his mama cries
As a crowed gather round an angry young man face
Down in the street with a gun in his hand,
In the ghetto
And as her young man dies (in the ghetto)
On a cold and grey chicago morning
Another little baby child is born,
In the ghetto
And his mama cries.
(in the ghetto)

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