Janis Ian
Rate My Music
[Intro]
Folk music

[Chorus]
Rate my music one-two-three
Keep your children safe from me
Rate my writing X-Y-Z
That's what keeps this country free

[Verse 1]
You got Ma Rainey talkin' 'bout a jelly roll
Chuck Berry workin' on a mojo
Bessie Smith singin' bull dagger blues
Elvis twitching on the evening news

[Chorus]
Rate my music one-two-three
Keep your children safe from me
Rate my writing X-Y-Z
Living in the land of liberty, yeah

[Verse 2]
Gonna rate Walt Whitman, and Jean Cocteau
All the fags will have to go
Alexander the Great, and Plato and such
The kids might catch it if they read too much, yeah
[Verse 3]
Well I watched the news last night at nine
Saw a head blown off somebody's spine
While the women moaned and the children screamed
Doesn't anybody else think that's obscene?

[Chorus]
Rate my music one-two-three
Keep your children safe from me
Rate my writing X-Y-Z
That's what keeps this country free, yeah

[Verse 4]
They're gonna rate all the dagos, the wops and the kikes
Gonna rate all the chinks and the towelhead types
Gonna rate all the niggers, gonna rate all the fags
Gonna wrap it up tight in the American flag, yeah

[Verse 5]
All you folks who bitch and moan
About the music kids buy and bring on home
Tell me just one thing before we're done
Where'd they get their money from?

[Chorus]
Rate my music one-two-three
Keep your children safe from me, yeah
Rate my writing X-Y-Z
'Cause that's what keeps this country free
Rate my music, be my guest
I don't care, it's just more press
Rate my writing if you dare
'Cause when you're gone I'll still be there
When you're gone I'll still be there
When you're done I'll still be here, yeah