Spoken:
Folk music

Sung:
Rate my music 1-2-3,
Keep your children safe from me.
Rate my writing X-Y-Z,
That's what keeps this country free.

You got Ma Rainey2 talkin' 'bout a jelly roll3.
Chuck Berry workin' on a mojo4.
Bessie Smith5 singin' Bull Dagger Blues6.
Elvis twiching on the evening news.

Rate my music 1-2-3,
Keep your children safe from me.
Rate my writing X-Y-Z,
Livin' in the land of liberty, yeah.

Gotta rate Walt Whitman7 and Jean Cocteau7,
All the fags will have to go.
Alexander the great and Plato7 and such,
And kids might catch it if they read too much, yeah.

I watched the news last night at nine,
Saw a head blown off somebody's spine.
While women moaned and the children screamed,
Doesn't anybody else think that's obscene?

Rate my music 1-2-3,
Keep your children safe from me.
Rate my writing X-Y-Z,
That's what keeps this country free, yeah.

Gonna rate the dagos, the wops and the kikes,
Gonna rate 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.

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

Rate my music 1-2-3,
Keep your children safe from me, yeah.
Find more similar lyrics on http://mp3lyrics.com/368VRate 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.

RATE MY MUSIC 1-2-3
Written by: Janis Ian
Performed by: Janis Ian
Appears on: Unreleased 3: Society's Child-20061.

1Transcribed from the track on this album.

2Ma Rainey (April 26, 1886–December 22, 1939), was one of the earliest
known American professional blues singers and one of the first generation
of such singers to record. She did much to develop and popularize the form
and was an important influence on younger blues women and their careers.
Also known, though less discussed, is the fact that she was bisexual. In
most of her songs, Ma projected herself as a passionate and often
mistreated lover of men. In private, her preference was for young men and
women.

3According to urbandictionary.com, jelly roll refers to female genitalia
or sexual intercourse, among other things.

4The word mojo originally meant a charm or a spell. But now it's more
commonly said meaning sex appeal or talent.

5Considered the most popular female blues singer of the 1920s and 30s,
Bessie Smith is often regarded as one of the greatest singers of her era
and a major influence on subsequent jazz vocalists. She was a protigee of
Ma Rainey. (See 2).

6"Bull Dagger Blues," is a jazz song with explicityly lesbian lyrics.

7Walt Whitman, Jean Cocteau and Plato were all gay or else did
extenstive studies on gay sexuality. For those that don't already know,
Janis Ian is gay and has been married to her partner, Patricia Snyder,
since September of 2003.

Copyright © Janis Ian/her co-writer(s) if any/their publisher(s).
All rights reserved.