The music is a-playin' and
the audience is listening
The boys are gently swaying
and the girls are gently glistening
As the man called Orange
F. Raisin makes his way into the light
And he tells them if they
want to see some blood, well, they just might
They're crawling on the speakers
and they're hanging from the friezes
And they strain to hear
his laughter and his whispers and his wheezes
Will they really be surprised
when he drops dead at twenty-five?
Would they be as disappointed
if he somehow should survive?
And everyone loves Orange
F. Raisin
And everyone says Orange
F. Raisin, he's the man
There's a picture in the
paper of a handsome, healthy child
They say he hung around
with older kids and smoked and never smiled
But like a million other
handsome, healthy children, he matured
And when they shipped him off to college mom and dad were reassured
But, like a million other
children, he wrote songs and had a band
Though later on he told
his friends things didn't go quite as he'd planned
And in his dreams he saw
a chariot aglow upon a stage
And he woke up with his
face upon another empty page
And everyone loves Orange
F. Raisin
And everyone says Orange
F. Raisin, he's the man
And they can remember every
word he ever wrote
From "raise the roof" to
"rock the boat"
And hum along with every
note
Remember every word he ever
wrote
From "raise the roof" to
"rock the boat"
And hum along with every
note
He wanted to write songs
that would impress the literati
But he struggled with his
grammar and his metaphors were spotty
When the amplifiers blared
he tried to act like he still cared
And when he screamed into
the microphone, the audience just stared
Well, the strong are still
a-standin' while the weak have lately fallen
And the lucky ones are walkin'
while the rest are still a-crawlin'
And I just saw Orange F.
Raisin and I tried to speak his name
As he ascended on a chariot
of gold and living flame
And everyone loves Orange
F. Raisin
And everyone says Orange
F. Raisin, he's the man
And they can remember every
word he ever wrote
From "raise the roof" to
"rock the boat"
And hum along with every
note
Remember every word he ever
wrote
From "raise the roof" to
"rock the boat"
From "greetings" to "that's
all she wrote"