Piss Factory

I hope you guys enjoy the song as much as I do. The piano work by Richard Sohl always gives me chills every time I hear it.

Piss Factory

Sixteen and time to pay off
I got this job in a piss factory inspecting pipe
Forty hours thirty-six dollars a week
But it's a paycheck, Jack.
It's so hot in here, hot like Sahara
You could faint in the heat
But these bitches are just too lame to understand
Too goddamned grateful to get this job
To know they're getting screwed up the ass
All these women they got no teeth or gum or cranium
And the way they suck hot sausage
But me well I wasn't sayin' too much neither
I was moral school girl hard-working asshole
I figured I was speedo motorcycle
I had to earn my dough, had to earn my dough

But no you gotta, you gotta [relate, babe,]
You gotta find the rhythm within
Floor boss slides up to me and he says
"Hey sister, you just movin' too fast,
You screwin' up the quota,
You doin' your piece work too fast,
Now you get off your mustang sally
You ain't goin' nowhere, you ain't goin' nowhere."
I lay back. I get my nerve up. I take a swig of Romilar
And walk up to hot shit Dot Hook and I say
"Hey, hey sister it don't matter whether I do labor fast or slow,
There's always more labor after."
She's real Catholic, see. She fingers her cross and she says
"There's one reason. There's one reason.
You do it my way or I push your face in.
We knee you in the john if you don't get off your get off your mustang Sally,
If you don't shake it up baby." Shake it up, baby. Twist & shout"
Oh that I could will a radio here. James Brown singing
"I Lost Someone" or the Jesters and the Paragons
And Georgie Woods the guy with the goods and Guided Missiles ...
But no, I got nothin', no diversion, no window,
Nothing here but a porthole in the plaster, in the plaster,
Where I look down, look at sweet Theresa's convent
All those nurses, all those nuns scattin' 'round
With their bloom hoods like cats in mourning.
Oh to me they, you know, to me they look pretty damn free down there
Down there not having crystal smooth
Not having to smooth those hands against hot steel
Not having to worry about the [inspeed] the dogma the [inspeed] of labor
They look pretty damn free down there,
And the way they smell, the way they smell
And here I gotta be up here smellin' Dot Hook's midwife sweat
I would rather smell the way boys smell--
Oh those schoolboys the way their legs flap under the desks in study hall
That odor rising roses and ammonia
And way their dicks droop like lilacs
Or the way they smell that forbidden acrid smell
But no I got, I got pink clammy lady in my nostril
Her against the wheel me against the wheel
Oh slow motion inspection is drivin' me insane
In steel next to Dot Hook -- oh we may look the same--
Shoulder to shoulder sweatin' 110 degrees
But I will never faint, I will never faint
They laugh and they expect me to faint but I will never faint
I refuse to lose, I refuse to fall down
Because you see it's the monotony that's got to me
Every afternoon like the last one
Every afternoon like a rerun next to Dot Hook
And yeah we look the same
Both pumpin' steel, both sweatin'
But you know she got nothin' to hide
And I got something to hide here called desire
I got something to hide here called desire
And I will get out of here--
You know the fiery potion is just about to come
In my nose is the taste of sugar
And I got nothin' to hide here save desire
And I'm gonna go, I'm gonna get out of here
I'm gonna get out of here, I'm gonna get on that train,
I'm gonna go on that train and go to New York City
I'm gonna be somebody, I'm gonna get on that train, go to New York City,
I'm gonna be so bad I'm gonna be a big star and I will never return,
Never return, no, never return, to burn out in this piss factory
And I will travel light.
Oh, watch me now.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Patti
• Smith
• Punk
• 70's
• CBGB
• Richard
• Sohl
• Horses
• New
• York
• Rimbaud
• Lou
• Reed
• Hell
• Poetry

[doctorluv]

This song is filled with full on energy and yearning. I was at the MoMA last week and they had an exhibit that featured this song and it just brought tears to my eyes.

[midnightoil1]

This is so cool... who is it?...

[doctorluv]

It's Patti Smith and the song is "Piss Factory."

[gerardmanleyh]

Nice work, my friend, and thanks. You're right about its emotional impact. Perhaps you could identify pianist Richard Sohl in your links, though - RIP

[doctorluv]

Yeah you bring up a very interesting point about Richard Sohl, I will most definitely consider it. Thanks for the comment.

[SLACKER614]

i love this woman..

fuck wage slavery!!

live free or die!!!

revolution now!!

[hardcoreheadbanger]

I may only be 15 but i still love old fashioned rock this new generation of rap is all shit

[jasonharris951]

Have you ever heard of El Duce? He was a song bird, also a perv, looked like a retarded catfish.

[raidercampoen]

31304, only the real punkers listen to patti, i listen this song back in 1976 i guess

[MinGophers]

@SLACKER614 Isn't that life in general?! If you do not work for your food and support your own existence, you die?

[SLACKER614]

@MinGophers workers who work for a wage are slaves to that wage..without it they starve, hence they are slaves..

[MinGophers]

@SLACKER614 whats wage slavery??



[mojopo]

@coy0te9 No teenager can figure that out while life is making an incredible racket in their head. Patti knows, and I wonder - did the folks at the factory ever forgive her for having hope?

[coy0te9]

I love it, but I can't help but wonder if Patti ever figured out that Dot and the others she left behind had desires too.

[gnrnslj]

A few years ago, in a big tent in Santa Fe, she walked out by herself, read "Piss Factory", spit on the floor, then the band ripped into "Wicked Messenger". Would have been as fine a time to die as any.

[gnrnslj]

A few years ago, in a big tent in Santa Fe, she walked out by herself, read "Piss Factory", spit on the floor, then the band ripped into "Wicked Messenger". Would have been as fine a time to die as any.

[allsfullofluv]

how hot are her lyrics, "and the way they smell and here i gotta be up here up here smellin dot hooks midwife sweat i would rather smell the way boys smell oh those schoolboys the way their legs flap under the desk in study hall that odor rising roses and ammonia dand the way their dicks droop like lilacs or the way they smell that forbidden acrid smell but no i got, i got a pink clammy lady in my nostril" i love it