There's a hard moon risin' on the streets tonight,
There's a reckless feeling in your heart as you head out tonight.
Through the concrete canyons to the midtown light
Where the latest neon promises are burning bright.

Past the open windows on the darker streets
Where unseen angry voices flash and children cry.
Past the phony posers with their worn out lines,
The tired new money dressed to the nines,
The low life dealers with their bad designs
And the dilettantes with their open minds.

You're out on the town, safe in the crowd
Ready to go for the ride,
Searching the eyes, looking for clues,
There's no way you can hide
The fire inside.

Well you've been to the clubs and the discotheques,
Where they deal one another from the bottom of a deck of promises.
Where the cautious loners and emotional wrecks
Do an acting stretch as a way to hide the obvious.

And the lights go down and they dance real close,
And for one brief instant they pretend they're safe and warm.
Then the beat gets louder and the mood is gone,
The darkness scatters as the lights flash on,
They hold one another just a little too long
And they move apart and then move on.

On to the street, on to the next,
Safe in the knowledge that they tried.
Faking the smile, hiding the pain
Never satisfied
The fire inside,
Fire inside.

Now the hour is late and he thinks you're asleep.
You listen to him dress and you listen to him leave
Like you knew he would.

You hear his car pull away in the street
Then you move to the door and you lock it when
He's gone for good.

Then you walk to the window and stare at the moon
Riding high and lonesome through a starlit sky.

And [bad word] to you how it all slips away,
Youth and beauty are gone one day,
No matter what you dream or feel or say,
It ends in dust and disarray.
Like wind on the plains, sand through the glass,
Waves rolling in with the tide.
Dreams die hard and we watch them erode
But we cannot be denied
The fire inside,
Fire inside.