Lyrics Yankee, Go Home - Van Dyke Parks

Yankee, Go Home

In sight of the lights of Roppongi
the night life of Tokyo goes
And out on the street with a beat from Tahiti a neon moon lollipop glows
A Four ships have sailed the ocean to the bay
A chop on the water o’er waves of gray
The Commodore a notion in the spray
Where in emotion
We hear him say
Boy that sea is vast
What joy we’re here at last
This has to be the island of Japan
Open up that door
We are ship to shore
We represent the President the sentiment of Uncle Sam
The Commodore steps forward with a sneeze
With as you were then and men at ease
To raise this once great nation from her knees
To teach her Thank you, Pardon Me Please
Might as well be Mars
Thank your stripes and stars
Show me to the bars of old Japan
Get down off this barge
Tell the man in charge
We’re unafraid we come to trade
A corporation for a nation
Every man back to his station
I can hear the native call
Yankee go home
Yankee go home
You must not forget you have self-respect
I will tell you confidential
I feel downright sentimential
Like a good Yank go home
Self-respect is so essential
I say let tomorrow come
Maybe bring heartache or sonno joi
Tell your son you’re a homesick boy
Don’t you pick up a gun it’s not a toy
Now from Rio to Rome I hear Yankee go home
Yankee go home
Parting is so sweet a sorrow
Yankee go home
May bring happiness tomorrow
One thing I have learned now that I’ve been burned
Is that if you should find that your hand’s in the fire
You pull it back quickly and you retire like
Any good Yank go home you may have to beg and borrow
I say let tomorrow come
On the level I’m telling you to the devil you give his due
But remember that China will answer true
I say Yankee go home
I say Yankee go home
Yankee go home
Yankee go home
What resembled mirth on a trembling earth
Now just feels so economic
I feel tragic you want comic
Like a good Yank go home live in love for every neighbor
Though they’re bound to disagree
That you’re some kind of VIP with your gunboat democracy
You can shoot off your mouth in your own country
I say Yankee go home
I say Yankee go home
Like a good Yank go home
Self-respect is so essential
I say let tomorrow come
Till the dollar meets with the yen
And the good times return again
You recall how the dollar has fallen men
That’s why we gotta go
We’re Americano