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dialogue kinja was the name of the island when it was british. the actual name was king george the third island, but the islanders shorted that to kinja. now the name in the maps and the guidebooks is amerigo,but everybody who lives there still calls it kinja. the united states acquired the island peaceably in 1940 as part of the shuffling of old destroyers and caribbean real estate that went on between mr. roosevelt and mr. churchill. the details of the transaction were and are vague to the inhabitants. the west indian is not exactly hostile to change, but he's not much inclined to believe in it. meantime in a fashion amerigo is getting americanized. the inflow of cash is making everyone more prosperous. most kinjans go along cheerily with this explosion of american energy in the caribbean. to them it seems a new harmless and apparently endless carnival. sanders have you ever dreamed of escaping from your dull existence to a new life on a tropical island? our story is about a man who did it - a real person, whose true adventure has become a legend here in the caribbean. welcome one and all to the legend of norman paperman.
ensemble dis is da legend of norman papuhman tale from de islands we'll share chasin' illusions can get quite confusin' is it a dream or a nightmare? / women dis is da legend of norman papuhman tale from de tropics we'll tell / men chasin' illusions can get quite confusin' cause heaven can turn into hell. / sanders [sings] kinja's the name of the island it's been kinja for two hundred years but remember paradise doesn't come without a price let me make that abundantly clear / kinja, our beautiful island in a windward archipelago we've been english, french and dutch never seemed to matter much now we're officially amerigo / ensemble we're kinja still kinja our kinja / (sheila, chef at the gull reef club) sheila our ancestors came in the slave ships to work for the privileged few who wore paris fashions and lived in pink mansions while we huddled in shacks of bamboo / den da sugar beet bring us our freedom with the help of our god we got through insurrections, beheadin's, funerals and weddin's hurricanes and a world war or two / chorus hurricanes and a world war or two we're kinja still kinja our kinja / we're kinja still kinja our kinja / (gilbert, gondolier of the gull reef club) gilbert mr. churchill had to get some destroyers to put old hitler six feet below fdr he pulled a nifty got our island for just fifty and da limeys dey pack up and go / we dance through the streets in celebration da fireworks dey light up da sky we got hot dogs and highways got fords and chevrolets not to mention de fourth of july / ensemble not to mention de fourth of july we're kinja still kinja our kinja / we're kinja still kinja our kinja / (senator pullman, the island's big enchilada) senator pullman now the yankees, they come wid der dollars it's a beehive of activity sell dem crawfish and rum keep dem dizzy and numb oh we're liken' this prosperity / we got new holidays for celebration we got new laws, but no one complies we got crawfish and mangos calypso and tangos ahhh, but we short on our watah supply / ensemble mighty short on our watah supply / we got the carnival we love the carnival the kinja carnival carnival / we got the carnival don't stop the carnival we love the carnival / and our story begins / dis is da legend of norman papuhman tale from de tropics we'll tell chasin' illusions can get quite confusin' 'cause heaven can turn into hell! / the legend of norman paperman