Malvina Reynolds: Song Lyrics and Poems  

Notes: words and music by Malvina Reynolds; copyright 1973 Schroder Music Company, renewed 2001.

This song is addressed to my sisters.
Any man who is present may listen,
Any priest, any public official, any physician.
But it gives him no license to touch us,
We make the decision.
Me and Lydia, Josie and Rosie and Eve,
We handle this matter ourselves,
You'd better believe, or you better leave.

Chorus:
Rosie Jane, are you pregnant again?
Rosie Jane, you can hardly take care
Of the four you had before.
What in heaven's name were you thinking of!
Rosie Jane, was it love?

I had an extra shot on top of what I'd got,
In a word I was drunk, so was Bill.
At least I think it was Bill,
And I'd forgot to take my pill.
I guess it was God's will.

(Chorus)

When that baby is a child,
It will suffer from neglect,
Be picked upon and pecked,
And run over and wrecked,
And its head will be crowned with the thorn.
But while it's inside her
It must remain intact,
And it cannot be murdered till it's born.

(Chorus)

Malvina Reynolds songbook(s) in which the music to this song appears:
---- The Malvina Reynolds Songbook

Other place(s) where the music to this song appears:
---- Sing Out!, Volume 24(1) (1975), pp. 34-35
---- Rosalie Sorrels, ed.: What, Woman, and Who, Myself, I Am (Sonoma, CA: Wooden Shoe, 1974), pp. 19-21

Malvina Reynolds recording(s) on which this song is performed:
---- Held Over
---- Ear to the Ground

Recordings by other artists on which this song is performed:
---- Cobi Schreijer: Brood en Rozen (Varagram ET 29, 1978)
---- Rosalie Sorrels: No Closing Chord; The Songs of Malvina Reynolds (Red House Records RHR CD 143, 2000)
---- Rosalie Sorrels and Bruce Carver: Rosalie Sorrels Live With Bruce Carver--Then Came the Children (Aural Tradition ATR 108, 1985)