This song is about rats, a species of animal considered lowly, dirty, and unscrupulous by many. Eddie Vedder sings about rats, but not about what they do, but what they don’t do, and how humans can be even worse than them.
(One, two, one, two, three...)
[Verse 1]
They don't eat, don't sleep
They don't feed, they don't seethe
Bare their gums when they moan and squeak
Lick the dirt off a larger one's feet
[Verse 2]
They don't push, don't crowd
Congregate until they're much too loud
Fuck to procreate till they are dead
Drink the blood of their so-called best friend
[Chorus]
They don't scurry when something bigger comes their way
Don't pack themselves together and run as one
Don't shit where they're not supposed to
Don't take what's not theirs, they don't compare
[Verse 3]
They don't scam, don't fight
Don't oppress an equal's given right
Starve the poor so they can be well-fed
Line their holes with the dead one's bread
[Chorus]
They don't scurry when something bigger comes their way
Don't pack themselves together and run as one
Don't shit where they're not supposed to
Don't take what's not theirs, they don't compare
[Guitar Solo]
[Chorus]
They don't scurry when something bigger comes their way
Don't pack themselves together and run as one
Don't shit where they're not supposed to
Don't take what's not theirs
[Bridge]
They don't compare
Rats, they don't compare
Rats, they don't compare
[Outro]
Ben, the two of us need look no more, yeah
Ben, the two of us need look no more
Ben, the two of us need look no more, oh
Ben, the two of us need look no more, oh, oh, yeah, oh
Ben, the two of us need look no more
Ben, the two of us need look no more
Rats was written by Jeff Ament & Eddie Vedder.
Rats was produced by Pearl Jam & Brendan O’Brien.