Vanikoro Says It Twice (Tanema)

Paroles de « Vanikoro Says It Twice (Tanema) »

Verse

Vanikoro, Solomon Islands, map it with your thumb
Little island off the big one, hear that cowbell come
They say two voices left, and one of them is hers
A word for the taro, for the dirt where it occurs

Verse

Tanema — that's the word, that's the plant and that's the plot
A leaf, a patch of ground, a plate somebody got
Now the sea walk up the names like it don't pay no rent
Say it twice, say it loud, 'fore the water get in

Chorus

Say it once — tanema
Say it twice — tanema
One more time — tanema
Vanikoro say it twice

Verse

Bucket turned over, hands on the plastic skin
Cowbell never quit, that's how the drums come in
I ain't got a hymn for it, I got a count instead
One tongue, two mouths, one island in the bed

Pre-Chorus

Pass it down the line, pass it ear to ear
Little man in the front row, let the back row hear

Chorus

Say it once — tanema
Say it twice — tanema
One more time — tanema
Vanikoro say it twice

Break

What's it mean? — tanema
What it grow? — tanema
In the dirt — tanema
On the plate — tanema

Instrumental funk jazz

Bridge

She say: it ain't a museum word, it's dinner, it's a field
It's a woman with her hands wet and a basket she done filled
And when the tide take the shore road, take the church, take the fence
The word don't float, baby — the word got to live in us

Verse

Solomon Islands, Temotu, salt up in the well
Grandma in the doorway got nobody left to tell
So she tell the kids, and the kids tell the room
And the room get bigger, and the cowbell boom

Chorus

Say it once — tanema
Say it twice — tanema
One more time — tanema
Vanikoro say it twice
Say it once — tanema
Say it twice — tanema
One more time — tanema
Vanikoro say it twice

Outro

Tanema — tanema
Tanema — tanema
Don't let the water learn it first
Tanema