Lyrics to
African Friend

This version of African Friend was released by Jimmy Buffett in 1978.

Our About Jimmy Buffett page at Decade Lyrics includes the lyrics for African Friend from 1978 as well as all of the other lyrics from Jimmy Buffett that we have in our lyrics database.

Here's more interesting things in songs and lyrics tied to Jimmy Buffett or about the 1970s in general.

Disembarking at Duvalier Airport
Seeking transportation to town
As the purple ink dried on his passport
He could still feel the eyes look around

“Messieur ou est le casino?”
He spoke to the cabbie and smiled
The driver replied “Vieux ou noveaux?”
As he motioned the dark man inside.

Business in Aruba concluded
He now had a little money to spend
That’s how I came to meet my African friend

We were rollin’ the bones several hours
Conversing as most gamblers do
We were calling on all of our powers
Hoping to see the night through.

But not approving at all of our winning
The pit boss he tugged at his sleeve
Through the whole thing my new friend was grinning
When he motioned it’s time we should leave.

With our night at the tables behind us
We were ready just to do it again
That’s when I came to know my African Friend

But I woke up on the steps of a whorehouse
A soldier told me I’ better leave
As I stumbled to find me a taxi
I saw a note pinned to my sleeve.

“It was a pleasure and a hell of an evening
It was truly our night to win
But the authorities insist on my leaving
Take care, my American friend.”

With my weekend at Haiti concluded
I now had a little money to spend
That’s when I came to meet my African friend
That’s how I came to know another good friend.

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Jimmy Buffett has released many songs over the years besides African Friend. Jimmy Buffett released songs from 1970 to 2004 spanning across albums like Down To Earth, High Cumberland Jubilee, A White Sport Coat And A Pink Crustacean, A1A, Living And Dying In 3/4 Time, Havana Daydreamin', Changes In Latitudes, Changes In Attitudes, Son Of A Son Of A Sailor, Volcano, Coconut Telegraph, Somewhere Over China, One Particular Harbour, Riddles In The Sand, Last Mango In Paris, Floridays, Hot Water, Off To See The Lizard, Boats, Beaches, Bars & Ballads, Fruitcakes, Barometer Soup, Christmas Island, Banana Wind, Beach House On The Moon, Far Side Of The World, and License To Chill. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by Jimmy Buffett.

If you're a fan of 1970s songs looking for more songs from 1978 or the 1970s overall, you've come to the right place!

About Lyrics and African Friend by Jimmy Buffett

The lyrics for African Friend are made up of the words, verses and background chorus for the popular 1978 song by Jimmy Buffett. Like a lot of songs, the lyrics to African Friend have both direct meanings and metaphorical context hidden within the song's words. All of the meanings are only truly known by the creators of the lyrics for African Friend - Jimmy Buffett and any of the writers who worked with them on the song.

If you have an interest in the structure of words and phrases, you can dissect the lyrics to African Friend by Jimmy Buffett in multiple ways. The word "lyric" itself derives from the Latin word lyricus, with the actual English word lyrics applied to the definition "words set to music" listed in Stainer and Barrett's 1876 Dictionary of Musical Terms. Continuing the chain, the Latin word lyricus derives from the Greek word λυρικός or lyrikós. This somewhat means "poetry accompanied by the lyre" or "words set to music." You can easily see that by looking at the background of the word lyric, that the "lyrics to African Friend" means the words set to the music of African Friend, or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by Jimmy Buffett. The singular form "lyric" is still used to mean the complete words to a song. However, the singular form lyric is also commonly used to refer to a specific line (or phrase) within a song's lyrics. Hence, by this analysis of word structure, you could say that the lyric to African Friend and the lyrics to African Friend are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of Jimmy Buffett who came here looking just for the lyrics to African Friend, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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