Lyrics:
Dialogue:
Kinja was the name of the island when it was British. The actual name was King George the Third Island, but the Islanders shorted 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.

Dis is da Legend of Norman Papuhman
Tale from de islands we’ll share
Chasin’ illusions can get quite confusin’
Is it a dream or a nightmare?

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.
______

Kinja’s the name of this 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, this beautiful island
In a windward archipelago
[Somewhere in the Gulf of Mexico]
We’ve been English, French and Dutch
Never seemed to matter much
Now we’re officially Amerigo

We’re Kinja
Still Kinja
Our Kinja

Our ancestors came on 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 from 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

Churchill had to get some destroyers
To put Hitler six feet below
FDR he pulled a nifty
Got our island for just fifty
And da Limeys dey pack up and go

We dance through the streets in celebration
Da fireworks dey light up da sky
We got hot dogs and highways
Got Fords and Chevrolets
Not to mention de Fourth of July

Not to mention de Fourth of July

We’re Kinja
Still Kinja
Our Kinja

We’re Kinja
Still Kinja
Our Kinja

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
Calypsos and tangos
Ahhh, but we short on our watah supply

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
Kinja 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

——————-
Words and music by Jimmy Buffett Lyric reprint and music publishing ©1997 Calaloo Music (BMI) except Intro – The Legend of Norman Paperman/Kinja ©1996 Calaloo Music (BMI). All rights reserved. Used by Permission