I'll Make You Savvy

"I'll Make You Savvy" is the eighth song in the cycle Tropics After Dark by composer Margaret Bonds with text by poet Langston Hughes.

Date: 1940Composer: Margaret BondsText: Langston HughesSong Collection: Tropics After Dark

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Text

All this jive about me, no understand.
Gots on my nerves, down here, in this foreign land.
I’m getting tired of this no savvy stuff.
So from now on, I’m gonna be rough.

Now if you no savvy, I’ll make you savvy somehow.
When I want something, I always want it right now.
I am meek and mild, up to a point;
When that point is reaches, I’ll wreck the joint.
Now if you no savvy, I’ll make you savvy somehow,

You know I am a sailor; I get around the world.
I got away meet and ev’ry situation girl.
If I get to Cuba and I want to eat,
I just pinch the waitress, then I holler, “Meat!”

Now if you no savvy, I’ll make you savvy somehow.
When I want something, I always want it right now.
I am meek and mild, up to a point;
When that point is reaches, I’ll wreck the joint.
Now if you no savvy, I’ll make you savvy somehow.

Related Information

Sheet Music

Rediscovering Margaret Bonds: Art Songs, Spirituals, Musical Theater and Popular Songs

Composer(s): Margaret Bonds

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