Rabbit Fur Coat

I was of poor folk

But my mother had a rabbit fur coat

Then a girl of less character pushed her down the L.A. River

"Hand over that rabbit fur coat"

She put a knife to her throat

"Hand over that rabbit fur coat"

When my ma refused, the girl kicked dirt on her blouse

"Stay away from my mansion house"

My mother really suffered for that

Spent her life in a gold-plated body cast

Now, you ask, did she get that girl back?

She paid a visit to that mansion house

She knew the girl was not there

But her father was in cufflinks with slicked-back black hair

He invited her in, they never sang a note

But she took off that rabbit fur coat

And who do you think came home?

Miss So-and-So

She took one look at my ma and what did she say?

"Why are you stealin' from our mansion house?"

"No, I'm in love with Mr. So-and-So

He invited me in, I'm a girl no more"

Then she dragged my ma out by her throat

"Hand over that rabbit fur coat"

Let's move ahead twenty years, shall we?

She was waitressing on welfare, we were living in the valley

A lady says to my ma, "You treat your girl as your spouse

You can live in a mansion house"

And so we did

And I became a hundred-thousand-dollar kid

When I was old enough to realize

Wiped the dust from my mother's eyes

Is all this for that rabbit fur coat?

But I'm not bitter about it

I packed up my things and let them have at it

And the fortune faded, as fortunes often do

And so did that mansion house

Where my ma is now, I don't know

She was livin' in her car, I was livin' on the road

And I hear she's puttin' that stuff up her nose

And still wearing that rabbit fur coat

But mostly, I'm a hypocrite

I sing songs about the deficit

But when I sell out and leave Omaha, what will I get?

A mansion house and a rabbit fur coat