Uploaded December 2020 | Updated September 2026, 2 days ago
Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.
Lyrics:
It was something that I read in a book
About a gang of bandits around a prairie fire
One was going to empty his gun
Into a sleeping man because he snored too loud
Then another one stopped him there
With the terror of two sailors in a smuggler's boat
And the sailors were plenty scared
They saw a dark shape swimming up the Strait of Hormuz
It's violent, good
Cause if it's violent, it's understood
And if it's violent
Maybe it's all violent
The sailor tried to calm his friend
With a tale about a couple in an apartment where
The husband was slowly poisoning his wife
His wife was telling night tales to their child
About city cats and country mice
And how the dogs in charge would eat their young
And while they fought each other tooth and claw
The suburban rats would fall down and laugh
It's violent, good
Cause if it's violent, it's understood
And if it's violent
Maybe it's all violent
And I'll take that applause
Because I deserve it
The audience is but vapor
In my hand
And I'll take that applause
Because I need it
Six-winged seraph flying
Over my head
Nothing ever after
And I'll take that applause
Because I lose it
Cherubim and diadems and
Little birds that sing
Nothing ever after
And I'll take that applause
Because I deserve it
I saw you drop
What came out of your head?
Nothing ever after
Joe Casey, on the sample at the beginning of "I'll Take That Applause":
"That’s a recording my dad made of my grandma singing a song she made up near the end of her life. It means a lot that I was able to put it on the record."
Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.
Lyrics:
It was something that I read in a book
About a gang of bandits around a prairie fire
One was going to empty his gun
Into a sleeping man because he snored too loud
Then another one stopped him there
With the terror of two sailors in a smuggler's boat
And the sailors were plenty scared
They saw a dark shape swimming up the Strait of Hormuz
It's violent, good
Cause if it's violent, it's understood
And if it's violent
Maybe it's all violent
The sailor tried to calm his friend
With a tale about a couple in an apartment where
The husband was slowly poisoning his wife
His wife was telling night tales to their child
About city cats and country mice
And how the dogs in charge would eat their young
And while they fought each other tooth and claw
The suburban rats would fall down and laugh
It's violent, good
Cause if it's violent, it's understood
And if it's violent
Maybe it's all violent
And I'll take that applause
Because I deserve it
The audience is but vapor
In my hand
And I'll take that applause
Because I need it
Six-winged seraph flying
Over my head
Nothing ever after
And I'll take that applause
Because I lose it
Cherubim and diadems and
Little birds that sing
Nothing ever after
And I'll take that applause
Because I deserve it
I saw you drop
What came out of your head?
Nothing ever after
Joe Casey, on the sample at the beginning of "I'll Take That Applause":
"That’s a recording my dad made of my grandma singing a song she made up near the end of her life. It means a lot that I was able to put it on the record."
