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The great nations of Europe |
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Had gathered on the shore |
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They'd conquered what was behind them |
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And now they wanted more |
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So they looked to the mighty ocean |
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And took to the western sea |
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The great nations of Europe in the sixteenth century |
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Hide your wives and daughters |
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Hide the groceries too |
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Great nations of Europe coming through |
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The Grand Canary Islands |
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First land to which they came |
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They slaughtered all the canaries |
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Which gave the land its name |
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There were natives there called Guanches |
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Guanches by the score |
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Bullets, disease, the Portugese, and they weren't there anymore |
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Now they're gone, they're gone, they're really gone |
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You've never seen anyone so gone |
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They're a picture in a museum |
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Some lines written in a book |
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But you won't find a live one no matter where you look |
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Hide your wives and daughters |
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Hide the groceries too |
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Great nations of Europe coming through |
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Columbus sailed for India |
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Found Salvador instead |
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He shook hands with some Indians and soon they all were dead |
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They got TB and typhoid and athlete's foot |
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Diptheria and the flu |
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Excuse me, Great nations coming through |
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Balboa found the pacific |
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And on the trail one day |
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He met some friendly Indians |
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Whom he was told were gay |
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So he had them torn apart by dogs on religious grounds they say |
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The great nations of Europe were quite holy in their way |
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Now they're gone, they're gone, they're really gone |
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You've never seen anyone so gone |
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Some bones hidden in a canyon |
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Some paintings in a cave |
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There's no use trying to save them |
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There's nothing left to save |
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Hide your wives and daughters |
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Hide your sons as well |
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With the great nations of Europe you never can tell |
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From where you and I are standing |
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At the end of a century |
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Europes have sprung up everyone as even I can see |
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But there on the horizon as a possiblity |
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Some bug from out of Africa might come for you and me |
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Destroying everything in its path |
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From sea to shining sea |
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Like the great nations of Europe |
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In the sixteenth century |
