I’ve seen them standing in the hall like a hawk on a thermal

Steady watching me through the two way mirror

Locked up til I get out, kind of lonely

Everybody knows me, don’t nobody know me

But the blues and the grays meet deep in the winter

At the top of Harlem by the Hudson River

The cold wind blows you down on your way in

Don’t eat, don’t drink, don’t sleep, you just stay in

They call it Mental Hygiene I’m just here for a cleaning

Trying to make a little green and get up and get up and stay out

You know they call it Mental Hygiene I’m just here for a cleaning

Trying to get up even to get up and get up and stay out

Off the 1-6-8 off on the A or the C

Across Broadway down at the end of the street

Through the revolving door where you don’t sign in

It’s just the same thing again and again and again

They give you time to think, cold food and hot drinks,

They give you tiny towels for your baths in the sink

And measure your reactions to the strangest things

From the worst bartenders that the city’s seen

They call it Mental Hygiene I’m just here for a cleaning

Trying to make a little green and get up and get up and stay out

Well they call it Mental Hygiene I’m just trying to break even

Trying to make a little green and stay up and stay up and stay out

They say that twenty-five that’s a mighty fine age

They say to take it slow, cause it fades away so fast.

But when you’re old that’s just something you’ll say

Cause when you were twenty-five you didn’t feel that way

Well the lessons aren’t lost at the top of Gotham

Where they give you drugs and time to solve your problems

And institute ain’t just a fancy word

For some men in suits driving fancy cars, well

They call it Mental Hygiene I’m just here for a cleaning

Trying to make a little green and get up and get up and stay out

Yeah they call it Mental Hygiene I’m just here for a cleaning

Trying to make a little green and get up and stay out

Yeah well they call it Mental Hygiene I’m just here for a cleaning

Trying to make a little green and get up and get up and stay out

Yeah well they call it Mental Hygiene I’m just here for a cleaning

Trying to make a little green and get up and stay out