Return to Albums & Lyrics




November 1986
Produced by Jello Biafra
Engineered by John Cuniberti.
Mixed by Cuniberti and Biafra
Recorded at City Sound Recording and Hyde St. Studios, San Francisco
Mastered by John Cuniberti with East Bay Ray

Backing vocals on "Draw the Line", "Fleshdunce" and "Chickenshit Conformist": Cal, Andrew and Blaze from No Tag.
Timbales on "Dear Abby": Jayed Scotti

Sci-Fi synthesizer on "One Way Ticket to Pluto": Tim Jones P. O'Pillage as the voice of Rambozo Spiritual Guidance: Pippin Youth
Cover layout: P. O'Pillage
Contributing Designer: Stefan Viterstedt/Moerker



Tracklist

Track # Song Title
Lyrics
Mp3
1. Take This Job and Shove It
----------
2. Hop With the Jet Set
----------
3. Dear Abby
----------
4. Rambozo the Clown
----------
5. Fleshdunce
----------
6. The Great Wall
7. Shrink
----------
8. Triumph of the Swill
----------
9. Macho Insecurity
----------
10. I Spy
----------
11. Cesspools In Eden
----------
12. One-way Ticket To Pluto
----------
13. Do the Slag
----------
14. A Commercial
----------
----------
15. Gone With My Wind
----------
16. Anarchy For Sale
----------
17. Chickenshit Conformist
----------
18. Where Do Ya Draw the Line
----------
19. Potshot Heard ‘Round the World
----------
20. D.M.S.O.
----------
21. Lie Detector
----------


TAKE THIS JOB AND SHOVE IT
Chorus: Take this job and shove it / I ain't working here no more / I will not get all the pieces / I've been working for / Paper cups, minimum wage / Just walk on out the door / Take this job and shove it / I ain't working here no more / (Chorus) / They'll have you in this factory / From now on for fifty years / All this time I see my woman / Drowning in her tears / I see a lot of people who / Got to have a piece of me / I'd give the shirt right off my back / If I had the nerve to say / (Chorus) / Let's all go use our sick leave up / And then we'll shoot some pool / Got brand new skinhead hair cuts / You think he's a fool / One of these days I'll blow my top / Or somebody's gonna pay / I'd hate to see the process / As you enter the factory and say / Take this job and shove it / I ain't working here no more / I won't let that shit bother me / That I've been working for / Paper cups, minimum wage / Just walk on out the door / Take this job and shove it / I ain't working here no more / Take this job and shove it / I ain't working here, ain't working here, ain't working here no more




HOP WITH THE JET SET
I say, come on! / To pleasures unknown / Where we fly to when we are all bored / C’mon for the ride / And hop with the jet set tonight / We’ll sun ourselves red down in Montego Bay / Hotel-hired guards keep the natives away / We wanna save the whales / We’ll go watch them feed, / Buzz around them in boats / ‘Til they won’t breed / Just here for the ride / Then we hop with the jet set tonight / Check out them Indians’ ancestral art / Some of that would look cute up on our walls / Yeah, suit it just fine / When we hop with the jet set tonight / We’ll hire out some poachers to go steal their dolls / Who cares if they’re scared - they look awful cute / National Geographic found a stone age tribe / Let’s feed them their first hot dogs on film / Won’t that be a prize / To show the jet set tonight / “Aren’t they cute, aren’t they pure…” / Muse subscribers back home / Next weekend the junta exterminates them / Back home by the sea at our outdoor café / Our chameleon tongues catch the flies in the air




DEAR ABBY
Dear Abby, Got a problem. I’m a decent, underpaid, hardworking county coroner. It’s important that my family eat meat at least three times a week. But we just can’t afford to with the prices the way they are. So I bring home choice cuts from my autopsy subjects. Just mix in the Tuna Helper, and ta-da! / The whole family things my new meals are delicious. They ask me what’s my secret. Abby, I think they’re getting suspicious. My smart-ass 8-year-old keeps asking, “Where’s all the meat? The red dye #2 kind that’s kept in the fridge.” / If they find out the truth I don’t think they’ll understand. Abby, what do I tell my family? / DEAR REAGANOMICS VICTIM: Consult your clergyman. Make sure the body’s blessed and everything should be just fine.




RAMBOZO THE CLOWN
Got a deadly toy / To brainwash your boy / An egocentric muscle thug / Kicks butt on screen like a brat outa hell / Bullshitter in the Indochina shop / Pull the string in his back, we win the war / That we never should have started at all / A cabbage patch terrorist to call our own / Who rewrites history with a machine gun / Don’t think about it-KILL IT! / That’s what we teach your child / Chorus: Rambozo / Rambozo / Rambozo the Clown / To draft-age kids / It sure looks like fun- / “Kill ‘em all / and let God sort ‘em out” / Like video games - no mess / Just fuel for a mass lapse of common sense / You can be Don Quixote / We’ll dice you with our windmill blades / Brawn over brain / Means a happy ending / G.I. Joe in the cereal bowl / Grey shrapnel-flavored chewing gum / Mass murder ain’t just painless / Now we’ve made it cute / (Chorus) / War is sexy / War is fun / Iron Ego / Red Dawn / Be a wolverine. You’ll rule the hills / Just get some guns and Cheerios / Any kid can conquer Libya / Just steal a fighter plane / Look who came home in a wheelchair / V.A. Hospital, they don’t care / “We’re the machine / You’re just a tool.” / Who fell for the myth of Rambozo the Clown




FLESHDUNCE
We’re world industries’ thoughtlords / The entertainment wing / We keep you all in line / By fixing your free will / Surround you with pop fantasies / Just slightly out of reach / To soften all the blows / Of your forced daily routine / We strip-mine your underground culture / Take the bite out and rinse it clean / Give ourselves credit for creating it / Then sell it back to you / At twice the price / Our pod of talent vampires / Has blown into your town / To dazzle, sign and milk you / All strictly on our own terms / You think you’ve got a lot to say / We’ll change that real soon / You’re not a person anymore / We’ve made you a cartoon / By the time we’re through remolding you / You won’t even recognize your face / There’s no end to the eager beavers / Drawn like moths to our Babylon’s mirage / Conveyer belt of flashdunce / They all want to do the fleshdance / Conveyor belt of flashdunce / Who all want to do the fleshdance




THE GREAT WALL
Great Wall of China / It’s so big it’s seen from outer space / Put there to keep starving neighbors / Locked outside the gates / What’s changed today? / Empires hoard more then they need / And peasants threaten our comfort / We’ll build a Great Wall around our power / Build a Great Wall around our power / Bankrupt L.A.’s streetcar line / So people pay more to drive / Plant strategic freeways / To divide neighborhoods by color lines / We’d rather pay for riot squads / Than pump your ghetto back to life / We let your schools decay on purpose / To build a Great Wall around our power / Another Great Wall around our power / Warlords in grey suits / Take a different route to work each day / Second-hand green berets / Form the companies’ private armies. / We’ll take all your gold / But won’t teach reading or feed your poor / The League of Gentlemen / Would rather feed guns to puppet dictators / There’s too many people in your world / And Refugees are expensive / When they trickle down onto our soil / We hunt them and arrest them / Classify them insane / And put them back on the next plane / To the waiting arms / Of the same death squads they fled / We’ve built a Great Wall around our power / Economic Great Wall around our power / Worldwide Great Wall around our power / Give us your poor, / Your tired and your weak / We’ll send ‘em right back / To their certain death


SHRINK

If only people could shrink / Our world wouldn’t be so overcrowded / Bring ourselves down to size / There’d be so much more food to go ‘round / Why don’t we build a machine / With all the know-how of the industries / We put a man on the moon / On earth we’ll need more room to breathe real soon / Oh / Drink your vaccine and let’s shrink / And bring your poodle so it doesn’t eat us / The roads will be so wide / No traffic jams when we’re half a foot tall / Bring what you need down here / We’ll shrink it all by microwave / Don’t wanna die like dinosaurs / We’ll have enough resources to go round / Oh / So now you’ve made the big shrink / Meanwhile we’ll keep acting big / We well-bred beautiful people / Who says we have to go too? / Cops and Mason businessmen / Were exempted from the ovens / As if you weren’t already / The rest of you are all our termites now / Oh



TRIUMPH OF THE SWILL
Life can only get better / All you need to do is fall in love / Everyone else has fun but you / Buy that fun you’ll fit in too / Dance your problems away / Cheap escape to that mind-control beat / Mellow out - Life’s too hard / You don’t even want to think / See the macho cock-rock metal heroes / Vomit fire out of their big mouths / Shake your fists obediently / Make Leni Riefenstahl real proud / See the Aryan bozo with the red guitar / Parachute on the White House lawn / Gonna bomb the commies with his air guitar / So dumb he can’t drive 55 / Like Bing Crosby before them / Too idiotic to be real / You want it loud? / We’ll make sure it goes nowhere / So you won’t get ideas / Chorus: Triumph of the swill / Triumph of the swill / Triumph of the swill / Triumph of the swill / Music is banned in Khomeini’s Iran / On the grounds that it stimulates the brain / We’ve done him one better in the land of coke and honey / Using music to put people’s brains to sleep / Ever wonder why commercial radio’s so bad? / It’s ‘cause someone upstairs wants it that way / If the Doors or John Lennon were getting started now / The industry wouldn’t sign ‘em in a million years / So what do we get / Christian censorship and taxed blank tapes / Shoppers strung out on our false hopes / Will flock to obey / (Chorus)



MACHO INSECURITY
Name one thing on earth lower than a though guy / Who talks with his fists instead of using his head / Who beats the shit out of anything it can’t understand / Behind the muscle mask is a scared little boy / Called / Chorus: Macho insecurity / Macho insecurity / Macho insecurity / ‘Cause you can’t stand yourself / Got a bitch with me? / Why won’t you say it to my face? / It’s so easy to mouth off to others / Where’s your proof? / Maybe we can talk if you’d just drop your act / Nothing’s ever solved by making childish threats / That’s Macho insecurity / (Chorus) / Why do you want people to be so afraid of you / Why are you so scared of anything that’s different / No one’s ever there when you need friends / You wonder why / It’s ‘cause you take yourself so seriously / But being such a clown / Gives the rest of us the right to laugh / At your Macho insecurity / (Chorus)



I SPY

You look at me from the back of the room / All I see is a bumbling buffoon / Head down like you don’t see much / Until you move in to make your bust / Chorus: I spy for you and me / I spy for you and me / Disguised like you’re one of the scene / Just stand alone with no real friends / Scared people will find out who you are / Alone in the world without your telephone beeper / (Chorus) / Curious folks ask you questions of life / But you can’t answer cause your heart’s like a knife / Still you feel like you sing the last song sung / You’re just a heartless piece of scum with a gun / (Chorus)



CESSPOOLS IN EDEN
Poison is bubbling / Beneath your dream home / Buried there years before / Kid runs in crying / From playing in the garden / “Mommy, I burned my hands!” / “What’s making our eyes so itchy?” / “Don’t rub ‘em - they’ll swell up” / Oh…Oh Oh Oh / It’s the big waste dump / Oh, yeah / We built your ticky-tacky houses / On landfill soil / To cover up a gift / We left you years before / Of toxic chemicals / And leaking gas / Just dig a little while, / You’ll find our acid baths / Cesspools / In Eden / Oozing away / Groundwater’s poisoned / Air stings like hell / The lines for doctors grow long / Over martinis / The company laughs / “We don’t owe you a damn thing.” / But what about all these fainting spells? / How’d you like a lick / From my open sores / And Oh…Oh Oh Oh / Why are our babies stillborn? / A storage tank’s leaking / It’s about to explode / Why evacuate / When you can watch the fun / Nothing happens here / Get out the lawn chairs / We’ll drink pink lemonade / And watch Martinez burn / Cesspools / In Eden / Cesspools in Eden / Leak by the day / The land we sold you / Is right atop our acid pits / We fill them by the truckload / In the dead of night / There’s thousands more toxic / Tips of the iceberg / We pay a little bribe / Or we just don’t report them / And see what you get- / Cesspools / In Eden / In Eden / No accident - / Just a little of our greed-fueled negligence / So you’ve found the proof why / Your cancer rate’s shot up / But watcha gonna do / When we’ve got all the cards / Times Beach, Rocky Flats, / Love Canal and Bhopal / Merry Christmas, hostages / From the folks that care / Cesspools in Eden / Oozing away / Cesspools in Eden / Leak by the day / Cesspools in Eden / Have a nice day



ONE WAY TICKET TO PLUTO
Countdown! / Get ready for the - Blastoff! / And don’t forget the - Hype! / We’re going into space / Distinguished scientists / A pesky senator / And monkey turds leaking from the lab / All brought to us play-by-play by Howard Cosell / You’re going where no man has gone before / Don’t ask us where that is / We have no idea / You’re chosen for the great mission / Because we owe you some favors / And besides you’re bright / A little too bright / Step one: / Senator, your vomit, / It’s time to analyze it / For the folks back home / Open the hatch, launch the war satellite / That the commies aren’t supposed to know about / Our real challenge is to keep it a secret / From the press back home / You’re going where no man has gone before / Don’t ask us where that is - we have no idea / You’re chosen for this great mission / Because you’re hearty and strong / And make a lot of fuss / Especially around us / We like you better when you’re far away / Have you - noticed? / You’re going the wrong - direction / We have, but that’s your - problem? / We planned it that way / We had to dispose of all of you so / We can spoil the final frontier / How dare you question our Star Wars plans / For the farce that they are? / You’re going where no man has gone before / For rocking the boat / In our temple of doom / You’re on a one-way ticket to Pluto / We wash our hands / Of you and your lost Ark / Don’t forget to write… / NO NO NO NO NO / NO



DO THE SLAG

Have you heard about the latest craze / That’s sweepin’ across the nation? / All the punks from coast to coast / Have discovered an old invention: / “Your hair’s too long / Man, you’re a queer / You’re too new wave / Put down that beer” / And / Do the Slag - Look at ‘em run / Do the Slag - Hey you scum / Do the Slag - Ain’t it fun / Do the Slag - Let’s all be dumb / Badmouth people we don’t know / Make sure it’s behind their backs / Don’t let new people in our scene / It’s more fun than having a friend / We’ll slag everyone each and every night / So we can pretend that we’re all right / Make those pricks feel just so small / We’ll show the world that we’re three feet tall / Slander their integrity / Doubt their humanity / Talk about their haircuts / Are their politics correct? / Do the Slag! / Don’t let those sissies on the floor / They’re unhip, man, they bought the wrong clothes / Let’s all do the latest craze / ‘Cause having allies never pays / We’ll slag everyone each and every night / So we can pretend that we’re all right / Make those pricks feel just so small / We’ll show the world that we’re three feet tall



GONE WITH MY WIND
Wake up! Get down here quick! / The president’s had too much to drink / His days of power are about gone / He’s been talking to paintings in the hall / He says, “I’m finished, so what the hell? / My life is ruined, what matters now? / I’ve always itched for that last great thrill / If I die all of you should too” / Chorus: Gone with my wind / Out with a bang / I’m gonna end it all right now / Gone with my wind / Out with a bang / You’re coming with me, oh wow / My bombs will rain down on D.C. / We’ll nuke our enemies while they’re asleep / We’ll be safe in the ground below / And laugh and drink ‘til the cows come home / So c’mon, John, whadya say? / It’s been dancing in my head for years / What’ll happen if I push this button? / Let’s start World War III for fun / (Chorus) / Mr. President, just sit down / We should talk a little while, I’ll pour another round / What about your memoirs’ TV rights? / Sit tight-and watch the fire / Let go of me. Do you think I’m mad? / To tell the truth, sir, I’d rather not say / Just keep your paws inside your pockets / And planet earth will be OK. / But you reached for the button anyhow / I had no choice but to knock you out / That’s just last night’s bump on your head / On to the next crisis, it’s another day / (Chorus)



ANARCHY FOR SALE
Step right up folks! / Anarchy for sale! / T-shirts only 10 dollars / Badges only $3.50 / I nicked the design, never asked the band / I never listen to them either / Buy! Buy! Buy! from Circle A / Like hula hoops, it’s a disposable craze / Another fast-food fad to throw away / Get your Anarchy For Sale / Anarchy For Sale / Anarchy For Sale / Sheep unite! / Get your cuddly boots and studs / Be sure to rebel in proper style / Rebel along the paths we pick / Out of fear of peer pressure we create / Hey You! - / Get those flyers off my wall! / No commie peace shit in my boutique / No one here cares what that all means / Our Anarchy is For Sale / Anarchy For Sale / Anarchy For Sale / Our town sucks / Our scene rules / To belong you must buy into it / So we sold you metal spike bracelets / C’mon let’s see a good fight / That’s Anarchy For Sale / Anarchy For Sale / Anarchy For Sale



CHICKENSHIT CONFORMIST
Punk’s not dead / It just deserves to die / When it becomes another stale cartoon / A closed-minded, self centered social club / Ideas don’t matter, it’s who you know / If the music’s gotten boring / It’s because of the people / Who want everyone to sound the same / Who drive bright people out / Of our so-called scene / ‘Til all that’s left / Is just a meaningless fad / Hardcore formulas are dogshit / Change and caring are what’s real / Is this a state of mind / Or just another label? / The joy and hope of an alternative / Has become its own cliché / A hairstyle’s not a lifestyle / Imagine Sid Vicious at 35 / Who needs a scene / Scared to love and to feel / Judging everything / By loud fast rules appeal / Who played last night? / “I don’t know, I forgot. / But diving off the stage / Was a lot of fun” / Chorus: So eager to please / Peer pressure decrees / So eager to please / Peer pressure decrees / Make the same old mistakes / Again and again / Chickenshit conformist / Like your parents / What’s ripped us apart even more than drugs / Are the thieves and the goddamn liars / Ripping people off when they share their stuff / When someone falls are there any friends? / Harder core than thou for a year or two / Then it’s time to get a real job / Others stay home, it’s no fun to go out / When the gigs are wrecked by gangs and thugs / When the thugs form bands, look who gets record deals / From New York metal labels looking to scam / Who sign the most racist queerbashing bands they can / To make a buck revving kids up for war / Walk tall, act small / Only as tough as gang approval / Unity is bullshit / When it’s under someone’s fat boot / Where’s the common cause / Too many factions / Safely sulk in their shells / Agree with us on everything / Or we won’t help with anything / That kind of attitude / Just makes a split grow wider / Guess who’s laughing while the world explodes / When we’re all crybabies / Who fight best among ourselves / (Chorus) / That farty old rock and roll attitude’s back / “It’s competition, man, we wanna break big.” / Who needs friends when the money’s good? / That’s right, the ‘70’s are back. / Cock-rock metal’s like a bad laxative / It just don’t move me, ya know? / The music’s OK when there’s more ideas that solos / De we really need the attitude too? / Shedding thin skin too quickly / As a fan it disappoints me. / Same old stupid sexist lyrics / Or is Satan all you can think of? / Crossover is just another word / For lack of ideas / Maybe what we need / Are more trolls under the bridge / Will the metalheads finally learn something- / Or will the punks throw away their education? / No one’s ever the best / Once they believe their own press / “Maturing” don’t mean rehashing / Mistakes of the past / (Chorus) / The more thing change / The more they stay the same / We can’t grow / When we won’t criticize ourselves / The ‘60’s weren’t all failure / It’s the ‘70’s that stunk / As the clock ticks we dig the same hole / Music scenes ain’t real life / They won’t get rid of the bomb / Won’t eliminate rape / Or bring down the banks / Any kind of real change / Takes more time and work / Than changing channels on a TV set / (Chorus)



WHERE DO YA DRAW THE LINE
Seems like the more I think I know / The more I find I don’t / Every answer opens up so many questions / Anarchy sounds good to me / Then someone asks, “Who’d fix the sewers?” / “Would the rednecks just play king / Of the neighborhood?” / How many liberators / Really want to be dictators / Every theory has its holes / When real life steps in / So how do we feed / And make room for / All the people crowded on our earth / And transfer all that wealth / From the rich to those who need it? / Where Do Ya Draw the Line / Where Do Ya Draw the Line / I’m not telling you / I’m asking you / Ever notice hard line radicals / Can go on star trips too / Where no one’s pure and right / Except themselves / “I’m cleansed of the system” / (‘Cept when my amp needs electric power) / Or - “The Party Line says No. / Feminists can’t wear fishnets” / You wanna help stop war? / Well, we reject your application / You crack too many jokes / And you eat meat / What better way to turn people off / Than to twist ideas for change / Into one more church / That forgets we’re all human beings / Where do ya draw the line? / In Toronto someone blew up / A cruise missile warhead plant / 10 slightly hurt, 4 million dollars damage / Why not destroy private property / When it’s used against you and me / Is that violence / - Or self-defense? / You tell me / Where Do Ya Draw the Line / I’m not telling you, I’m asking you / Where Do Ya Draw the Line / I’m not telling you, I’m asking you / Where Do You Draw the Line?



POTSHOT HEARD ‘ROUND THE WORLD
Hey! / Yo! / We’re the United States Marines / We know you’ve all been killing each other / For at least two thousand years / But we’re here now / To protect the family / Of Christian heroin warlords / Most friendly to the west / So you knock off this fighting / Or we’ll tell mom / Ever notice news / Is staged like TV wrestling shows / With Reagans and Khaddafis cast / As cartoon villains and heroes / Or those wildlife “documentaries” / Where a lion from a zoo / Kills a deer tied down ahead of time / “At the perfect camera angle” / When lemmings balk at dying for Disney / They’re just hurled off the cliff / We are gathered here today / To take photos of the president / Pretending to mourn these brave young men / Who came home from Beirut / Gift-wrapped in body bags / A truck bomb blew them to bits / We knew they were sitting ducks / We sacrificed ‘em, Aztec style / So we could use their dead meat / To cook up war fever back home / So make sure you take lots of pictures / And slant you news on our way / Just like in Wild Kingdom / We first tied down the prey / We want people boiling for revenge / In their living rooms / So we can go play shoot-em-up / Anywhere we choose / And our backers can cash in / Without the public asking questions



D.M.S.O.
D… M… S… O… / Crypto wonder drug in vogue / Some people say / It cures arthritis / Maybe that’s why / It keeps getting banned / It’s absorbed / Directly through the skin / Mix it with lemon juice / Touch your fingertips / You’ll taste the lemon / The police / Started a riot / Down at the courthouse / Again / Running amok / Spilling blood / Bashing heads / I do my part / Behind the lines / Swabbing door handles of cop cars / With D.M.S.O. / Mixed with L.S.D.



LIE DETECTOR
We have reviewed your yellow form / Congratulations! / We find you qualified / You have just the right capacity / For putting up with our nonsense / There’s just one thing you’ve got to prove / We know how you must be dishonest and lazy / If you’re so desperate / You actually want to work at this place / You must be guilty (Lie Detector) / You’re guilty (Lie Detector) / You’re guilty (Lie Detector) / Guilty ‘til you’re proven innocent / These days… / Blood pressure clamps around your arms / Now don’t get nervous when we yell in your face / We know you steal- / Just who do you screw? / With what?! / With who?!? / Aren’t you a Christian?!?!? / The polygraph - don’t make it move / One little twitch, the anvil drops on you / Don’t matter if you told the truth / We want your facial egg for out file / Now you’re guilty (Lie Detector) / You’re guilty (Lie Detector) / You’re guilty (Lie Detector) / ‘Til you’re proven innocent these days / Guilty - ‘til proven innocent / Guilty - it says so on your face / Guilty - when you try to find / A place to live or a job that pays / Guilty - when you file a complaint / Against the cop that kicked / Your face last night / Guilty - it says so on page 3 / Guilty - Who’d think a guy like me / Would plant some drugs in your car / Break in your house while you’re asleep / Open your mouth, bet your ass you’re watched / And it’s your word against ours / Yeah, just because we’re hiring you / That don’t mean we trust you at all / You’ll have to take a test like this / Once or twice every week / We know machines, they make mistakes / Yeah, it’s your word against our deaf black box / The machine is always right / ‘Cause we know how it makes you feel so small / Because you’re guilty (Lie Detector) / You’re guilty (Lie Detector) / You’re guilty (Lie Detector) / ‘Til you’re proven innocent these days / No one’s innocent these days / ‘Cause when you’re innocent it just don’t pay



All songs written by Jello Biafra, East Bay Ray, Klaus Flouride and D.H. Peligro except “Take This Job And Shove It” by David Allen Coe (Warner-Tamberlane Publishing Co.)
Lyrics by Jello Biafra except “I Spy” by D.H. Peligro and “Do the Slag” by East Bay Ray
(C) 1986 Decay Music