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looklook 84M
4553 posts
1/28/2018 6:05 am

Last Read:
1/14/2023 5:45 am

The Vicious Circle!

The song that made me sad!

" In The Ghetto"

As the snow flies
On a cold and gray Chicago morning '
A poor baby is born
In the ghetto

And his mama cries
'Cause if there's one thing that she don't need
It's another hungry mouth to feed
In the ghetto

People, don't you understand
The needs a helping hand
Or he' ll grow to be an angry young man someday
Take a look at you and me,
Are we too blind to see?
Do we simply turn our heads and look the other way?

Well, the world turns
And a hungry little boy with a runny nose
Plays in the street as the cold wind blows
In the ghetto

And his hunger burns
So he starts to roam the streets at night
And he learns how to steal, and he learns how to fight
In the ghetto

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 crowd gathers ' around an angry young man
Face down on the street with a gun in his hand
In the ghetto

And as her young man dies,
On a cold and gray Chicago morning '
Another baby is born
In the ghetto

And his mama cries

The song posted above is written by Scot “Mac” Davis and tells us about those who are born and grow up on the wrong side of the trucks keeping in mind the childhood that he spent in Lubbock, Texas.
As the slums or ghettos could be found in every large city of the world, Davis could have set the song way up any large city of the world where mornings look grey! The violent end of such angry men is predetermined not only in the ghettos of the city of Chicago but also in the slums of the city of Dhaka where I live.

Davis changed the title of the song from “The Vicious Circle” to “In the Ghetto” because according to him, he could not find anything to rhyme with ‘circle’. However, I feel that the song ends by pointing out a vicious circle that exists in every such ghetto of the world. The song, sang by Elvis Presley, became an instant hit soon after the album was released in 1969.

Maybe, many of my readers listened to the song many times like I did after the album was released in 1969 and may like to listen to it even now like me! The song makes me sad whenever I listen to it.

Davis entered the Songwriters Hall Of Fame in 2006. At the ceremony, Davis explained as follows:
• " It's a simple matter of growing up with a little boy whose father worked with my father. He lived in a part of town that was a dirt-street ghetto. I grew up in Lubbock, Texas, and it was a ghetto in every sense of the word, but we did 't use that word back then. I was trying to come up with a song called ' The Vicious Circle,' how a is born, he has no father, and the same thing happens. The word ' Ghetto' became popular in the late '60s to describe the poor parts of town. A friend of mine, Freddy Weller, who used to play guitar for Paul Revere and the Raiders, showed me lick on the guitar one day. I went home and fiddled around with it, I wrote the song and called him up at 4 in the morning and sang it to him. He knew I'd wrote a hit with his lick, but that's the way it goes."

Hope, the readers of this blog of mine would like to listen to the song once again as it is now readily available on YouTube.



Photos are from Chicago and Dhaka.











looklook 84M
3925 posts
1/28/2018 6:22 am

They also matters!


MrsJoe 76F
17310 posts
1/28/2018 8:37 am

That song has always made me feel sadness. It is not a problem with a simple solution, and I cannot address it in other countries. In the USA, for several decades now, it seems that a two parent family system has been eroded, both by society and the government.
Let me tell you of a personal experience with this. When I wanted to go to nurse's training, we had 7 children. My husband worked, we lived paycheck to paycheck, raised most of our food, and I shopped second hand for our clothes.
A woman I knew who worked for a state agency wanted to help me find some financial assistance and she enlisted her father's help because he was a high school guidance counselor and dealt with it all the time. We searched all kinds of grants and assistance programs, but they all came back "no".
We had a one person income in our family, and all those kids, but we didn't have a large mortgage payment and hardly any medical bills. Now, here is the SAD part.....................
IF my husband would change his mailing address to his parent's home, and IF we would say we were separated and I was a single parent, THEN the government would pay my ENTIRE tuition, ALL childcare expenses, give us FOOD STAMPS, pay my travel expenses to and from school, AND pay me minimum wage for the hours I spent at school.
I was told that nobody would ever check to see if he lived at home or not. Now, I am all for helping people, but our own government and society makes this type of behavior acceptable..... what is that teaching the children?
As for the ghetto situations, people may not be able to chose where they are born.... but there comes a time when they are responsible to make better decisions for their lives, and we have all heard of successful people who have done just that. Sadly, there are many more who chose to remain in that lifestyle and perpetrate it and I believe our government supports it. They encourage nonworking single parent families with government pay outs, and penalize them when there are two parents or someone works. We must find a way to help them out of that dilemma.
Oh, and BTW, we chose to be honest...... I was able to obtain a student loan to pay the tuition, and then I worked after school to pay for my travel expenses and childcare.


Be a prism, spreading God's light and love, not a mirror reflecting the world's hatred.


GLUMO 88F
9730 posts
1/28/2018 12:44 pm

"And his hunger burns
So he starts to roam the streets at night
And he learns how to steal, and he learns how to fight
In the ghetto"...

A similar situation is experienced by people in the slums of our cities in these underdeveloped countries ...And many of those children grow up and fall into the clutches of the gangs. So sad...
Have a nice week, Looklook!


Trust in dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity.(Khalil Gibran)


sparkleflit 76F
10271 posts
1/28/2018 1:19 pm

    Quoting MrsJoe:
    That song has always made me feel sadness. It is not a problem with a simple solution, and I cannot address it in other countries. In the USA, for several decades now, it seems that a two parent family system has been eroded, both by society and the government.
    Let me tell you of a personal experience with this. When I wanted to go to nurse's training, we had 7 children. My husband worked, we lived paycheck to paycheck, raised most of our food, and I shopped second hand for our clothes.
    A woman I knew who worked for a state agency wanted to help me find some financial assistance and she enlisted her father's help because he was a high school guidance counselor and dealt with it all the time. We searched all kinds of grants and assistance programs, but they all came back "no".
    We had a one person income in our family, and all those kids, but we didn't have a large mortgage payment and hardly any medical bills. Now, here is the SAD part.....................
    IF my husband would change his mailing address to his parent's home, and IF we would say we were separated and I was a single parent, THEN the government would pay my ENTIRE tuition, ALL childcare expenses, give us FOOD STAMPS, pay my travel expenses to and from school, AND pay me minimum wage for the hours I spent at school.
    I was told that nobody would ever check to see if he lived at home or not. Now, I am all for helping people, but our own government and society makes this type of behavior acceptable..... what is that teaching the children?
    As for the ghetto situations, people may not be able to chose where they are born.... but there comes a time when they are responsible to make better decisions for their lives, and we have all heard of successful people who have done just that. Sadly, there are many more who chose to remain in that lifestyle and perpetrate it and I believe our government supports it. They encourage nonworking single parent families with government pay outs, and penalize them when there are two parents or someone works. We must find a way to help them out of that dilemma.
    Oh, and BTW, we chose to be honest...... I was able to obtain a student loan to pay the tuition, and then I worked after school to pay for my travel expenses and childcare.
Sounds like you need to check your White Privilege.


MrsJoe 76F
17310 posts
1/28/2018 2:33 pm

    Quoting sparkleflit:
    Sounds like you need to check your White Privilege.
Lulu, that is a term I have never quite understood because it is a made up one to try to shame people for the color of their skin.
I grew up in a "working poor" family, among many others that were in the same economical situations. There were a few families in our town who had money, and some who tried to flaunt it, but it never cut no ice with me. A person is who he is.
I married a man from the same socio-economic plane and we raised our family. When I was in nurse's training, I was in school with women of all colors, and I never felt any of us were more privileged than the others. We were all there for the same purpose..... to pursue a desire or dream, and to make a better life for ourselves.
The ghettos of our cities are populated by people of all colors also, and there has to be a better way to encourage them to improve their situations than just throwing government money at it.


Be a prism, spreading God's light and love, not a mirror reflecting the world's hatred.


dinty3 80M
3364 posts
1/28/2018 4:43 pm

I already have it in my music library. It gives me pause to reflect on what could have been. Thanks looklook. Yet another good posting.


looklook 84M
3925 posts
1/28/2018 8:34 pm

    Quoting MrsJoe:
    That song has always made me feel sadness. It is not a problem with a simple solution, and I cannot address it in other countries. In the USA, for several decades now, it seems that a two parent family system has been eroded, both by society and the government.
    Let me tell you of a personal experience with this. When I wanted to go to nurse's training, we had 7 children. My husband worked, we lived paycheck to paycheck, raised most of our food, and I shopped second hand for our clothes.
    A woman I knew who worked for a state agency wanted to help me find some financial assistance and she enlisted her father's help because he was a high school guidance counselor and dealt with it all the time. We searched all kinds of grants and assistance programs, but they all came back "no".
    We had a one person income in our family, and all those kids, but we didn't have a large mortgage payment and hardly any medical bills. Now, here is the SAD part.....................
    IF my husband would change his mailing address to his parent's home, and IF we would say we were separated and I was a single parent, THEN the government would pay my ENTIRE tuition, ALL childcare expenses, give us FOOD STAMPS, pay my travel expenses to and from school, AND pay me minimum wage for the hours I spent at school.
    I was told that nobody would ever check to see if he lived at home or not. Now, I am all for helping people, but our own government and society makes this type of behavior acceptable..... what is that teaching the children?
    As for the ghetto situations, people may not be able to chose where they are born.... but there comes a time when they are responsible to make better decisions for their lives, and we have all heard of successful people who have done just that. Sadly, there are many more who chose to remain in that lifestyle and perpetrate it and I believe our government supports it. They encourage nonworking single parent families with government pay outs, and penalize them when there are two parents or someone works. We must find a way to help them out of that dilemma.
    Oh, and BTW, we chose to be honest...... I was able to obtain a student loan to pay the tuition, and then I worked after school to pay for my travel expenses and childcare.
Thank you so much for your remarkable candid remarks left here on my blog page, Mrs. Joe. Believe me, I feel proud and fortunate too for knowing people like you who toiled day and night to raise a family sharing responsibilities by both husband and wife together! I agree with what you have said about the ghetto situations in your country. Yes, people living in the ghettos, wherever it may be located-either in first world or third world countries can change their lots, if they take better decisions. In this connection, may I draw your kind attention to the last (# 10) photo posted just now by me for you to see. The photo shows a smiling girl child and woman with her sewing machine who live in a Dhaka ghetto (we call it slum here) accommodation. Do they not look happy? I believe that they look happy because the lady in the photo has taken right decision to survive in this cruel world.
Thanks again Mrs. Joe for your meaningful and candid remarks! I know you feel proud for successfully raising a wonderful family against all odds described by you. Stay well and cheerful always. Take care.


looklook 84M
3925 posts
1/28/2018 9:06 pm

    Quoting  :

Thanks Maggie, for your meaningful usual short comment on the blog. True, the situations have never been more accurate then the present time. During the time I grew up in my home time, I did not come across a ghetto or slum.
Take care and stay well.


looklook 84M
3925 posts
1/28/2018 9:25 pm

    Quoting GLUMO:
    "And his hunger burns
    So he starts to roam the streets at night
    And he learns how to steal, and he learns how to fight
    In the ghetto"...

    A similar situation is experienced by people in the slums of our cities in these underdeveloped countries ...And many of those children grow up and fall into the clutches of the gangs. So sad...
    Have a nice week, Looklook!
Well, the world turns
And a hungry little boy with a runny nose
Plays in the street as the cold wind blows
In the ghetto
Yes, the situations are same now everywhere in this world, Glumo. We are passing through winter now here in Dhaka. Please look at the photo # 6 at above. They are ghetto child living in my city.
Thanks for your Post. Stay well and cheerful always. God bless you.


looklook 84M
3925 posts
1/28/2018 9:51 pm

    Quoting sparkleflit:
    Sounds like you need to check your White Privilege.
sparkleflit,.... My intention to post the blog was not for starting a war of words among friends. Poverty matters irrespective of cast, creed and color of skins throughout the world! Thanks for stopping by, lulu. Stay well and cheerful


looklook 84M
3925 posts
1/28/2018 10:15 pm

    Quoting  :

Thank you so much Karin for your informative and meaningful comments. You are absolutely correct about modern day ghettos! Though I grew up in a big town during my boyhood, I did not see a slum or ghetto anywhere there.While living in big cities like Hamburg, Berlin and Frankfurt in Nineteen Seventies, I do not recollect having come across any such ghetto there too.
Perhaps ghettos are there now to stay until people decide to go back from where they came for a living in the big cities!
Thanks again. Stay cheerful and take care...anam


looklook 84M
3925 posts
1/28/2018 11:48 pm

    Quoting dinty3:
    I already have it in my music library. It gives me pause to reflect on what could have been. Thanks looklook. Yet another good posting.
Delighted to read from you here,dinty and many thanks for liking the blog. I have faith in God and trust that the situation would change everywhere one day for better. Stay happy and in good health. Take care of yourself.