Chew
Jello Biafra With Nomeansno Lyrics

Someone's dad passed out in the street
An old man has collapsed on the road

The wind-up key worker bees
People passing by are too busy with their lives to care

Buzz right on by
They ignore the old man's plight

At night he still lies
He spends his nights there because no one helps him

There 'cos nobody cares
He's there because society doesn't value him

Insects with briefcases ignore him
People with important jobs ignore his suffering

Been lying here for days
No one has helped him for many days now

Not my problem, man
People brush off his situation because it doesn't affect them personally

Look man, this is New York
A typical response from a person who lives in a big city and experiences neglectful behavior as commonplace

Now the rats are coming to feed
Rats are beginning to feast on the old man's corpse

Every night they bring more and more of their friends
The number of rats swarming the corpse keeps increasing day by day

Immune to rat poison, totally unafraid
The rats are resistant to rat poison and are not afraid of anything

And this is a very special treat indeed
The rats are having a feast that they find very special

They crawl up my pantleg / I'm too weak to move
A person is being attacked by rats but is too weak to fight them off

No one hears my cries as they start on my toes
The person's cries for help are ignored as rats start biting their toes

Their teeth are like razors as they gnaw at my hands
The pain caused by the razor-like teeth of rats is severe as they nibble at the person's hands

It sure beats McDonald's so get it while it lasts
The rats' attack is considered an unusual experience and a kind of treat

See the headline in the Post?
A newspaper article is being referred to

No one helped that old man for a week
The article in the paper is about the old man who was neglected for a week and then eaten by rats

They're homeless cos they wanna be
Society stigmatizes homeless individuals, stereotyping them as people who choose to be homeless

Let's talk about sports
People don't want to discuss real issues and prefer to talk about sports

Watch 'em tear that old building down
Watching buildings being destroyed is considered entertainment

On the way home
People's priorities are solely focused on their personal lives rather than issues in society

But when a bulldozer pops the rubble like a pimple
The violent destruction of buildings is compared to popping a pimple

Volcanoes of rats swarm all over us like bees
Rats swarm around the remains of the building like bees, making a loud noise

As big as a cat, not afraid to chase people
The rats are large and equally terrifying, and they do not run away from people

Or nibble on the wipers and vinyl roofs of cars
The rats are capable of damaging car parts

People are panicking, the cops have all fled
The community is in chaos, and the police have failed to protect them

A shotgun will only kill one at a time
The police have limited capacity to fight off the rats with only one person at a time

From those teeth sinking into our arms and legs
The metaphorical description of rats' teeth sinking into humans to cause pain and wounds

City fathers see a bright future ahead
The local government is blind to the issues of the public

Where the poor no longer exist
The city's proposed plan would eradicate poverty completely

Drive the neighborhood people away from their homes
The proposed plan would force people from their homes

Paint 'em over and quadruple the rent
After driving people away, the government would paint over the buildings and increase the rental prices significantly

Isolate the undesirables in places like Harlem
The government's solution is to segregate and isolate specific groups of people deemed undesirables and leave them to fend for themselves

Our Sowetos without walls
This refers to how the South African government used to isolate black people in townships

If they won't go away
The government forces undesirable people out of the city any way they can

Cops smash their heads
The government employs police brutality as a means to an end

Like they did in Tompkins Square
Refers to an incident in New York's Tompkins Square Park, where the police used violent force to get rid of homeless people

Those stories give me the creeps
These issues disturb the person and make them feel afraid

I hope I didn't miss that last train
The person is worried about missing their train and leaving the chaos behind them

Some smart-ass plastered life-size pictures of rats
Someone has put up pictures of rats to scare off commuters

On the walls of the subway station
The pictures are put up in the subway station

Funny joke
Despite the fear and chaos that surrounds them, someone thinks it's funny to put up pictures of rats

It's so quiet down here
The subway station is eerily quiet, which makes the person nervous

It's a little too quiet down here
The person is unnerved by the unusual silence in the subway station

Who's that across the tracks
Someone is seen on the other side of the tracks

Smoldering eyes are glaring up at me
The person across the tracks is staring at them aggressively

Inching closer and closer, almost laughing out loud
The person across the tracks is approaching them while laughing

The train finally comes, but it won't even stop
The train is so full of people that they cannot get on, even in a moment of need

Not here, not tonight
The train isn't stopping here tonight in response to a crisis

I'm off in an hour, I don't wanna get involved
The person doesn't want to get involved in the crisis because they're almost off work

With some guy in a suit fighting rats off his face
The person imagines someone in a suit desperately fighting rats that are attacking them

Just leave 'em to the night, they'll be gone the next day
The person decides to let the crisis resolve on its own overnight rather than intervening

Chew Devour
Repetition in the refrain reminds the listener of the grotesque chewing and devouring associated with rats's feast, adding emphasis to the general thought behind the song - of society neglecting to care for needy individuals