1492 – English Lyrics

• By: Counting Crows

Lyrics & Translation

[English]

(rock music)

♪ I'm a Russian Jew American ♪

♪ Impersonating African Jamaican ♪

♪ What I wanna be's an Indian ♪

♪ I'm gonna be a cowboy in the end I guess ♪

♪ I bought a gun 'cause it impresses ♪

♪ All the little girls I see ♪

♪ And then they all wanna sleep with me ♪

♪ Oh, where do we disappear ♪

♪ Into the silence that surrounds us ♪

♪ And then drowns us in the end ♪

♪ Where all these people who impersonate our friends ♪

♪ Say, come again, come again, come again ♪

♪ Into the dark Italian underground ♪

♪ Of disco lights and disco sound ♪

♪ And skinny girls who drink champagne ♪

♪ And take me on their knees again ♪

♪ Then pull me up and out the door ♪

♪ To railway cars and tranny whores ♪

♪ And morning spreading out ♪

♪ Across the feathered thighs of angels ♪

♪ Oh, where do we disappear ♪

♪ Into the silence that surrounds us ♪

♪ And then drowns us in the end ♪

♪ Where they try to push you out to keep you in ♪

♪ And say, come again, come again, come again ♪

♪ In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue ♪

♪ In 1493, came home across the deep blue sea ♪

♪ In 1494, he did it with a girl next door ♪

♪ In 1495, he barely made it out alive ♪

♪ In 1964, these sailors left me at the door ♪

♪ In 1970, some people got their hands on me ♪

♪ Now I'm the king of everything ♪

♪ And I'm the king of nothing ♪

♪ Now I am the king of everything ♪

♪ I am the king of nothing ♪

♪ Oh, where do we disappear ♪

♪ Into the silence that surrounds us ♪

♪ And then drowns us in the end ♪

♪ Where all these people who impersonate our friends ♪

♪ Say, come again, come again, come again ♪

♪ Oh, where do we disappear ♪

♪ Into the silence that surrounds us ♪

♪ And then drowns us in the end ♪

♪ Where they try to get you out to get you in ♪

♪ And all these people who impersonate our friends ♪

♪ Say, come again, come again, come again ♪

♪ Come again, come again ♪

Key Vocabulary

Vocabulary	Meanings
impersonate /ɪmˈpɜːrsəneɪt/ C1	verb - to pretend to be someone else
cowboy /ˈkaʊbɔɪ/ C1	noun - a man who herds cattle on a ranch, especially in the US West
gun /ɡʌn/ A1	noun - a weapon that shoots bullets
silence /ˈsaɪləns/ B1	noun - the complete absence of sound
disappear /ˌdɪsəˈpɪr/ B1	verb - to cease to be visible
drown /draʊn/ B1	verb - to die because of submersion in water
underground /ˈʌn.də.ɡraʊnd/ B2	noun - a subterranean place, especially a railway system adjective - situated below the surface of the earth
disco /ˈdɪskoʊ/ B2	noun - a nightclub where people dance to recorded music
champagne /ʃæmˈpeɪn/ C1	noun - a sparkling wine from the Champagne region of France
angel /ˈeɪn.dʒəl/ A2	noun - a spiritual being believed to act as a messenger of God
king /kɪŋ/ A1	noun - a male monarch; the ruler of a kingdom
sail /seɪl/ B1	verb - to travel on water in a boat or ship using wind power
Columbus /kəˈlʌmbəs/ C1	noun - Christopher Columbus, the Italian explorer who reached the Americas in 1492
blue /bluː/ A1	adjective - of the colour between green and violet in the spectrum
alive /əˈlaɪv/ A2	adjective - living; not dead
push /pʊʃ/ A2	verb - to exert force on something so that it moves away from the source of the force
keep /kiːp/ A2	verb - to retain; to continue to have something
friend /frɛnd/ A1	noun - a person with whom one has a bond of mutual affection
feather /ˈfɛðər/ B2	noun - any of the light, flat structures that grow from a bird’s skin and form its plumage
sailor /ˈseɪl ər/ B1	noun - a person who works on a ship or boat