Spit Before You Swallow

(album: Peter Allen - 1971)

Everybody's preaching how to bring this world together
Everybody's pushing love to make it last forever
Everybody's got the way to make things right
But in their mind you'll find they're blind
To any kind of sign that they're uptight

You've got to learn to spit before you swallow
You've got to learn to give before you borrow
And before you can lead you've got to follow
So before I die as someone else
I'm gonna take good care of myself

I can't help but feel I'm under investigation
By the local branch of the women's and the gay boys liberation
Living makes you crazy if your head is not on straight
Don't no one say to stay and pray
Is the way I may delay my day of fate, no

You've got to learn to spit before you swallow
You've got to learn to give before you borrow
And before you can lead you've got to follow
So before I die as someone else
I'm gonna take good care of myself

If I seem to be just a bundle of confusion
I could use a transplant or at least a mind transfusion
Nothing makes much sense, the words keep hanging in my ear
I started out to shout what I'm about
But now I doubt I'm even here

You got to learn to spit before you swallow
You got to learn give before you borrow
And before you can lead you've got to follow
So before I die as someone else
I'm going to take good care of myself

Take good care of myself
Take good care of myself