I am your plumber, no I never went away
I still bug your bedrooms and pick up everything you say
It can be a boring job
To monitor all day your excess talk
I hear when you're drinking and cheating on your lonely wife
I play tape recordings of you to my friends at night
We've got our girl in bed with you
You're on candid camera, we just un-elected you, ha
I am the owl
I seek out the foul
Wipe 'em away, keep America free
For clean-livin' folks like me, hey, hey
If you demonstrate against somebody we like
I'll slip on my wig and see if I can start a riot
Transform you to an angry mob
And all your leaders go to jail for my job
But we ain't the Russians
Political trials are taboo
We've got our secret ways of getting rid of you
Fill you full of LSD
And turn you loose on a freeway, whee!
I am the owl
I seek out the foul
Wipe 'em away, keep America free
For clean-livin' folks like me
I send you spinning
I send you spinning
I send you spinning all over the freeway
Spinning on the crowded freeway
Spinning on the freeway, spinning on the freeway
Spinning on the freeway, spinning on the freeway
Spinning on the freeway, spinning on the freeway
(Spinning on the freeway, spinning on the freeway) spin, spin, spin, look out!
The press, they never even cared
Why a youth leader walked into a speeding car
In ten years or so we'll leak the truth
But by then it's only so much paper
You know, Watergate hurt
But nothing really ever changed
A teeny bit quiter but we still play our little games
But we still play our little games
But we still play our little games
We still play our little, we still play our little, we still play our little
We still play a lot of games!
I am the owl
I am the owl
I seek out the foul
Wipe 'em away, keep America free
Wipe 'em away, keep America free
Wipe 'em away, keep America free
For me!
I still bug your bedrooms and pick up everything you say
It can be a boring job
To monitor all day your excess talk
I hear when you're drinking and cheating on your lonely wife
I play tape recordings of you to my friends at night
We've got our girl in bed with you
You're on candid camera, we just un-elected you, ha
I am the owl
I seek out the foul
Wipe 'em away, keep America free
For clean-livin' folks like me, hey, hey
If you demonstrate against somebody we like
I'll slip on my wig and see if I can start a riot
Transform you to an angry mob
And all your leaders go to jail for my job
But we ain't the Russians
Political trials are taboo
We've got our secret ways of getting rid of you
Fill you full of LSD
And turn you loose on a freeway, whee!
I am the owl
I seek out the foul
Wipe 'em away, keep America free
For clean-livin' folks like me
I send you spinning
I send you spinning
I send you spinning all over the freeway
Spinning on the crowded freeway
Spinning on the freeway, spinning on the freeway
Spinning on the freeway, spinning on the freeway
Spinning on the freeway, spinning on the freeway
(Spinning on the freeway, spinning on the freeway) spin, spin, spin, look out!
The press, they never even cared
Why a youth leader walked into a speeding car
In ten years or so we'll leak the truth
But by then it's only so much paper
You know, Watergate hurt
But nothing really ever changed
A teeny bit quiter but we still play our little games
But we still play our little games
But we still play our little games
We still play our little, we still play our little, we still play our little
We still play a lot of games!
I am the owl
I am the owl
I seek out the foul
Wipe 'em away, keep America free
Wipe 'em away, keep America free
Wipe 'em away, keep America free
For me!
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Therefore this song is not just about Watergate but all of the other government wiretappings throughout America's history, which were (and still are) going on ("we still play our little games"), and most of which did not receive legal action. "I hear when you're drinking and cheating on your lovely wife" might be a reference to the FBI's 1963 wiretapping and blackmail of Martin Luther King, though obviously there have been many other instances of this happening.