Growing up on the streets of Birmingham Where your home was pouring and your life was damned I was a hungry black boy living with the world on my back Billie was a white man's son living in a one room shack And split those days in the Alabama heat We shared what we had but we never have enough to eat Mamma said it didn't look right, black just don't mix with white But Billy was my friend and we swore one rainy night To be blood brother Lord, I loved him like no other We were blood brother right to the end To the end, well, well, well Turned eighteen and we had no place to go 'Coz how long can you watch carnival Billy said he got the money, put us on the first Greyhound bus New York City lights gonna be greetin' us Oh, the uptown life can cost you poverty We're too amused but we suffered in dignity Billy couldn't take nine to five, his soul can't stay alive He said to me one day, we ain't gonna beat the crime You're my blood brother And I loved him like no other We were blood brother right till the end Well, well, well, yeah So I watched him change as the days went by And the money rolled in, we were livin' high He didn't have to tell me he was breakin' the law I knew it was him, the men was lookin' for And the story goes that he caught a knife And he pushed his luck and it cost his life I sat down and I cried on that rainy night When I heard heard it on the news One [Incomprehensible] had died We were blood brother And I loved him like no other He was my blood brother And I loved him like no other They were blood brother And he loved him like no other They were blood brother And he loved him like no other