Airegin lyrics

Wait'll y'dig it on the map - Airegin

Spelled backwards

Really're closin' up the gap - Airegin

Gone fac'wards

Back long time ago they saw a ghost

Ghost made a boast

Soon that ghost was host x2

Those losing their hue

They goofed 'n got the wrong view

First, things reverse, last is first!

Y' dig it!

Whatta' y' think o'that'n get a load a'

What I tell y'

What this place is no one knows it

There's no traces of the kind o'place it was

Before it got "discovered" by the kind o'

Cat that knows the earth belongs t'him

Back when the world was young

An' man was a living god

An' he walked this earthly sod

This was sod that god would trod on

Till one day a stranger landed

With a line o'jive

Laid it on the natives till he had 'em thinkin'

Maybe that they should really take five

An' he quickly stole the natives' soul

So he could control it

An' he took care of that missionary biz

Till the lan' was his

Never heard a story draggy as that

Tell th' truth I ain't never heard another

That exasperated more

What an exasperating narrative t'play

Upon the sensitive and kindly soul that I am

'Way back when I was crawlin' in m'crib

I was doin' all kinds o'thinkin'

Aw'ready I had figured out the 'cut of m'jib'

The kind o'soul that never liked t'tell 'r live a fib

A body who was steadily reachin' up

A min' always thinkin' on high-minded things

Whee! I was always one t'be free

Ain't never had a keeper why don't people

Learn t'git along t'gether stead o'

Meddlin' aroun' 'n fussin' with the fella nearest to 'em

Me, I'm the old fashioned kind

I was never good at follow-the-leader

Real real real real real real real

That's me, as real as a Yankee can be

That's me

Millions o' years ago

There was a Paleolithic age on Earth

An' the whole world was young

And full o'the vim of constant rebirth

Brontosauruses 'n dinosaurs 'n pterodactyls

Ever'where abounding that was the case

'N plus the millions o' mammoths here 'n there

An' in addition there were lots o'men everywhere

Who had no hi-tech and no intellect 'nary a speck

But in that spot

Where it was so lush, where it was so hot

Where many animal was roamin'

An' nature was kind, life was thrivin'

There livin' was actual an' the feelin' was natural

I'm tellin' the truth

What-a-benign livin' some livin'

All's forgiven come on home

Blew a truly unruly storm

That wrecked a boat in a climate warm

'N full o'ashy-colored cats all lookin'

White like ghosts

'N when the natives checked 'em out

It blew 'em away t'find that they resembled spirits

Long ago there was a legend

'Bout a spirit who would someday come

A look at these cats

'N y' could see they prob'ly had some

So they welcomed 'em with peace and love

And everything there's plenty of

'N soon the tables had turned to rigormortis

That's when the castaway had his say

Like a dog had his day they told the

People that they were spirits actual

Y'see how perfectly a fable c'n be

Incorporated into what a cat'll think is factual

What was an accident turns int' something

So unbelievably heaven-sent

Everybody falls for it

Right on down t' the militants

'N marchin' 'n the martyrs 'n the murder of Lumumba

Wait'll y'dig it on the map - Airegin

Spelled backwards

Really're closin' up the gap - Airegin

Gone fac'wards

Back long time ago they saw a ghost

Ghost made a boast

Soon that ghost was host

• Artist:The Manhattan Transfer