Let the record show
It's 1964, in the city of New York
take the train to Queens
And meet a Jewish family

He's the youngest boy of three
his brothers have left home
And he's on the same rope
Just a credit shy of a diploma

But he wants to represent
The struggling-with-rent
But he can't live on both sides of the fence
So he continues to insist that he's no champagne socialist

And he's not coming back
After studying the facts
He knows of all the problems of the past

And he's quick to concede
That in order to proceed
We can't just keep on preaching what we need

To become a working man (one of them)
Is to live and work with them
And this is something you can't pretend
So he continues to insist that he's no champagne socialist

(That he's no champagne socialist)
(He's no champagne socialist)