El Pulpo from El Pulpo by John Davis & the Cicadas

Tracklist

10.	El Pulpo	10:25

Lyrics

Can you feel my tentacles?
Can you feel my tentacles?
My suction cups say they know you well
My three hearts should ring a bell
You know me I used to be
You know me I used to be
The United Fruit Company
Minor Keith first made me tick
I’m the real Banana Republic

El Pulpo…

Can you feel my testicles?
Can you feel my testicles?
The State Department made them swell
John Foster Dulles made them well
Guatemala loved Arbenz Guzman
Thanks to John and Ike, soon he was gone
Honduras was also my home
No man should have to fight alone

El pulpo…

My suction cups can also taste
I can lay a shark to waste
Forty years of endless war
200 thousand dead, or more
No one connects all that with me
Since I changed my name, you see
United Fruit? Non, Senorita!
Call me by my name, Chiquita!

El pulpo…

My neurons live inside my arms
I bear them and I do mean harm
I used to own the railroad tracks
I broke all the strikers’ backs
I fought back by spraying ink
Who owned the papers? Who you think?
The radio, the telegraph,
The postal service, paid with cash

El pulpo…

Back in 1928
Santa Marta met its fate
Our best defense was just to hide
In camouflage beneath the tides
We change colors with our skin
We shoot ink filled with melanin
You understand my sex appeal
A woman loves a man who steals

El pulpo…

Credits

from El Pulpo, released October 20, 2017
Drums: Andrew Levi-Hiller and Rob
Chamberlain
Double Bass: Jonathan Henderson
Keyboards, Saz: John Davis
Trombone: Jeb Bishop
Backing Vocals: Wendy Allen

License