Donkey Jaw
Written by Dan Peek, ©1971
Found on America and America's Gold.

Ah, get behind me Satan
Quit ravishing the land
Does it take the children
To make you understand?

Ah, all across the nation
People don't understand
Does it take the children
To make a better land?

Then, get behind me Satan
Quit ravishing the land

Does it take the children
To make you understand?
Does it take the children
To make a better land?

Highway Highlight (from the box set booklet) Another song cut at [the Chalk Farm] sessions, "Satan," was rerecorded and included on America's debut LP under the title "Donkey Jaw." This moody number ended up being sung by Bunnell, although Peek essentially wrote it. "Ian Samwell (the album's producer) gave it the name 'Donkey Jaw,'" says Peek. "It comes from this strange percussion instrument that you slap to make a sound that's used on this tune. The song came out of just sitting around jamming with Dewey, and he had a little lick that the whole song became based on. It was a throwaway, and I said, 'If you're gonna throw that away, let's write a song around it.' And we just started hammering away with the lyrics. It was a combination of a lot of things--it was a war-protest song, generally speaking. I felt like, Is it going to take a whole generation of children being killed for people to wake up? I don't know why Dewey sang it--it was probably my way of saying thank you for letting me steal his riff."