Yeah, when I was only 17,   I could hear the angels whispering   So I droned into the words and wandered aimlessly about   Until I heard my mother shouting through the fog   It turned out to be the howling of a dog   Or a wolf to be exact, the sound sent shivers down my back   But I was drawn into the pack and before long   They allowed me to join in and sing their song   So from the cliffs and highest hill, yeah   We would gladly get our fill   Howling endlessly and shrilly at the dawn   And I lost the taste for judging right from wrong   For my flesh had turned to fur, yeah   And my thoughts, they surely were   Turned to instinct and obedience to God.      You can wear your fur   like a river on fire   But you better be sure   if you're makin' God a liar   I'm a rattlesnake, Babe,   I'm like fuel on fire   So if you're gonna' get made,   Don't be afraid of what you've learned      On the day that I turned 23,   I was curled up underneath a dogwood tree   When suddenly a girl with skin the color of a pearl   She wandered aimlessly, but she didn't seem to see   She was listenin' for the angels just like me   So I stood and looked about   I brushed the leaves off of my snout   And then I heard my mother shouting through the trees   You should have seen that girl go shaky at the knees   So I took her by the arm   We settled down upon a farm   And raised our children up as gently as you please.      And now my fur has turned to skin   And I've been quickly ushered in   To a world that I confess I do not know   But I still dream of running careless through the snow   An' through the howlin' winds that blow,   Across the ancient distant flow,   It fill our bodies up like water till we know.      You can wear your fur   Like a river on fire   But you better be sure   If you're makin' God a liar   I'm a rattlesnake, Babe,   I'm like fuel on fire   So if you're gonna' get made,   Don't be afraid of what you've learned