Richard Thompson

Mother knows best

Richard Thompson


So you think you know how to wipe your own nose 
You think you know how to button your clothes 
You don't know shit if you hadn't already guessed 
You're just a bump on the log of life, 'cause mother knows best 

She tells everybody she was born in a ditch 
She back-combs her hair 'till she looks like a witch 
Wolves in her train, serpents suckle at her breast 
Don't forget to wash behind your ears, 'cause mother knows best 

O you lost your job, well ain't that a shame 
You got nobody but yourself to blame 
You deserve everything you get for such a carelessness 
And don't eat your peas off the knife, 'cause mother knows best 

So your baby's hungry, so your baby's sick 
Don't make babies, that'll do the trick 
Put another string of barbed wire in your little love nest 
It's better than a cardboard box, 'cause mother knows best 

She got a zombie army to serve her well 
She got a thousand bloodhounds from the gates of hell 
She got a hundred black horses with sulphur and coal on their breath 
And she rides the unbelievers down, mother knows best 

She says "Bring me your first-born, and I'll suck their blood 
Bring me your poor, I can trample in the mud 
Bring me your visionaries, I can put out their eyes 
And bring me your scholars, I'll have them all lobotomised, 
'Cause mother knows best