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User Name Thread Name Subject Posted
bseed(charleskratz) Lyr Add: Man Piaba (Belafonte/Rollins) (15) Man Piaba 17 Mar 00


This is the Harry Belefonte version, as well as I can remember it: I'm missing one line in the Sigmund Fraud verse, and perhaps someone can supply it. I can't remember if Belefonte sang it as "The woman piaba, the man piaba" or if I got that from someone else. I think it has a bit more interesting syncopation with the woman first.

(Wo-)man Piaba


When I was a lad just three-foot-three
Certain questions occurred to me
So I asked my father quite seriously
To tell me the story 'bout the bird and the bee.
He stuttered and he stammered pathetically
And this is what he said to me:

(chorus)
The wo-man piaba and the man piaba
And the tahn-tahn coil bakka lemon grass.
The lily-root, golly-root, belly root, uh!
And the famous granny scratch-scratch.

Well it was clear as mud but it covered the ground
And the confusion made me head turn round,
So I went to see a good friend of mine
Known to the world as Albert Einstein (He said, Son,)
From beginning of time and creativity
Has existed the force of relativity:
Pi-R-Squared and minus ten
Is a root known only when
The solar system in one light year
Make the Hayden Planetarium disappear,
And if Mount Everest doesn't move,
I am positive that it will prove,
That the wo-man piaba and the man piaba...

Well, it was clear as mud but it covered the ground
And the confusion made me head turn round,
So I got on a boat and I went abroad
And in Baden, Germany, saw Sigmund Fraud, (He said, Son,)
From your sad face remove the grouch
And place the body upon the couch.
I can see from your frustration,
A neurotic sublimation.
- - - - - - - - - - (missing line)
And your Rorshack shows that you are peripatetic.
It all started with a broken sibling,
In the words of the famous Rudyard Kipling,
The wo-man piaba...

Well, I've traveled far and I've traveled wide,
But I still haven't got meself a bride,
All of the great men upon this earth
Have confused me since my birth.
I've been on the land and I've been on the sea
But I still haven't learned about the bird and the bee,
And now that I am ninety-three
Well, I don't give a damn, you see,
If the wo-man piaba and the man piaba...



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