| The Snake | |
| Cover: | Al Wilson The Snake.JPG |
| Type: | single |
| Artist: | Al Wilson |
| B-Side: | Willoughby Brook |
| Released: | August 1968 |
| Genre: |
|
| Length: | 3:27 |
| Label: | Soul City Records |
| Producer: | Johnny Rivers, Marc Gordon |
| Prev Title: | Do What You Gotta Do |
| Prev Year: | 1967 |
| Next Title: | Poor Side of Town |
| Next Year: | 1968 |
"The Snake" is a song written and first recorded by civil-rights activist Oscar Brown in 1963; it became a hit single for American singer Al Wilson in 1968.[2] [3] The song tells a story similar to Aesop's fable The Farmer and the Viper and the African American folktale "Mr. Snake and the Farmer".[4]
The song gained renewed attention during the campaign for the 2016 United States presidential election.
In the U.S., the hit version of "The Snake" was released in 1968, on Johnny Rivers' Soul City Records. (Rivers had released his own version of the song on his 1966 album ...And I Know You Wanna Dance.) Wilson's single made the Top 30 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1968 and, due to exposure on the UK Northern Soul scene, made the UK Singles Chart in August 1975 when reissued, reaching No. 41 in September.[5] The success of "The Snake" on the northern soul nightclub circuit has led to it being ranked 4 of 500 top northern soul singles and for it to appear on over 30 pop and northern soul compilation albums.[6] [7] [8] The song was re-released in 1989 as a B-side to a re-release of "Just Don't Want to Be Lonely" by The Main Ingredient. Wilson's recording of "The Snake" was also featured in a Lambrini television advertisement in the UK.[9]
| Chart (1968) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Canada RPM Top Singles[10] | 38 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot 100[11] | 27 |
| U.S. Billboard R&B | 32 |
| U.S. Cash Box Top 100[12] | 32 |
The song was featured in season 4, episode 25 of the television show Northern Exposure, "Old Tree". It was sung by Cynthia Geary in her role as the character Shelly Tambo. The episode originally aired on May 24, 1993.[13]
The song gained renewed attention during the campaign for the 2016 United States presidential election. Republican candidate Donald Trump read its lyrics at several campaign rallies to illustrate his position on illegal immigration, claiming that the decision to allow people claiming refugee status to enter the United States would "come back to bite us", as happened to the woman who took in the snake in the song.[14] Oscar Brown's work has been described as "a celebration of black culture and a repudiation of racism".[15] Two of Brown's seven children asked Trump to stop using their late father's song, telling the media: "He's perversely using 'The Snake' to demonize immigrants" and that Brown "never had anything against immigrants".[16] Despite a cease and desist letter, Trump has continued reciting the lyrics at rallies including in June 2021,[17] and in September[18] and December 2023.[19] At a rally in Ohio March 16, 2024, Trump again read "The Snake," calling it "a very accurate metaphor, and it's about our border, it's about the people we have coming in, and don't be surprised when bad things happen, because bad things will happen."[20]
In 2024, The Lincoln Project, a Republican Trump opposition group, co-opted Trump's reading of the poem in an attack ad during the 2024 Republican National Convention, positing Vance as the woman and Trump as the snake.[21]
