Shed Reading (Rattus Norvegicus) Songtext
von Black Flag

I am Rattus Norvegicus
I′m sitting in some shit-hole rat's nest and I′m a little angry
I wanted to be a talk show host, not a rat
You men think you have it bad with women?
Well, I've got it a lot worse let me tell you
What am I gonna say to some nice looking girl who I wanna meet?
I can tread water for over 36 hours?
I can chew through lead pipes and cinderblocks?
I can run on telephone wires?

And what if I do get the girl home?
Can't fit her through the door, it′s too small
Yeah, I got a lot of gripes
How′d you like to have a tail that went through your body to drag around all the time?
Not my idea of fun by a long shot


And do you see the neighborhoods that I'm forced to live in?
Those people live like pigs
Can′t catch the subway, they haven't built it yet
Can′t catch the up-town bus I can't reach the step-up
Hey taxi

And everyone wants to kill me, feed me drugs, and poison
Put electrodes in my head and make me run on treadmills
Dissect, bisect, and defect me
Bind, blind, maim and tame me
Are you folks crazy?

You never invite me to your parties as if I would really wanna go anyhow
Have you ever asked me to go to a movie?
How ′bout bowling?

You ever seen a rat cry?
I got tears
And I have a heart-and I've got brains
If you could just see past the fur
I think that you would see that I'm a lot like you