Lyrics

Intro (Spoken) –
Kinja was the name of the island when it was British. The actual name was King George the Third Island, but the Islanders shortened 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.

The Legend of Norman Paperman –
This is the Legend of Norman Paperman
Tales from the islands we’ll share
Chasin’ illusions can get quite confusin’
Is it a dream or a nightmare

This is the Legend of Norman Paperman
Tales from the tropics we’ll tell
Men Chasin’ illusions can get quite confusin’
Cause heaven can turn into hell

Kinja –
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

We’re Kinja Still Kinja Our Kinja

Sheila, chef at the Gull Reef Club –
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

Then the 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
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 –
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 the Limeys they pack up and go

We dance through the streets in celebration
The fireworks they light up the sky
We got hot dogs and highways
Got Fords and Chevrolet’s
Not to mention the Fourth of July
Not to mention the Fourth of July

We’re Kinja Still Kinja Our Kinja
We’re Kinja Still Kinja Our Kinja

Senator Pullman, the island’s big enchilada –
Now the Yankees, they come with their dollars
It’s a beehive of activity
Sell them crawfish and rum
Keep them 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
Oh, but we short on our water supply
Mighty short on our water 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

This is the legend of Norman Paperman
Tale from de tropics we’ll tell
Chasin’ illusions can get quite confusin’
‘Cause heaven can turn into hell

The legend of Norman Paperman!