Dave’s Gone By Song (1/20/2005): SWIMAWAY
A tsunami hits Indonesia. Parody ensues.
This segment first aired Jan. 20, 2005 as part of the “News Gone By” segment of the “Dave’s Gone By” program hosted by Dave Lefkowitz. Full episodes also available on youtube, Facebook (davesgoneby), Spotify, and on DavesGoneBy.com.
All content (c)2005 TotalTheater Productions.
More information on Dave’s Gone By: http://www.davesgoneby.com
SWIMAWAY
(Lyrics: David Lefkowitz. Music: Solomon Linda’s “Mbube,” The Weavers’s “Wimoweh,” and The Tokens’s “The Lion Sleeps Tonight”)
Indonesia, in Indonesia the water sweeps tonight
Southern Thailand is now bye-bye land
The water sweeps tonight
Swimaway swimaway swimaway swimaway
Swimaway swimaway swimaway swimaway
In Malaysia and Southeast Asia
They cry and weep all night
Terra firma no more in Burma
The water sweeps tonight
Grab a rock, grab a bush
Scale a wall, save your tush
Grab your wife, grab your kid
Ride a whale, ride a squid
Trees
Climb `em please or you will swim away
If you sneeze, leave your keys
`cause you will swim away
First you bloat, then you sink
Then you float, then you stink
First you bloat, then you sink
Then you float, then you stink
Sharks are noshing on bodies washing onto the sticky sand
They beg the West to help find the rest
But when did they lend us a hand?
Up the stairs, don’t delay
Say your prayers, wash away
Hear the screams, hear the moans
Say hello to Davy Jones
Squeeze a brick wall, please
Until it tumbles down
By degrees, bowel disease will get those who don’t drown
Hear the gunshots, the rebel gunshots
As mourners dig mass graves
(Everybody!)
Devastation means exploitation
That’s just how men behave
Politics, dirty tricks
Profiteers, bandoliers
Angry fists, terrorists
Blood and fire, mud and mire
Swimaway Swimaway
Gotta be a better way
Swimaway Swimaway
Gotta be a better way.
(mix trilling with gasping and gurgling, and then)
The water sweeps tonight.
©2005 David Lefkowitz
