Album: Lace and Whiskey (1977)

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• Well, I rocked over Italy and I rocked over Spain.
  I rocked in Memphis;
  It was all the same
  Til I rocked to Africa.
  I rolled off the ship.
  I seem them natives doin' an odd looking skip.
  I parted the weeds
  And I looked over the swamp,
  And I seen them cats doin' the Ubangi Stomp.
  
  Ubangi Stomp is a rock and roll.
  It beats anything that's ever been told.
  Ubangi Stomp, Ubangi style;
  When it kicks,
  It drives a cool cat wild.
  
  Well I looked up the chief;
  He invited me in.
  He said, "A heap big jam session's 'bout to begin."
  I grabbed up a tom and I picked up the beat.
  That crazy thing sent
  Shivers to my feet.
  I rocked and I rolled
  And I skipped with a smile.
  I did the Ubangi Stomp with a Ubangi style.
  
  Well, we rocked all night and part of the day.
  Had a good, rock-in' time
  With the chief's daughter Mae.
  I'm makin' good time and I'm gettin' in the know
  When the captain said, "Son, we've gotta go."
  I said, "That's all right.
  You go right ahead.
  I'm gonna Ubangi Stomp til I roll over dead."
  
  Ubangi Stomp is a rock and roll.
  It beats anything that's ever been told.
  Ubangi Stomp, Ubangi style;
  When it kicks,
  It drives a cool cat wild.
  
  Ubangi Stomp, thank you.
  Writer/s: CHARLES UNDERWOOD
  Publisher: BMG Rights Management
  Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 5

• Bill from UsAnd Bob, Edna Turnblad was in Hairspray, and she was talking about those white kids loving to dance to that negro music that came from Africa! Geez, and thus alluding to the original song, not Cooper's version.
• Bill from UsThat song fact erh, questionable... I believe most of us know that Warren Smith was simple rockin out to an idea that the people of Africa were kickin up the dance stance with their drums long before the rest of the world put it on vinyl! Now if Alice Cooper was singin about stomping on dead babies, well uh... maybe there is something there!
• David from Inverness, United KingdomYep just a tune If you listen to Warren Smith's great Sun Rockabilly beat he "rocks thro Africa" and meets a chief who talks with an accent of a red indian straight from a 50s Western Movie .... crazy
• Bob from Washington, DcJust a curiosity, but Edna Turnblad (Divine) in the John Waters film, Polyester, makes a disparaging remark about her daughter, Tracy Turnblad, doing the "Ubangi Stomp." The film was released in 1988, so may be a reference by John Waters to the Alice Cooper song.
• Dave from Portsmouth, NhWell for one thing, Alice isn't referring to anything. The song is an old rockabilly tune written by Charles Underwood, and first recorded by Warren Smith in 1956. To be quite honest, I don't believe for a minute that Underwood is referring to the Ibo practices cited, either. There is a Ubangi river in Africa, and there was once a territory called Ubangi-Shari. It just made for a real gone tune, daddy-o.

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