Story Behind The Song
Mother -- romantic; father -- heavy equipment operator. Post-war opportunity to live in Africa a la Isak Dinesen or Lawrence Durrell. Viola Anne (Hayes) Moore took her three sons to Ethiopia to join her husband at the gold-mining fields of the south of
Song Description
Chakiso, in the Ethiopian province of Sidamo, was where the engineers who ran Haile Selassie's gold mines lived with at least one family. The author's childhood in these circumstances is recalled.
| Song Length |
2:20 |
Genre |
Folk - Rock, World - African |
| Tempo |
Fast (151 - 170) |
Lead Vocal |
Male Vocal |
| Mood |
Brutal, Cheerful |
Subject |
Wild Animals, Doom |
| Language |
English |
Era |
1950 - 1959 |
Lyrics
Crackbone Tune
When I was a boy, and a bad one, too,
I would listen all night to the hyenas croon.
And the words to that song
went the whole night long?
by the light of the moon
they'd all sing this crack-bone tune. It goes:
Tumble out of bed, tumble out of bed,
we're going to meet you someday, anyway.
Won't you come out right now, anyhow?
Don't like to wait till this late, anyway.
Won't you come out right now, anyhow?
We're going to meet you someday, anyway.
It's the African moon, it's the African sky;
it's a crack-bone tune that I'll hear till I die.
And the words to that song
are as right as they're wrong?
when the hyena calls,
they're all singing only for you. It goes:
Tumble out of bed, tumble out of bed,
we're going to meet you someday, anyway.
Won't you come out right now, anyhow?
Don't like to wait till this late, anyway.
Won't you come out right now, anyhow?
We're going to meet you someday, anyway.
©1974 Thom Moore, reg. IMRO, MCPS