Bangkok, Oriental setting
And the city don't know that the city is getting
The creme de la creme of the chess world
In a show with everything but Yul Brynner

Time flies doesn't seem a minute
Since the Tirolean spa had the chess boys in it
All change don't you know that when you
Play at this level there's no ordinary venue

It's Iceland or the Philippines or Hastings or
Or this place!

One night in Bangkok and the world's your oyster
The bars are temples but the pearls ain't free
You'll find a god in every golden cloister
And if you're lucky then the god's a she
I can feel an angel sliding up to me

One town's very like another
When your head's down over your pieces, brother

It's a drag, it's a bore, it's really such a pity
To be looking at the board, not looking at the city

Whaddya mean?
Ya seen one crowded, polluted, stinking town

Tea, girls, warm, sweet
Some are set up in the Somerset Maugham suite

Get thai'd, you're talking to a tourist
Whose every move's among the purest
I get my kicks above the waistline, sunshine

One night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble
Not much between despair and ecstasy
One night in Bangkok and the tough guys tumble
Can't be too careful with your company
I can feel the devil walking next to me

Siam's gonna be the witness
To the ultimate test of cerebral fitness
This grips me more than would a
Muddy old river or reclining Buddha

And thank God I'm only watching the game controlling it

I don't see you guys rating
The kind of mate I'm contemplating
I'd let you watch, I would invite you
But the queens we use would not excite you

So you better go back to your bars, your temples
Your massage parlours

One night in Bangkok and the world's your oyster
The bars are temples but the pearls ain't free
You'll find a god in every golden cloister
A little flesh, a little history
I can feel an angel sliding up to me

One night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble
Not much between despair and ecstasy
One night in Bangkok and the tough guys tumble
Can't be too careful with your company
I can feel the devil walking next to me


Lyrics submitted by Petaphysika

One Night In Bangkok Lyrics as written by Benny Goran Bror Andersson Tim Rice

Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

Lyrics powered by LyricFind

One Night In Bangkok song meanings
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21 Comments

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  • -1
    General Comment

    There are comments saying this song is sung by the Chess champion. It is NOT.

    Freddie, (who sings this) is the ex-champion, he got defeated the previous year by the Russian, Sergievsky. Sergievsky left the Soviet Union and moved to the free world to be with florence, Freddie's ex-second. Sergievsky is playing another Russian who Molokov, his ex-second has trained up to try and defeat him as he's annoyed that he left to go to the free world.

    Freddie is only there hosting/viewing thhe tournament hence the lyric, 'And thank God I'm only watching the game -- controlling it --'

    There you go guys :)

    aleea03on March 08, 2012   Link

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