Walking through forests of palm tree apartments
Scoff at the monkeys who live in their dark tents
Down by the waterhole
Drunk every Friday
Eating their nuts
Saving their raisins for Sunday
Lions and tigers
Who wait in the shadows
They're fast but they're lazy, and sleep in green meadows

Let's bungle in the jungle
Well, that's all right by me
I'm a tiger when I want love
But I'm a snake if we disagree

Just say a word and the boys will be right there
With claws at your back to send a chill through the night air
Is it so frightening to have me at your shoulder?
Thunder and lightning couldn't be bolder
I'll write on your tombstone,I thank you for dinner
This game that we animals play is a winner

Let's bungle in the jungle
Well, that's all right by me
I'm a tiger when I want love
But I'm a snake if we disagree

The rivers are full of crocodile nastiest
And He who made kittens put snakes in the grass
He's a lover of life but a player of pawns
Yes, the King on His sunset lies waiting for dawn
To light up His Jungle as play is resumed
The monkeys seem willing to strike up the tune

Let's bungle in the jungle
Well, that's all right by me
I'm a tiger when I want love
But I'm a snake if we disagree

Let's bungle in the jungle
Well, that's all right by me
Yes, I'm a tiger when I want love
But I'm a snake if we disagree

Let's bungle in the jungle
Well, that's all right by me
Yes, I'm a tiger when I want love


Lyrics submitted by knate15, edited by Vladislas32, imbroglio

Bungle in the Jungle Lyrics as written by Ian Anderson

Lyrics © BMG Rights Management

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Bungle In The Jungle song meanings
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  • +4
    General Comment

    If there is anything gay in this song, I'm not seeing it. I've always viewed this song as a modernized version of something William Blake would have written.

    If it was mentioned above, forgive my repetitiveness. But I must mention that there is plenty of reference to William Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience here.

    Tyger! Tyger! burning bright,
    In the forests of the night:
    What immortal hand or eye,
    Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
    
    In what distant deeps or skies
    Burnt the fire of thine eyes!
    On what wings dare he aspire?
    What the hand, dare seize the fire?
    
    And what shoulder, and what art,
    Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
    And when thy heart began to beat,
    What dread hand? And what dread feet?
    
    What the hammer? What the chain,
    In what furnace was thy brain?
    What the anvil? What dread grasp,
    Dare its deadly terrors clasp?
    
    When the stars threw down their spears
    And watered heaven with their tears:
    Did he smile, his work to see?
    Did he who made the Lamb make thee?
    
    Tyger! Tyger! burning bright,
    In the forests of the night:
    What immortal hand or eye,
    Dare frame thy fearful symmetry? 

    See more here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Songs_of_Innocence_and_Experience

    In other words, God and Life (and according to Blake, men's souls) are dichotomous - sometimes the creator and provider and sometimes the thief and the destroyer.

    clarenancyon April 18, 2007   Link

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