I wish I could sing or play an instrument, because I’d like to make a recording of the alternate lyrics I made up for the classic Dionne Warwick song “Don’t Make Me Over,” written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David.

I may have been inspired by the version of “Old Town Road” about Saint Paul’s Ayd Mill Road by Bill Lindeke and others, but I wasn’t thinking about that when the alternate title for “Don’t Make Me Over” popped into my head a few days later. I hammered out this draft the next day (which was just after the 2019 number of pedestrian fatalities in Minnesota passed the number from 2018). But sadly, I don’t sing well enough and the karaoke versions of the song available online all appear to have backing vocals with the original words in them.

So if anyone has musical friends who want to record it… or if anyone has suggestions on how the lyrics could be improved…

Don’t Run Us Over

to the tune of “Don’t Make Me Over” (you can hear Warwick’s original here)

Don’t run us over
When we’re around crossing the street through
Don’t run us over
As we bike by, or open your door too

Don’t pick on the ways we cross, or if we stop
Just see us as humans first, the way you see yourself
We’re begging you

Don’t run us over
Our streets are shared, made for us all
Don’t run us over
You’re warm and dry, like at the mall

Just slow down and take your time, you’ll get there soon
Get off your phone and watch for us, and sing this tune
We’re begging you

Don’t run us over
Don’t run us over

Here are the things that we demand:
Accept us for how we move
Accept us for the places we go
Accept us for how we move
Accept us for the places that we go

Our streets are shared, made for us all
You’re warm and dry, like at the mall

Just slow down and take your time, you’ll get there soon
Get off your phone and watch for us, and sing this tune
We’re begging you

Don’t run us over
Don’t run us over

Here are the things that we demand:
Accept us for how we move
Accept us for the places we go
Accept us for how we move
Accept us for the places that we go
[fades out]