Airegin Lyrics - Manhattan Transfer

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 

(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 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 

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

Spelled backwards 

Really're closin' up the gap - Airegin 

Gone fac'wards 

Those losing their hue 

They goofed 'n got the wrong view 

First, things reverse, last is first! 

Y' dig it!