Manzanar Lyrics

Van Dyke Parks Manzanar

No one can forget the place where she has gone away
Funny how regret can taste like honey in LA anyway
All the trees ornamental
Every breeze downright sentimental
No one can forget her face when she has gone away

Let a bungalow and yard fulfill your every need
Get a Romeo and garden all but gone to seed as they say
Every swallow returning
Just to follow a natural yearning
It is just a paper chase when she has gone away

What the heck I've hit the deck and checked romance on holiday
Drawn a breath and danced with death
Until the dawn had held it at bay
Watched the palms by the sea sway
In the arms of beautiful Nissei
Now I can't forget her face since she has gone away

Manzanar not the kind of girl to hit the street
Manzanar she is dancin to a brand new beat

Don't know me from Ansel Adams cause I'm from Los Angeles
Would've called her but was at a loss
For what to say just to please
When it gets right down there to the wire
When you're reeling and feel her desire
Tell her she is All-American in Japanese

This is a dump without a doubt
You gotta jump you wanna shout
And it is sump thin you got out
Manzanar

You are not warm a desert storm
And where the high Sierra hits the flyway
You are alone you will explode
To Arizone you hit the road
Next sound you hear is pounding down the highway

Like a man without a nation
In a camp of concentration
With a stamp of degredation and shame
To a place they call it Manzanar by name

You are awake an evening star
All you can take is makin out just where you are
There's a name to explore there
And a story of shame and war there
In Manzanar in Manzanar
Manzanar