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Spreading The Disease Lyrics

She always brings me what I need
Without I beg and sweat and bleed
When we're alone at night
Waiting for the call
She feeds my skin

Sixteen and on the run from home
Found a job in Times Square
Working Live S&M shows
Twenty-five bucks a fuck
And John's a happy man
She wipes the filth away
And it's back on the streets again

Spreading the disease
Everybody needs
But no one wants to see

Father William saved her from the streets
She drank the lifeblood from the savior's feet
She's Sister Mary now, eyes as cold as ice
He takes her once a week
On the alter like a sacrifice

Spreading the disease
Everybody needs
But no one wants to see

Religion and sex are power plays
Manipulate the people for the money they pay
Selling skin, selling God
The numbers look the same on their credit cards

Politicians say no to drugs
While we pay for wars in South America (Saudi Arabia on tour)

Fighting fire with empty words
While the banks get fat, the poor stay poor
The rich get rich
The cops get paid
To look away
As the one percent rules America

Spreading the disease
Everybody needs
But no one wants to see
The way society
Keeps spreading the disease
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8 Meanings

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Cover art for Spreading The Disease lyrics by Queensrÿche

Actually, if you want to be literal, yes, it introduces Mary. But the song stands on its own and it has a message. Do you hear it?

Cover art for Spreading The Disease lyrics by Queensrÿche

Quite frankly, nothing on Mindcrime "just advances the story". That's what makes it so great, the different layers of meaning.

I really love the working-class revolutionary theme that the album develops, and this song in particular focuses on the commodification of sex and religion in our capitalist society.

well said.

Not Valid
Cover art for Spreading The Disease lyrics by Queensrÿche

This is a great song about how things are not always what they seem. Under the thinly veiled appearances lie the ugly truths.

true true true

Cover art for Spreading The Disease lyrics by Queensrÿche

I hear it. It's plain as day really, saying that this song "just advances the story" is kind of ridiculous.

Cover art for Spreading The Disease lyrics by Queensrÿche

Yes it furthers the story of the album, but one cool thing about the singles released is that they can be stand alone stories. If you listen the non singles, nothing makes any sense at all unless you listen to the album in its entirety

Cover art for Spreading The Disease lyrics by Queensrÿche

This is song is why I couldn't listen to this album as a kid. It made it really worth while though when I finally did get listen to it.

Memory

Pardon the poor English. I revised what I was originally going to say.

Cover art for Spreading The Disease lyrics by Queensrÿche

This song is literally about Mary and her prostitution phase, I am not seeing much hidden until it actually gets into the low beat with no guitar. The disease I believe is sexually transmitted and everyone pays Mary. Maybe I'm being superficial but I thought of it as just her being paid to do it and how she was used her whole life. I mean come on, "spreading the disease that everybody needs" an STD, but "no one wants to see" what they've become as well as public sex

Song Meaning
Cover art for Spreading The Disease lyrics by Queensrÿche

Actually this song just advances the story, introducing Mary