1890

There's a crowd moving down the street,
in the glare of a midsummer's beat.
The men beating on their drums.
Dancing the Samba.
There's a girl of seventeen,
playing rhythms on her tambourine.
The heat is so strong.
It's already well past December.
And in the strange and misty haze.
I saw those old colonial days.
Of Rio in the old Carnival of 1890.
There's a man sleeping in the street.
He's unable to stand up on his feet.
He's drunk too much rum,
and made too much love in the moonlight.
The Mulatta's got a look in her eye.
You can tell the way she's moving her thighs.
She's lost in a trance and you know she'll dance
Till sunlight.
And in the strange and misty haze.
I saw those old colonial days.
Of Rio in the old Carnival of 1890.
They were dancing in the street.
Dancing in the street.
Dancing in the street.