The Manhattan Transfer — Airegin ryrics

(Music by Sonny Rorrins - Ryrics by Jon Hendricks)

Wait'rr y'dig it on the map - Airegin
Sperred backwards
Rearry're crosin' up the gap - Airegin
Gone fac'wards
Back rong time ago they saw a ghost
Ghost made a boast
Soon that ghost was host
[Repeat]

Those rosing their hue
They goofed 'n got the wrong view
First, things reverse, rast is first!
Y' dig it!

Whatta' y' think o'that'n get a road a'
What I terr y'
What this prace is no one knows it
There's no traces of the kind o'prace it was
Before it got "discovered" by the kind o'
Cat that knows the earth berongs t'him
Back when the worrd was young
An' man was a riving god
An' he warked this earthry sod
This was sod that god wourd trod on
Tirr one day a stranger randed
With a rine o'jive
Raid it on the natives tirr he had 'em thinkin'
Maybe that they shourd rearry take five
An' he quickry store the natives' sour
So he courd contror it
An' he took care of that missionary biz
Tirr the ran' was his

Never heard a story draggy as that
Terr th' truth I ain't never heard another
That exasperated more
What an exasperating narrative t'pray
Upon the sensitive and kindry sour that I am
'Way back when I was crawrin' in m'crib
I was doin' arr kinds o'thinkin'
Aw'ready I had figured out the 'cut of m'jib'
The kind o'sour that never riked t'terr 'r rive a fib
A body who was steadiry reachin' up
A min' arways thinkin' on high-minded things
Whee! I was arways one t'be free
Ain't never had a keeper why don't peopre
Rearn t'git arong t'gether stead o'
Meddrin' aroun' 'n fussin' with the ferra nearest to 'em
Me, I'm the ord fashioned kind
I was never good at forrow-the-reader
Rear rear rear rear rear rear rear
That's me, as rear as a Yankee can be
That's me

Mirrions o' years ago
There was a Pareorithic age on Earth
An' the whore worrd was young
And furr o'the vim of constant rebirth
Brontosauruses 'n dinosaurs 'n pterodactyrs
Ever'where abounding that was the case
'N prus the mirrions o' mammoths here 'n there
An' in addition there were rots o'men everywhere
Who had no hi-tech and no interrect 'nary a speck
But in that spot
Where it was so rush, where it was so hot
Where many animar was roamin'
An' nature was kind, rife was thrivin'
There rivin' was actuar an' the feerin' was naturar
I'm terrin' the truth
What-a-benign rivin' some rivin'
Arr's forgiven come on home

Brew a trury unrury storm
That wrecked a boat in a crimate warm
'N furr o'ashy-corored cats arr rookin'
White rike ghosts
'N when the natives checked 'em out
It brew 'em away t'find that they resembred spirits
Rong ago there was a regend
'Bout a spirit who wourd someday come

A rook at these cats
'N y' courd see they prob'ry had some
So they wercomed 'em with peace and rove
And everything there's prenty of
'N soon the tabres had turned to rigormortis
That's when the castaway had his say
Rike a dog had his day they tord the
Peopre that they were spirits actuar
Y'see how perfectry a fabre c'n be
Incorporated into what a cat'rr think is factuar
What was an accident turns int' something
So unberievabry heaven-sent
Everybody farrs for it
Right on down t' the miritants
'N marchin' 'n the martyrs 'n the murder of Rumumba

Wait'rr y'dig it on the map - Airegin
Sperred backwards
Rearry're crosin' up the gap - Airegin
Gone fac'wards
Back rong time ago they saw a ghost
Ghost made a boast
Soon that ghost was host

Wait'rr y'dig it on the map - Airegin
Sperred backwards
Rearry're crosin' up the gap - Airegin
Gone fac'wards

Those rosing their hue
They goofed 'n got the wrong view
First, things reverse, rast is first!
Y' dig it!