Bang On The Pan

Bang On The Pan
by Michael Mark & Tom Chapin
© 2003 HCD Music & The Last Music Co. (ASCAP)

Pump up the rhythm!
Pump up the rhythm! (Just a little louder.)
Pump up the rhythm! (Tell me the story.)
Long, long ago.

In Trinidad they were putting on the heat
By trying to outlaw music in the street.
They told us drums were dangerous,
They took them all away.
So we simply looked for something else to play.

We thumped a bamboo pole upon the ground
And all the drummers really liked the sound.
Soon everybody's playin'
In a Tamboo Bamboo band.
If you had been there, you would understand.
Chorus:
You cannot stop the music
'Cause the music will not stop
Wakin' up your "jump up"
And dancin' 'til you drop.
Come and join the Carnival,
Come and join the band.
Pump up the rhythm, bang on the Pan.

And then they banned
The Tamboo Bamboo bands.
So we banged on brake drums
And old garbage cans.
'Til Winston tuned an oil drum
And the sound came pure and sweet
And we found a brand new music for the street.
Chorus

In Trinidad and Tobago
Or wherever else you may go
The music gets you jumpin'
As the panyard keeps on pumpin'
And the boom, boom, boom of the engine room
Puts a smile upon the faces
As the ping pongs chase the seconds
Chase the cellos down to the basses. Go!

Hey look, the steel drum's put us on the map;
An instrument we created out of scrap.
Now the streets are full of rhythm
And the streets are full of pans
And now the whole world loves
A steel drum band.
Chorus

This song appears on Tom Chapin's Making Good Noise CD.

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