Tell her I'll be waiting in the usual place
With the tired and weary and there's no escape
To need a woman you've got to know
How the strong get weak and the rich get poor

Slave to love
Oho
Slave to love

You're running with me
Don't touch the ground
We're the restless hearted
Not the chained and bound

The sky is burning
A sea of flame
Though your world is changing
I will be the same

Slave to love
Oho
Slave to love

Slave to love (Nananana)
Oho (Nananana)
Slave to love
I can't escape
I'm a slave to love

The storm is breaking or so it seems
We're too young to reason, too grown up to dream
Now spring is turning your face to mine
I can hear your laughter, I can see your smile

Slave to love (Nananana)
Oho (Nananana)
Slave to love
I can't escape
I'm a slave to love

Slave to love (Nananana)
Oho (Nananana)
Slave to love
I can't escape
I'm a slave to love

Slave to love
I can't escape
I'm a slave to love

Slave to love
I can't escape
I'm a slave to love

Slave to love
I can't escape
I'm a slave to love

Written by Bryan Ferry • Copyright © BMG Rights Management US, LLC

*** slave perplexed slave
or maybe just a slave
a *** slave is the best slave
or at least that's what they think
from narcotics to ******
and so on the edge or brink of death
she has no heroine

she lays there quiet on the floor
welcoming numb unconsciousness
before she wakes to the sobriety
of a new day of painfulness
questioning her beliefs
and fearing the time that's left
asking, begging, doing her best
there's a dark hole in her chest
so alone and so very lost
it crushed her heart and damnation is the cost

this *** slave is a hexed slave
never to care again
this next slave was fixed a slave
and now she's locked in
her mind is set on fear
a terror of the dark
she shuts out the sound
though angels sing
the song of healing
hark.

oh
but this slave is a jinxed slave
bad luck is all she has
and she becomes the hexed slave
to wait for time to pass
or maybe not a slave at all
if she could only last
even when shes on the brink
it hurts too much her past

flashbacks and nightmares
to give her chills and raise her hairs
absentmindedly thinking
its just not fair
that mom and dad are never there
to help her calm and keep her safe
now all she does is wait.

this jinxed slave is perplexed
though also bored and vexed
why do they pay so little attention
she feels as though shes hexed
even though shes a former slave
she does not feel so ex'd
'cause if the wrong remember her
she might as well be dead.

All my life I've paid,
I've paid taxes, dues and sacrifices
I've paid bills, attention and detention
**** I've even paid a visit to the county jails a few too many times, either as son, brother or inmate
Either way I've paid, but
Why Do I Gotta Pay?
Why do I have to pay every time a cop sees me on the streets,
Why do I gotta pay every time they slam me on the concrete,
Why do I gotta pay every time they serve and protect me,
Why I gotta pay taxes to subsidize the incomes of those who disrespect me,
Answer me,
Is it because I came from a broken home, or because my Mama was on drugs and my Pops left us all alone,
Is it because I was baptized into the street life b4 I could even decide between wrong and right,
No, no, no, I know why, it's because I look too Mexican and not enough white, right? Nah, it's probably because all my friends are high school dropouts, washed up or strung out,
Or is it because the Indigenous, Latinos and Africans are worthless, well ****, I didn't get to choose my race but if I did I'd still choose Mex!
Why Do I Gotta Pay?
Is it because I'm a threat to the status quo and looked upon as the states foe, well that's not fair, I pay a bigger percentage of income tax than Mr. Koch, Wait! I think I know! It's because my family's from the other side, **** that border! Daddy, why couldn't you be white? It's like what I told you on the 16th of September, We don't belong here because we have indigenous blood, remember? This is the European man's land, duh! Y'all are just so ignorant huh?
Why Do I Gotta Pay?
Is it because for a little bit of contraband from the Earth I'm a convicted felon while Ray Rice is free after he crushed his wife's skull like a melon, is it because I can't find a job and still I haven't robbed, is it because my school won't give me financial aid so I was forced to sell dope to get paid, but still I don't get paid, I pay taxes or the carnales will have me put in my grave
Wait! I know why I have to pay!
It's because I'm a slave, not to celebrity gossip, consumerism and materialism, but to imperialism of the state, I'm enslaved cuz I got too much soul to behave, my stilo is Zapatista & I'm **** with my head shaved, They made me a slave cuz they know I'd take their wombmen away, not by force though, cuz who could resist a date from this Latin Lover from around the way, they mad cuz I got Spanglish from the barrio, lingo from the hood & an academic vocabulary from the Pecker Woods, they scared cuz they're wombmen wish they could, every time I step out Miralo, I'm lookin good! These cops could never be us, and when I'm thuggin, Man, I wish they would! Im a slave cuz I don't understand, understood? I'm standing over my land, understand? Cuz I don't ever stand under! I only Overstand! That's why I gotta pay! Cuz I'm a slave that won't work for minimum wage, I'm a slave that can't be put in a cage, Im a slave that don't know his place, I'm a slave that just won't go away, I'm a slave that can't behave, I'm a slave that charms sharper than a blade, I'm a slave that steals hearts and makes way, I'm a slave that plays and never gets played,
And that's Why I Pay
Cuz I'm a slave that chose his own fate ✊