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Janis Ian — God & the FBI
Album: God & the FBI
Avg rating:
6

Your rating:
Total ratings: 221









Released: 2000
Length: 4:05
Plays (last 30 days): 0
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Mama's making mimeos
Pete's on the stereo
Singing 'bout freedom
Bugs in the bedroom
Big investigation
Be patient
Bet you didn't know
You were a danger to the nation
Search and seizure
Buy yourself a lawyer
We know you're a member
Saw you under cover
Are you hiding evidence
None of this makes any sense

They called the FBI
I had to disappear
Called the g-men, t-men, see you at the scene men
Told 'em I was hiding here
They could fingerprint my heart
They'd tear my world apart
'Cause ain't no place for a face to hide
From god and the FBI

Commies, pinkos
Reds at the windows
Foreign agitators
Running elevators
J. Edgar hoover in a pink tutu
Investigating anyone who thinks like you
Welcome to the fifties
You look a little shifty

They called the FBI
I had to disappear
Called the g-men, t-men, see you at the scene men
Told 'em I was hiding here
They could fingerprint my heart
Tear my world apart
Ain't no hole for a soul to hide
From god and the FBI

Stay flat, don't rat
What's a proletariat
Stalin was a democrat
Washington is where it's at
Every politician
Is a sewer of ambition
Hide me, hide you
Better hide the baby too
We demand an interview
How long have you been a jew
We can make you testify
Freedom is no alibi

They called the FBI
I had to disappear
Called the g-men, t-men, see you at the scene men
Told 'em I was hiding here
Fingerprint my heart
Tear my world apart
'Cause ain't no place for a face to hide
From god and the FBI
Comments (59)add comment
 qstaa wrote:
"....come together, right now, over me...."
 
".....helter skelter, helter skelter...."

Posted 14 years ago by socalhol    [ Reply ]
Hate this kind of song. The lyrics are sooo cute. Reminds me of later Aerosmith lyrics. She and Steve Tyler could do a great duet featuring lots of words that sound cute together and mean nothing. {#Rolleyes}
Posted 14 years ago by crockydile    [ Reply ]
...i hear a bit of ball of confusion...
Posted 14 years ago by mandolin    [ Reply ]
 dmax wrote:
CAT FOOD

CAT FOOD

CAT FOOD

again
 
Funny.... that's exactly what I thought! KC ought to sue!

Posted 14 years ago by jagdriver    [ Reply ]
 OldFrenchie wrote:
pure shit :(
 

go away potty mouth
Posted 14 years ago by V12Silly    [ Reply ]
pure shit :(
Posted 14 years ago by OldFrenchie    [ Reply ]
I am digging the groove....{#Dancingbanana_2}
Posted 15 years ago by shawshank    [ Reply ]
This is completely insufferable.
Posted 15 years ago by jbunniii    [ Reply ]

Should have followed this one with Taxman by the Beatles


Posted 15 years ago by Mandible    [ Reply ]
Most political songs suck, and this one is no exception. Take out the dopey lyrics and you have a seriously bad song.
Posted 15 years ago by daigoro    [ Reply ]
RedGuitar wrote:
  • In large cities, Americans are photographed on the average of 20 times a day.


Following regards Great Britain, not the U.S., but according to This is London:

On the wall outside his former residence - flat number 27B - where Orwell lived until his death in 1950, an historical plaque commemorates the anti-authoritarian author. And within 200 yards of the flat, there are 32 CCTV cameras, scanning every move.


Link.

Posted 15 years ago by vit    [ Reply ]
 RedGuitar wrote:
Did you Know?
  • In large cities, Americans are photographed on the average of 20 times a day. 
I'm just not getting that privacy is a huge concern of the Facebook/YouTube generation. {#Ask}
Posted 15 years ago by lmic    [ Reply ]
 crazy wrote:

you can run but you got no place to hide anymore..............big brother is ...watching, and waiting...4 U
 
 

Did you Know?

  • In large cities, Americans are photographed on the average of 20 times a day.
  • Everything you charge is in a database that police, among others, can look at.
  • Supermarkets track what you purchase and sell the information to direct-mail marketing firms.
  • Your employer is allowed to read your E-Mail, and if you use your company's health insurance to purchase drugs, your employer has access to that information.
  • Government computers scan your E-Mail for subversive language.
  • Your cell phone calls can be intercepted, and your access numbers can be cribbed by eavesdroppers with police scanners.
  • You register your whereabouts every time you use an ATM, credit card, or use EZ PASS at a toll booth.
  • You are often being watched when you visit web sites. Servers know what you're looking at, what you download, and how long you stay on a page.
  • A political candidate found his career destroyed by a newspaper that published a list of all the videos he had ever rented.
  • Most "baby monitors" can be intercepted 100 feet outside the home.
  • Intelligence agencies now have "micro-bots" — tiny, remote control, electronic "bugs" that literally can fly into your home and look around without your noticing.
  • Anyone with $100 can tap your phone.
  • a new technology called TEMPEST can intercept what you are typing on your keypad (from 100 feet away through a cement wall.)
  • the National Security Agency has a submarine that can intercept and decipher digital communications from the RF emissions of underwater phone cables.


Posted 15 years ago by RedGuitar    [ Reply ]
... hate this song? Just kidding I didn't even hear anything but the end and that sounded cool.

Posted 15 years ago by vit    [ Reply ]
 spacemoose wrote:

You might like to read some of the following:

story
another story
Yet another story
prison beatings
Inmate count in US dwarfs other nations

(All links to NYTimes)

 
More entertainingly, grippingly and disturbingly, read Cory Doctorow's recent novel "Little Brother" (link to Amazon via RP), which also has a very useful afterword with lots of useful civil liberties-related pointers, tips and tricks.


Posted 15 years ago by fredriley    [ Reply ]
 Geecheeboy wrote:
More like, God and the IRS. MUCH more sinister. You can hide from the FBI but not the IRS.
 
you can run but you got no place to hide anymore..............big brother is ...watching, and waiting...4 U
 
Posted 16 years ago by crazy    [ Reply ]

Cool track. I had no idea she was still recording.


Posted 16 years ago by Welly    [ Reply ]
 Baby_M wrote:
You've obviously never lived in a real police state. Neither have I, but I have two good friends who did. One spent a year in prison and came out with permanent physical impairments from the beatings.
 
You might like to read some of the following:

story
another story
Yet another story
prison beatings
Inmate count in US dwarfs other nations

(All links to NYTimes)

Posted 16 years ago by spacemoose    [ Reply ]
 ruthless wrote:
Oh my, I agree with PG!!!
 
Stopped clock, twice a day...

Alternate exp: PG might just be an @sshole when it comes to talking about music, and reasonable in other circumstances.   But people who call themselves a genius tend to be @sses, so I'm going to lean with the stopped clock exp.

Posted 16 years ago by spacemoose    [ Reply ]
Doesn't Sheryl Crow have a song like this?
Posted 16 years ago by Papernapkin    [ Reply ]
More like, God and the IRS. MUCH more sinister. You can hide from the FBI but not the IRS.
Posted 16 years ago by Geecheeboy    [ Reply ]
babyjuice wrote:
thought it was Joni Mitchell
So did I.
Posted 16 years ago by ScottishWillie    [ Reply ]
thought it was Joni Mitchell
Posted 16 years ago by babyjuice    [ Reply ]
Stes wrote:
The way she sings reminds me the slow version of Dylan's Subterranean homesick blues
Yeees, right. But nice song
Posted 16 years ago by andiman    [ Reply ]
The way she sings reminds me the slow version of Dylan's Subterranean homesick blues
Posted 16 years ago by Stes    [ Reply ]
AlienRelic wrote:
Yeah, you STILL don't need a weatherman to tell which way the wind blows.
HA! Good one!!
Posted 16 years ago by musikalia    [ Reply ]
physicsgenius wrote:
The person who you are quoting didn't say we are in a police state, they said the Bush Admin was turning it into a police state. And that's inarguably true. Are we closer to a police state now or 10 years ago? When the government can (secretly!) ask for your library records, the answer is clear.
Oh my, I agree with PG!!!
Posted 17 years ago by ruthless    [ Reply ]
tripacer wrote:
I see Bush Derangement Syndrome has reached RP.
This album came out in early 2000-- meaning, I believe, that she probably wrote it before Bush came into office. Anyway, someone left it in an apartment when they left and I was working as the "tourguide" for the complex. It was the only thing in my cd player in the office for the year, just because I wasn't supposed to bring cds to work. Whicch made it pretty sweet, but also now it's kinda sour because I hated that job and it brings back crappy memories. It is a good album.
Posted 18 years ago by jennybean42    [ Reply ]
Baby_M wrote:
You've obviously never lived in a real police state. Neither have I, but I have two good friends who did. One spent a year in prison and came out with permanent physical impairments from the beatings.
The person who you are quoting didn't say we are in a police state, they said the Bush Admin was turning it into a police state. And that's inarguably true. Are we closer to a police state now or 10 years ago? When the government can (secretly!) ask for your library records, the answer is clear.
Posted 18 years ago by physicsgenius    [ Reply ]
Yeah, you STILL don't need a weatherman to tell which way the wind blows.
Posted 18 years ago by AlienRelic    [ Reply ]
Euphemism wrote:
The creeping discord into the song as it progresses, along with the paranoid whispers in the background, really trick up an already great track.
what you said
Posted 18 years ago by crowhog2000    [ Reply ]
I see Bush Derangement Syndrome has reached RP.
Posted 18 years ago by tripacer    [ Reply ]
Art_Carnage wrote:
Sadly, in the police state the Bush administration is turning the country into, this song is becoming truer by the second.
Amen to that, bro!
Posted 18 years ago by Snagmaster    [ Reply ]
It's just Janis being Janis and channeling Dylan at his pasty paranoid best.
Posted 18 years ago by tripacer    [ Reply ]
The creeping discord into the song as it progresses, along with the paranoid whispers in the background, really trick up an already great track.
Posted 18 years ago by Euphemism    [ Reply ]
A great song, likable from the very first note.
Posted 19 years ago by lester    [ Reply ]
Art_Carnage wrote:
Sadly, in the police state the Bush administration is turning the country into, this song is becoming truer by the second.
You've obviously never lived in a real police state. Neither have I, but I have two good friends who did. One spent a year in prison and came out with permanent physical impairments from the beatings. If this were a police state, Michael Moore and Cindy Sheehan and Dick Durban and Noam Chomsky and Barbara Streisand and Joe Wilson and I-could-keep-going-but-you-get-the-picture would all be dead or imprisoned by now. Critique the present administration if you like; such is your right, and most of us do it from time to time. However, don't flatter yourself by pretending that you're the brave dissident risking death and torture to speak truth to power. You aren't--and neither is anyone else on the short end of an election in this country. If you want to try out for that role, you can go to Cuba and try to open a private library or speak up for the rights of gays; or go to Saudi and stand in a mall and read from the Bible; or go to North Korea and say anything even remotely critical of the Dear Leader. Kinda liked the song, BTW.
Posted 19 years ago by Baby_M    [ Reply ]
All the obvious references notwithstanding, I still think this is a cool tune. And did you catch the "Purple Haze" riff at the very end of the fadeout? Always a nice touch, even though Huey Lewis did it first in "I Want a New Drug".
Posted 19 years ago by Dave_Mack    [ Reply ]
Good one, Bill!
Posted 19 years ago by Shesdifferent    [ Reply ]
I would have sworn I heard a sampled Flavor Flav laugh in there.
Posted 19 years ago by Vogelfrei    [ Reply ]
This woman is a strong, inteligent woman who deserves major props. Check out her site, https://janisian.com. This is one of the few songs of hers I heard, but I would like her even if she never made any more records.
Posted 19 years ago by mfassett    [ Reply ]
James McMurtry next up....
Posted 19 years ago by beag    [ Reply ]
Sadly, in the police state the Bush administration is turning the country into, this song is becoming truer by the second.
Posted 19 years ago by Art_Carnage    [ Reply ]
hamer12string wrote:
That got me! Good one - you are right!
Johnnie's in the basement mixing up the cement
Posted 19 years ago by moshevelvul    [ Reply ]
ChardRemains wrote:
She's been around as long as they have...who's to say the rip-off isn't the other way around? Likin' this better with every listen.
Just because these songs have similar rhythms or bass lines doesn't make them a rip off. If every song had to be completely orirginal with no similarity to anything ever before produced we would have a total of about 100 songs to listen to. I like this. It's got a groove!
Posted 19 years ago by NiceGuy2005    [ Reply ]
it's not the voice that annoys me that much, but..the background cranking noise..or watever it is...
Posted 19 years ago by bebe    [ Reply ]
Her voice really annoys me.
Posted 19 years ago by resonator    [ Reply ]
qstaa wrote:
"....come together, right now, over me...."
That got me! Good one - you are right!
Posted 19 years ago by hamer12string    [ Reply ]
"....come together, right now, over me...."
Posted 19 years ago by qstaa    [ Reply ]
StuBotNYC wrote:
LENNON BOWIE RIP OFF can you say FAME?
She's been around as long as they have...who's to say the rip-off isn't the other way around? Likin' this better with every listen.
Posted 19 years ago by ChardRemains    [ Reply ]
LENNON BOWIE RIP OFF can you say FAME?
Posted 19 years ago by StuBotNYC    [ Reply ]
You better duck down the alleyway Lookin' for a new friend The man in the coonskin cap in the pig pen Wants eleven dollar bills; you only got ten...
Posted 19 years ago by ArbiterOfGoodTaste    [ Reply ]
Wow. Thought this was an older song (like back in the "Seventeen" days). She's kept her groove. Noice! :goodvibes.gif:
Posted 20 years ago by Grantus    [ Reply ]
Looking like J. Edgar Hoover in a Pink tutu Great song. Janis just gets better and better. And to think I first heard her when I was 14 and loved her back then. We have grown up together.
Posted 22 years ago by Leslie    [ Reply ]
this rocks. big time.
Posted 22 years ago by Platypus    [ Reply ]
NUTS! I just got around to reading the article on my lunch break, and you play one of her songs while i'm out. Anyway, well done!
Posted 22 years ago by pilgrim    [ Reply ]