Latchkey Kid from Mike Vitale by Mike Vitale

LATCHKEY KID
Music and Lyrics by Mike Vitale

coloring books when I was nine
anything that I could do to pass the time
finished up my homework after I got home from school
built a blanket fort in my living room

set the oven to four hundred degrees myself
perched up on a counter top to reach a kitchen shelf
it's dinner time and my parents are nowhere to be seen
so corn dogs and fish sticks are my routine

i'm a Latchkey Kid
and nobody cares about the trouble that I'm getting in

waiting by the phone for my parents to call
staring at our family portrait hanging on the wall
my daddy says no T.V. if I stay up too late
too bad he aint here to regulate

i'm a Latchkey Kid
and nobody cares about the trouble that I'm getting in
i'm a Latchkey Kid
and nobody cares about the trouble that I'm getting in

sometimes my father would come home late
and my mother would be drunk by then
smell perfume, and then throw a dinner plate

nobody to read me a story
or tuck me into bed
so I dream of love
i dream of love
and then I start my day again

i'm a Latchkey Kid
and nobody cares about the trouble that I'm getting in
i'm a Latchkey Kid
and nobody cares about the trouble that I'm getting in



NOTE TO READER:

Latchkey Kid uses a traditional West African leadership song called Kye Kye Kule. The lyrics for this song are found below:


Leader: Kye Kye Kule (chay chay koo-lay)
Chorus: Kye Kye Kule

Leader: Kye Kye Kofinsa (chay chay koh-feen sah)
Chorus: Kye Kye Kofisa

Leader: Kofisa Langa (Koh-fee sah lahn-gah)
Chorus: Kofisa Langa

Leader: Kaka Shilanga (Kah-kah shee lahn-gah)
Chrous: Kaka Shilanga

Leader: Kum Aden Nde (koom ah-dehn day)
Chorus: Kum Aden Nde

Leader: Kum Aden Nde (koom ah-dehn day)
Chorus: Kum Aden Nde, HEY!

• Country
• Rock
• folk
• folk rock
• rock
• singer-songwriter
• Los Angeles