Loudon Wainwright Iii Something For Nothing
You can pull one of my songs right out of thin air
Go ahead and download me, see if I care!
In love, war, and cyberspace everything's fair
And it's ok to steal, 'coz it's so nice to share
You're in luck, 'cos last night it happened again
I was feeling creative about twenty to ten
So I sharpened a pencil, then I wore down its end
And now soon you'll have something to share with your friends
It took twenty minutes to write down this song
Tune's public domain, but I didn't do wrong
I chewed up the pencil, and the eraser's all gone
Scratched my head and my balls, but it didn't take long
Songwriting's not so hard, it's well understood
Anyone can do it, and everyone should
And I'm sure you could write and sing something as good
With some balls and a pencil, I'm sure that you would
A PC's like a crowbar, it's only a tool
Music flows like water from a big public pool
But I wanna get paid for my work, but I'm a fool
Because trading and sharing's so awesome and cool
I don't mean to be flip, I don't wanna be pat
And those Metallica guys are all getting too fat!
Free information, yeah, what's wrong with that?
Something for nothing, that's where it's at--
And those moguls run labels, and you call 'em all crooks
'Cos they crunch the numbers and they cook the books
But I signed that contract, and I got my hand shook
Shaking hands with the devil, it's not as bad as it looks
You can pull one of my songs right out of thin air
Bootleg and download me, just see if I care!
In love, war, and cyberspace everything's fair
And it's ok to steal, 'coz it's so nice to share
