Rhymin' Man
Contents
Lyrics
Rhymin' Man,
Tall and tan,
Rhyme or reason,
Play your hand --
Rhyme on this -- rhyme on that
Oh, you naughty Democrat!
They say when Doctor King got shot,
Jesse hatched an awful plot,
Dipped his hands in the Doctor's blood,
'N rubbed his shirt like playin' with mud
Looked around for all the press,
Said: "Check me out, my name is Jess!
I'll be known from towns 'n farms --
Doctor King died in my arms!"
Rhymin' Man,
Tall and tan,
Rhyme or reason,
Play your hand --
Rhyme on this -- rhyme on that
Oh, you naughty Democrat!
A few years later, legend says,
Rhymin' man made a run for Prez
Farrakhan made him a clown,
Over there near Hymie-Town
Said he was a diplomat --
Hobbin' an-a-knobbin' with Arafat
Castro was simpatico,
Though the U.S. voters, they said: "No!"
Rhymin' Man,
Tall and tan,
Rhyme or reason,
Play your hand --
Rhyme on this -- rhyme on that
Oh, you naughty Democrat!
Okay, here we go again!
Rhymin' Man says he's your friend
Any fool can make a rhyme --
Cowboys do it all the time
(We could do, they sure do)
People say: "Now he's mature!"
Cowboys rhyme that with horse manure
Horse manure!
(Horse manure)
That's for sure!
You been cheatin' --
We kept score!
Are you "this"?
Or are you "that"?
Oh, you naughty
Demo . . . (crat!)
Democrat!
Players On This Song
Records On Which This Song Has Appeared
Zappa Albums
Tributes & Cover Albums
Notes About This Song
The song satirizes Jesse Jackson an American civil rights activist, preacher and politician for the Democratic Party. In 1984 and 1988 he ran for President, but controversial remarks about Jewish people (whom he called "Hymies") and the dubious claim that he helped Martin Luther King after he was shot hurt his candidacy.
In a 1993 interview Zappa said:
An article raised some questions about whether or not Martin Luther King actually died in Jesse's arms. There were reports that Jackson dipped his hands into King's blood or even used chicken blood and rubbed it on his shirt, which he wore for a few days afterward as he met the media. So I did this song about the idea of communicating through nursery rhymes, as Jackson is prone to do. It rubs me the wrong way. I'm not saying that all of Jesse's ideas are bad; I agree with some of them. But I'm not confident that Jesse Jackson would be the person I would look to to implement any of them. I don't want to see any religious people in public office because they're working for another boss.
Jesse Jackson is amongst the names listed in the liner notes of The MOFO Project/Object (2006) album.
It briefly quotes several musical themes, including: The Twilight Zone Theme (Constant), Marche Funèbre (Frédéric Chopin), Mission: Impossible (Schifrin), The Untouchables (Riddle), Mississippi Mud (Cavanaugh/Barris), Happy Days Are Here Again (Yellen/Ager), Entrance of the Gladiators (Fucik), Hava Nagila (trad.), Hail to the Chief (Sanderson/Scott), La Cucaracha (trad.), Frère Jacques (trad.), My Sharona (Fieger/Averre) and Hallelujah I'm A Bum (McClintock).
