Baby picks off your plate--yours looks better
And she throws hers on the floor
Here, in the home of the brave
And the land of the free
The first word that baby learns is "more"

So you're out there floating like a big, puffy cloud
With the pool and the charcoal
and the kids and the wife
'Til the reruns of your dreams are interrupted
And you step out into life

And it's still gimme, gimme what you got
Gimme, gimme what you got
I said gimme, gimme what you got
(I want it, I want it)
Gimme, gimme what you got

Now it's take and take takeover, takeover
It's all take and never give
All these trumped up towers
They're just golden showers
Where are people supposed to live?

You can arm yourself, alarm yourself
But there's nowhere you can run
'Cause a man with a briefcase
can steal more money
Than any man with a gun

I said gimme, gimme what you got
Said gimme, gimme what you got
Gimme, gimme what you got
Gimme, gimme what you got

You got the price of admission--
You don't have to ask permission
To take somethin' from another man
You cross a lawyer with the godfather, baby
Make you an offer that you can't understand

From Main Street to Wall Street to Washington
From men to women to men
It's a nation of noses pressed up against the glass
They've seen it on the TV
And they want it pretty fast

You spend your whole life
Just pilin' it up there
You got stacks and stacks and stacks
Then, Gabriel comes and taps you on the shoulder
But you don't see no hearses with luggage racks

Gimme, gimme what you got
I said gimme, gimme what you got
I said gimme, gimme what you got
(I want it, I want it)
Gimme, gimme what you got

Written by Don Henley, Stan Lynch and John Corey
*Produced by Don Henley, Stan Lynch and John Corey

John Corey, Stan Lynch--basic track
Danny Kortchmar--lead guitar
Melissa Etheridge, Edie Brickell--background harmony vocals
(c) 1988 Cass County Music/Matanzas Music ASC