Van Dyke Parks - Yankee Go Home lyrics

rate me

In sight of the lights of Roppongi

the night life of Tokyo goes

And out on the street with a beat from Tahiti a neon moon lollipop glows

A Four ships have sailed the ocean to the bay

A chop on the water o'er waves of gray

The Commodore a notion in the spray

Where in emotion

We hear him say

Boy that sea is vast

What joy we're here at last

This has to be the island of Japan

Open up that door

We are ship to shore

We represent the President the sentiment of Uncle Sam

The Commodore steps forward with a sneeze

With as you were then and men at ease

To raise this once great nation from her knees

To teach her Thank you, Pardon Me Please

Might as well be Mars

Thank your stripes and stars

Show me to the bars of old Japan

Get down off this barge

Tell the man in charge

We're unafraid we come to trade

A corporation for a nation

Every man back to his station

I can hear the native call

Yankee go home

Yankee go home

You must not forget you have self-respect

I will tell you confidential

I feel downright sentimential

Like a good Yank go home

Self-respect is so essential

I say let tomorrow come

Maybe bring heartache or sonno joi

Tell your son you're a homesick boy

Don't you pick up a gun it's not a toy

Now from Rio to Rome I hear Yankee go home

Yankee go home

Parting is so sweet a sorrow

Yankee go home

May bring happiness tomorrow

One thing I have learned now that I've been burned

Is that if you should find that your hand's in the fire

You pull it back quickly and you retire like

Any good Yank go home you may have to beg and borrow

I say let tomorrow come

On the level I'm telling you to the devil you give his due

But remember that China will answer true

I say Yankee go home

I say Yankee go home

Yankee go home

Yankee go home

What resembled mirth on a trembling earth

Now just feels so economic

I feel tragic you want comic

Like a good Yank go home live in love for every neighbor

Though they're bound to disagree

That you're some kind of VIP with your gunboat democracy

You can shoot off your mouth in your own country

I say Yankee go home

I say Yankee go home

Like a good Yank go home

Self-respect is so essential

I say let tomorrow come

Till the dollar meets with the yen

And the good times return again

You recall how the dollar has fallen men

That's why we gotta go

We're Americano