Loudon Wainwright III - Something For Nothing Lyrics

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.