Serpentine Songtext
von Ani DiFranco

Pavlov hits me with more bad news
Every time I answer the phone
So I, I play and I sing and I just let it ring
All day when I′m at home

A defacto choice of macro or microcosmic melancholy
But baby, anyway you slice it
I'm thinkin′ I could just as soon use the time alone

Yes, the goons have gone global
And the CEO's are shredding files
And the democrins and the republicrats
Are flashing their toothy smiles

And uncle Tom is posing for a photo op with the oval office clan
And uncle Sam is rigging cockfights in the promised land
And that knife you stuck in my back is still there
It pinches a little when I sigh and moan
And these days I'm thinkin I could just as soon use the time alone


′Cause all the wrong people have the power of suggestion
And the freedom of the press is meaningless if nobody asks a question
I mean, causation by definition
Is such a complex compilation of factors
That to even try to say why is to oversimplifly
But that′s a far cry, isn't it dear?
From acting like you′re the only one there
Unrepentantly self-centered and unfair
Enter all suckers scrambling for the scoop

Exit Mr. Eye contact who took his flirt and flew the coop
But whatever, no matter
No fishin' trips, no fishin′
'Cause mamma′s officially out of commission
And did I mention in there
Did I mention somewhere in there
That I traded Babe Ruth?
Yes, I traded the only player that was bigger than the game
And I can't even tell you why 'cause you′d think I′m insane
And that's the truth

And the music industry mafia is pimping girl power
Sniping off their sharpshooter singles from their styrofoam towers
And hip hop is tied up in the back room
With a logo stuffed in its mouth
′Cause the master's tools will never dismantle the master′s house

But then I'm getting away from myself
As I get closer and closer to home
And the difference between you and me, baby
Is I get fucked up when I′m alone


And I must admit, today my-my inner pessimist
Seems to have got the best of me
We start out sugared up on kool-aid and manifest destiny
And we memorize all the president's names like little trained monkeys
And we're spit into the world so many spinny-eyed TV junkies
Incapable of unravelling the military industrial mystery
Preemptively pacified with history book history
And I′ve been around the world now and I can see this about America
The mind control is steep here, man
The myopia is deep here

And behold those that try to expose the reality
Who really, who really try to realize democracy
Are shot with rubber bullets and gassed off the streets
While the global power brokers are kept clean and discreet
Behind a wall, behind a moat
And that is all, that′s all, that's oh-oh
That′s all she wrote

As my heart beats an s-s-s, o-o-o, s-s-s
'Cause folks just really couldn′t care, care, care less, less, less
As long as every day is Super-bowl Sunday
And larger than life women in lingerie
Are pouting at us from every bus stop
She loves me, she loves me not, she loves me, she loves me not
She loves me, she loves me not

And, "Big government should not stand between a man and his money"
I mean, "What's good for business is good for the country"

Our children still take that lie like communion
The same old line the confederacy used on the union

Conjugate liberty into libertarian
And medicate it, associate it with deregulation, privatization
We won′t even know we're slaves on a corporate plantation

Somebody say hallelujah
Somebody say damnation
'Cause the profit system follows the path of least resistance
And the path of least resistance is what makes the river crooked
Makes it serpentine, capitalism is the devil
Is the devil′s wet dream

So just give me my Judy Garland drugs and let me get back to work
′Cause the Empire State Building is the tallest building in New York
And, and I always got the feeling you just liked to hear it fall
Off your tongue
But I remember my name
In your mouth

And I don't think I was done
Hearing it close to my ear on a whisper′s way to a moan
But Pavlov hits me with more bad news
Every time I answer the phone
So I play and I sing and I just let it ring
All day when I'm at home

A defacto choice of macro or microcosmic melancholy
But baby, any way you slice it
I′m thinkin' I could just as soon use the time alone