Atlas Fret: Songs
Rock with the Caveman
(written by Tommy Steele, Lionel Bart, and Michael Pratt)
Prehistorical Europe
Paleolithic era
The Rodney Dangerfields of hominids, cavemen and cavewomen get no respect. (Witness recent television commercials for car insurance.) But we owe more to them than we like to admit, including some great artwork (Lascaux, Chauvet, etc.). In fact, the cave artists were homo sapiens, i.e., us, not some pre-species. The song is a cover of one of the first British rock ‘n’ roll records (maybe the first), later updated by Big Audio Dynamite for the Flintstones soundtrack. Early rock ‘n’ roll itself was something of a caveman, perceived by snobs as being primitive and subhuman. And pop culture depictions of paleolithic life are notoriously inaccurate (cartoon humans running from cartoon dinosaurs, for example). So rock out one time for the caveman!
The old-time cave dweller lived in a cave
Here’s what he did when he wanted a rave:
He took a stick and he drew on the wall
Man, the fellow had himself a ball!
Rock with the caveman
Roll with the caveman
Shake with the caveman
Baby, make with the caveman
Shake with the caveman
Stalactite, stalagmite
Hold your baby very tight
. . .
Piltdown Poppa sings this song:
“Archaeology’s done me wrong
The British Museum’s got my head
Most unfortunate, ‘cause I ain’t dead!”
Rock with the caveman
Roll with the caveman
Shake with the caveman
Baby, make with the caveman
Shake with the caveman
C-A-V-E-M-A-N, Caveman!
(EMI MUSIC PUBLISHING OBO EMI GLENWOOD MUSIC CORPORATION)