Come on down t’ the big dig
Come on down t’ the big dig
Come on t’ the big dig
Singin’ the Smithsonian Institute blues
Singin’ the Smithsonian Institute blues
The way it’s goin’ La Brea tar pits
I know you just can’t lose
The new dinosaur is walkin’ in the old one’s shoes
Come on down t’ the big dig
Can’t get around the big dig
This may be premature but if I’m wrong
You can just say it’s the first time I was happy t’ be confused
Singin’ the Smithsonian Institute blues
Alll you new dinosaurs
Now it’s up t’ you t’ choose
It sure looks funny for a new dinosaur
T’ be in an old dinosaur’s shoes
Dina Shore’s shoes
Dinosaur shoes
C’mon down to the big dig
You can’t get around the big dig
C’mon to the big dig
Ya can’t get around the big dig
Singin’ the Smithsonian Institute blues
Originally made available at Justin Sherill’s Home Page Replica.
(1970)
It’s taken a long time for people to catch up with this song, but it grows more timely by the day. Like Hendrix’s”Up From the Skies” three years earlier in 1967 warning of a “change a’ climate” and “the smell of a world that has burned,” Beefheart’s more cryptic message becomes more and more clear: Get off fossil fuels before it’s too late.