By Jimmy Buffett, 1996

Jimmy Buffett explores new creative ground here, putting the two-hundred year history of Amerigo, a fictitious Caribbean island, into a Calypso number, and framing it into another song, The Legend of Norman Paperman, the theme of the show. The principal singer is the Governor of the island, and the key characters of the show sing verses about the history.





Narrator

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 still 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 like 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 the legend of Norman Papuhman

Tale from the islands we'll share

Chasin illusions can get quite confusin'

Is it a dream or a nightmare



Women

Dis is the legend of Norman Papuhman

Tale from the islands 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 over 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 archipeligo

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



Sanders

(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

Insurrection, 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



Sanders

(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 do limeys dey pack up and go



We dance through the streets in celebration

Da fireworks dey light up da sky

We got hotdogs and highways

Got Fords and Chevrolets

Not to mention the Forth of July



Ensemble

Not to mention the Forth of July

We're Kinja

Still Kinja

Our Kinja



We're Kinja

Still Kinja

Our Kinja



Sanders

(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