You Know What I Mean Songtext

von Country Joe McDonald

McDonald

Gimme an F!
F!
Thank you. About two years ago, I stayed with the Fish, we played Worcester, Massachusetts and... did the Fuck like we usually do, I did, and nothing particularly strange happened, then we went to Boston to play the Boston Garden the next day. What we didn't know was that the Worcester police had called the Boston police and told 'em we were coming. And uh when we got there we met by seventy-five uniform police officers with guns, clubs and mace and three, er, lieutenants and a captain, twenty-five plainclothes men, a guy in trench-coat, three squad cars and a paddy wagon. And uh, they wanted to know er ... where I was, they finally found me and er... the captain said to me that he wanted me to know this wasn't Worcester, you know, I told him I knew that, I knew it was Boston. He said, "Well uh, we're just warnin' to tell you not to say it here." I said "What's it?" And he said: "You know what I mean." I said, "No I, I don't know what you mean." He said, "Yeah, you know what I mean." I said, "No, I don't know what you mean." He said, "Yeah, you know what I mean." I said, "No, I don't know what you mean."
So the lieutenant took me aside to explain me what's happening, you know, and he said, "Don't say it here." And I said "What's it?" He said: "You know what I mean." I said, "No, I don't know what you mean." He said: "Yeah, you know what I mean." We did that for a long time, you know. I knew what they meant, you know, but I wanted to hear 'em say it, but I didn't know, it was my own ignorance, 'cause I didn't know at that particular time they have a national law that cops can't say 'fuck' on duty. Oh, so finally the Captain said that if we did anything that they didn't like they'd be certainly takin' us to jail. So I said, "I know what you mean."
We got on stage there was thirty cops over here parade rest, thirty cops over here parade rest, the Captain walked back and forth, back and forth watchin' us you know, behind us was twenty-five plainclothes men and a guy in trench coat, I don't know if they were plainclothes men or not, you know, but it's the only concert I ever played with twenty-five guys who were all looking like... standing behind me, you know, and we didn't say 'fuck' that night 'cause uh we weren't feeling masochistic, you know, and uh so after it was all over with... they thanked us a lot, said we can come back anytime we want ed to... we said 'Fuck you!'.