Lyrics to
Banana Republics

This version of Banana Republics was released by Jimmy Buffett in 1977.

Our Decade Lyrics Jimmy Buffett profile has all of the Banana Republics lyrics from 1977 and many more songs from the Jimmy Buffett discography that we have on file.

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

Down to the Banana Republics
Down to the tropical sun
Go the expatriated American
Hopin’ to find some fun

Some of them go for the sailing
Brought by the lure of the sea
Tryin’ to find what is ailing
Living in the land of the free
Some of them are running to lovers
Leaving no forward address
Some of them are running tons of ganja
Some are running from the IRS

Late at night you will find them
In the cheap hotels and bars
Hustling the senioritas
While they dance beneath the stars
Spending those renegade pesos
on a bottle of rum and a lime
Singin’ give me some words I can dance to
Or a melody that rhymes

First you learn the native custom
Soon a word of Spanish or two
You know that you cannot trust them
Cause they know they can’t trust you

Expatriated American feelin’ so all alone
Telling themselves the same lies
that they told themselves back home

Down to the Banana Republics
Things aren’t as warm as they seem
None of the natives are buying
any second hand American dreams

Late at night you will find them
In the cheap hotels and bars
Hustling the senioritas
while they dance beneath the stars
Spending those renegade pesos
On a bottle of rum and a lime
Singing give me some words I can dance to
Or a melody that rhymes

Down to the Banana Republics
Down to the tropical sun
Go the expatriated Americans
Hopin’ to find some fun

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Jimmy Buffett has released many songs over the years besides Banana Republics. 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 lyrics from 1970s songs looking for more songs from 1977 or the 1970s overall, you've come to the right place!

About Lyrics and Banana Republics by Jimmy Buffett

The lyrics to Banana Republics are just the words, phrases, verses and chorus that Jimmy Buffett used when the song was created in 1977. The lyrics to Banana Republics have both easy-to-spot meanings and hidden metaphors that have been discussed by the music press and fans, but only Jimmy Buffett and any collaborators know all of the inspirations for the song.

If you like etymology or breaking apart phrases and words, it is easy to understand the lyrics to Banana Republics by Jimmy Buffett. 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 Banana Republics" means the words set to the music of Banana Republics, 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 Banana Republics and the lyrics to Banana Republics 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 Banana Republics, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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