GOLDFISH DON'T TALK BACK
(Brenda Khan)

I used to get scared when the planes went by
I thought a Russian bomb would drop out of the sky
Thought I'd fight and die and go to heaven but I've
Learned some things since then

Like no one really knows what's 2+2
You can't always trust The Man in Blue
You may think the world gone mad
But baby they think it's you

Every candy store on the block sells crack
Every supreme court ruling is 3 steps back
There's acid rain in the drinking water,
But the goldfish they don't talk back

This song is for Phil Ochs
Who hung himself with a length of rope
He took his job seriously,
He weren't no 9 to 5 folk singer.
like the ones on MTV
That's what Kirk Kelly said to me
On the corner of Clinton and Houston Street where

Every candy store on the block sells crack
Every supreme court ruling is 3 steps back
There's acid rain in the drinking water,
But the goldfish they don't talk back

I went down to the laundry mat
There's a woman with a face like a Siamese cat
Trying to wash her only clothes, the clothes on her back
She's in a St. Vincent's wheelchair,
But it look like St. Vincent's doesn't care
She's a 60lb skeleton in underwear

Mr. President
The nation doesn't look secure
Are you sure what you spent
All our money for?

There's a great big hole
Where the sky used to be
And there's an asshole
On my TV who says
"Act now you get nine issues free
Plus an issue of women with an eating disease"

Every candy store on the block sells crack
Every Supreme court ruling it's 3 steps back
There's acid rain in the drinking water,
But the goldfish they don't talk back

....let's not be goldfish now.

Notes:
This was the title track of Brenda Kahn's first album, released in 1990. It is now available on CD (Soy Rock Argentina B000005YIG) 1995. (The lyrics on the liner notes of the copy of the CD I have spells Phil's surname 'Oaks')
RP jul07