Manzanar - Van Dyke Parks

Noone can forget the place where she has gone away

Funny how regret can taste like honey in L.A. 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!