Dead Babies

Alice Cooper

Little Betty ate a pound of aspirin
She got them from the shelf upon the wall
Betty's mommy wasn't there to save her
She didn't hear, hear her little baby call

Dead babies can't take care of themselves
Dead babies can't take things off the shelf
Well, we didn't want you anyway
Lalala-lalalalalala-la

Daddy is an agrophile in Texas
Mommy's on the bar most every night
Little Betty's sleeping in the graveyard
Living there in burgundy and white

Dead babies can't take care of themselves
Dead babies can't take things off the shelf
Well, we didn't love you anyway
Lalala-lalalalalala-la

Goodbye little Betty
Goodbye little Betty
So long little Betty
So long little Betty
Betty, so long

Dead babies can't take care of themselves
Dead babies can't take things off the shelf
Well, we didn't need you anyway
Lalala-lalalalalala-la

Goodbye little Betty


Lyrics submitted by Funnycatchphrase

Dead Babies Lyrics as written by Alice Cooper

Lyrics © BMG Rights Management

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Dead Babies song meanings
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21 Comments

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  • +5
    General CommentIt's an anti-child abuse/neglect anthem that shows what happens when immature twits who are too involved in their own good time and partying to take care of their child the right way become parents
    CuteSparkinaon July 23, 2006   Link
  • +2
    General CommentI sort of wonder, and don't criticize me because I could just be overanalyzing this song, but is it possible that Betty was Steven's daughter? AC makes it clear that Steven's deeply mentally disturbed as it is, but maybe Betty's death pushed him over the edge and made him kill his wife? I don't know, just some of my thoughts. I just saw AC live a few nights ago and he was awesome!
    dixiesgreendaygrlon August 15, 2009   Link
  • +2
    My InterpretationThis is a sobering song that makes a tragic statement about the human condition of no real love and total self-involvement. Something all too common and something which remains an ongoing tragedy even more so now years later. The baby (i.e., Betty) is a victim representation of her young parents' apathy for family, marriage, or anyone else. Ambition and personal pursuits of individual interests by her parents ultimately abandon the baby Betty to the diminished role of a worn out novelty. The baby Betty's parents later make admissions to attempt to selfishly explain away and justify in hindsight any sense of guilt and responsibility for their abandonment of the baby Betty and deny their critical role in her tragic death. The baby Betty's father is a selfish, ambitious man who abandons his family to go to Texas where he becomes a wealthy tycoon in agriculture... and despite his great wealth selfishly chooses NOT to lift a finger to help (or even acknowledge) his former family. The baby Betty's mother (left to raise a baby on her own) feels trapped and alone... with little money, she becomes a stripper to pay the bills... not so much because she lacks the qualifications to do anything else, but moreover to cure her youthful sense of isolation and insatiable need for social adventure. The baby Betty was obvious a curious toddler left on her own while her mother was likely busy in the bedroom with some man she recently met at the bar. Because baby Betty was left unsupervised, she was able to explore and ultimately discover a bottle of aspirin (which she mistook for candy) and overdosed... dying all alone. Obviously this is a song about the sad notion that even someone so precious as a small child is expendable to the selfish needs and personal interests of parents... who possess all the necessary resources, but who lack capacity and desire to give of themselves.
    DuskRideron June 12, 2010   Link
  • +1
    General Commentits about parents who are too busy wasting their lives away at bars and neglect their kids, and not watch over them, its more of a statement then a shock song.
    Staticburn89on July 10, 2006   Link
  • 0
    General CommentWhy has no one commented on this song written about dead babies?
    Astronautson June 18, 2006   Link
  • 0
    General CommentOk here is a comment
    The first part of the song is about a little girl called Betty,
    who had acces to a pound of aspirin,and at them thinking it was candy,and here Mommy wasn't there to take the aspirins away and take Betty to the hospital,because she (the Mommy) was an alcoholic and had more eyes for the bottle then for her own baby girl,so Betty died,and at the end of the song,the parents have to go to court ,because they let the baby die.
    R25on June 30, 2006   Link
  • 0
    General Commentdoes anyone know what an agrophile is? or is it just a phrase coined by cooper?
    abscenceofsanityon July 10, 2007   Link
  • 0
    General CommentYeah I always wondered what an agrophile is too. Great song.
    haloofflieson October 29, 2007   Link
  • 0
    General CommentAgrophile: Something which thrives or lives in cultivated soil.

    Taken from dictionary.reference.com
    BloodyDoppelon January 05, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General CommentSuch a good, sad song.
    I almost cried the first time I heard it.
    invader_kibbyon January 13, 2008   Link

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