I was born and I was raised
Where the valley meets the bay
All I own I carry around
Guadeloupe, San Jose
I haven’t had a place
since Alameda moved away
I’ve got nowhere to go
I’ve got nowhere to stay
But all along the freeway
The houses that we built
Where lemon trees once grew in rows
Beneath the golden hills

When I lived with Alameda
We could walk to Diridon
Drive up the peninsula
Head out to Ben Lomond
The fog rolled in the valley
As the sun set in the west
I pressed a turquoise to her palm
And held it to her breast
Up on Montebello mountain
Diablo burning bright
She told me she was leaving
And the day it turned to night

I’ve got a friend in Monterey
I’ve known him all my life
He was hiring hands for the market stands
It was almost harvest time
But all across the valley
The fields were brown and bare
It hadn’t rained in a hundred days
There was no work anywhere
We sat and drank Modelos
And talked of better times
But not of Alameda
The one thing on my mind

Now every night I wonder
Will this one be the last
I’ve got nothing they could take away
But they might not stop and ask
It’s dangerous in the open
It’s hard to trust your friends
The police keep us moving
I wish they’d just take us in
I hear there’s work in Gilroy
I aint got no wheels
I think I hear Alameda say
(dig in with your heels)