The Real History of “The Snake”

The Washington poem discussed “The Snake” lyrics frequently repeated by Trump.

Trump might be surprised to learn the origin of the song. Long before he used it as an anti-immigrant poem, “The Snake” was just a simple tune, a parable open to interpretation.

The lyrics were written in the 1960s by Al Brown, an outspoken singer, songwriter, social activist and former Communist Party member from Chicago.

His work has been described as a celebration of black culture and a repudiation of racism. He wrote the lyrics for drummer Max Roach’s 1960 album “We Insist! Freedom Now Suite,” one of the first jazz records to deal heavily with the growing civil rights movement. Brown directed stage shows that cast gang members and other teens from poor neighborhoods in Chicago. And he created the musical adaptation of a play about a black militant leader that made it to Broadway with Muhammad Ali as the lead.

Brown’s daughters sayof the lyrics, “Of course it had nothing to do with prejudice or racist thoughts that he’s twisting it into,” Maggie said. “We always took it like, if you lay down with dogs, don’t expect not to wake up with fleas.”

Trump has also failed to credit Brown for the song, which the family takes as another slight. During one rally in Florida, Trump said it was written by the R&B singer, Al Wilson, who popularized the song in the “1990s.”

“It would have been nice if you credited him for his work,” Sidakarav Dasa, Brown’s grandson, wrote in a social media message to Trump in 2016, according to the Chicago Tribune, “but I can see how telling your crowd that you were quoting a man who resigned from the Communist Party in 1956, declaring himself ‘just too black to be red,’ might be problematic.” [emphasis added]

Whereas Trump’s take is paranoid and dark, Wilson’s 1969 rendition, perhaps the song’s most famous version before Trump’s, is a bluesy soul number set over a punchy horn section.

Some have suggested that Trump is the Snake. Sadly many Americans have taken him in.

Here are the lyrics:

On her way to work one morning

Down the path alongside the lake

A tenderhearted woman saw a poor half-frozen snake

His pretty colored skin had been all frosted with the dew

“Oh well,” she cried, “I’ll take you in and I’ll take care of you”

“Take me in oh tender woman

Take me in, for heaven’s sake

Take me in oh tender woman,” sighed the snake

She wrapped him up all cozy in a curvature of silk

And then laid him by the fireside with some honey and some milk

Now she hurried home from work that night as soon as she arrived

She found that pretty snake she’d taken in had been revived

“Take me in, oh tender woman

Take me in, for heaven’s sake

Take me in oh tender woman,” sighed the snake

Now she clutched him to her bosom, “You’re so beautiful,” she cried

“But if I hadn’t brought you in by now you might have died”

Now she stroked his pretty skin and then she kissed and held him tight

But instead of saying thanks, that snake gave her a vicious bite

“Take me in, oh tender woman

Take me in, for heaven’s sake

Take me in oh tender woman,” sighed the snake

“I saved you,” cried that woman

“And you’ve bit me even, why?

You know your bite is poisonous and now I’m going to die”

“Oh shut up, silly woman,” said the reptile with a grin

“You knew damn well I was a snake before you took me in

“Take me in, oh tender woman

Take me in, for heaven’s sake

Take me in oh tender woman,” sighed the snake. 

Listen to Brown’s version on YouTube. Click below.

The Snake