FREDDIE:
Bangkok, Oriental setting
And the city don’t know that the city is getting
The creme de la creme of the chess world in a
Show with everything but Yul Brynner.
Bangkok, just another stop in
The chess world circus — masters drop in,
Play, checkmate, check out and then you
Move on to another venue.
Like Iceland — or the Philippines — or
Hastings — or — or this place!
COMPANY:
One night in Bangkok and the world’s your oyster
The bars are temples but the pearls ain’t free
You’ll find a god in every golden cloister
And if you’re lucky then the god’s a she
I can feel an angel sliding up to me.
FREDDIE:
One town’s very like another
When your head’s down over your pieces, brother.
COMPANY:
It’s a drag, it’s a bore, it’s really such a pity
To be looking at the board, not looking at the city.
FREDDIE:
Whaddya mean? Ya seen one crowded, polluted, stinking town, ya
Seen ’em all.
COMPANY:
Tea, girls, warm, sweet
Some are set up in the Somerset Maugham suite.
FREDDIE:
Get Thai’d! You’re talking to a tourist
Whose every move’s among the purest.
I get my kicks above the waistline, sunshine.
COMPANY:
One night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble
Not much between despair and ecstasy
One night in Bangkok and the tough guys tumble
Can’t be too careful with your company
I can feel the devil walking next to me.
FREDDIE:
Siam’s gonna be the witness
To the ultimate test of cerebral fitness
This grips me more than would a
Muddy old river or reclining Buddha.
I don’t see you guys rating
The kind of mate I’m contemplating
I’d let you watch, I would invite you
But the queens we use would not excite you.
So you better go back to your bars, your temples, your massage
Parlors…
COMPANY:
One night in Bangkok and the world’s your oyster
The bars are temples but the pearls ain’t free
You’ll find a god in every golden cloister
A little flesh, a little history
I can feel an angel sliding up to me.
One night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble
Not much between despair and ecstasy
One night in Bangkok and the tough guys tumble
Can’t be too careful with your company
I can feel the devil walking next to me.