Manhattan Transfer

Music by Sonny Rollins - Lyrics by Jon Hendricks
Waitll ydig it on the map - Airegin
Spelled backwards
Reallyre closin up the gap - Airegin
Gone facwards
Back long time ago they saw a ghost
Ghost made a boast
Soon that ghost was host
(Repeat first 8 bars)
Those losing their hue
They goofed n got the wrong view
First, things reverse, last is first!
Y dig it!
Whatta y think othatn get a load a
What I tell y
What this place is no one knows it
Theres no traces of the kind oplace it was
Before it got "discovered" by the kind o
Cat that knows the earth belongs thim
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 ojive
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 aint never heard another
That exasperated more
What an exasperating narrative tplay
Upon the sensitive and kindly soul that I am
Way back when I was crawlin in mcrib
I was doin all kinds othinkin
Awready I had figured out the cut of mjib
The kind osoul that never liked ttell r live a fib
A body who was steadily reachin up
A min always thinkin on high-minded things
Whee! I was always one tbe free
Aint never had a keeper why dont people
Learn tgit along tgether stead o
Meddlin aroun n fussin with the fella nearest to em
Me, Im the old fashioned kind
I was never good at follow-the-leader
Real real real real real real real
Thats me, as real as a Yankee can be
Thats me
Millions o years ago
There was a Paleolithic age on Earth
An the whole world was young
And full othe vim of constant rebirth
Brontosauruses n dinosaurs n pterodactyls
Everwhere abounding that was the case
N plus the millions o mammoths here n there
An in addition there were lots omen 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
Im tellin the truth
What-a-benign livin some livin
Alls forgiven come on home
Blew a truly unruly storm
That wrecked a boat in a climate warm
N full oashy-colored cats all lookin
White like ghosts
N when the natives checked em out
It blew em away tfind 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 probly had some
So they welcomed em with peace and love
And everything theres plenty of
N soon the tables had turned to rigormortis
Thats when the castaway had his say
Like a dog had his day they told the
People that they were spirits actual
Ysee how perfectly a fable cn be
Incorporated into what a catll 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
Waitll ydig it on the map - Airegin
Spelled backwards
Reallyre closin up the gap - Airegin
Gone facwards
Back long time ago they saw a ghost
Ghost made a boast
Soon that ghost was host
Waitll ydig it on the map - Airegin
Spelled backwards
Reallyre closin up the gap - Airegin
Gone facwards
Those losing their hue
They goofed n got the wrong view
First, things reverse, last is first!
Y dig it!
[ Airegin Lyrics ]