Sphunx

tonestones

Odd song, odd time signatures. It was originally written for my AP english high school class as an instrumental “creative response” to Dante’s Inferno. You gotta love the Catholic school system. Later a buddy of mine (Chris Lee) put lyrics to it and it became “The Sphunx”. It is an Egyptian/Funk/Jazz Fusion kind of a thing. This was back in the early 70s. I recently rearranged and rerecorded it with modern synths/sounds. It starts out with a “James Brown for Pharaoh” which is the only part of the original recording that I used in this production.

Here are the lyrics:
James Brown for Pharaoh.

Sacred wisdom of the ages.
Deep Atlantis, far Tibet.
Take a mind expanding potion
Smoke them funny cigarettes.

Escape in flying saucers
Leave the earth with no regrets
One ritual remains if you cover all the bets

Cheat the maleficium
Sacrifice three skunks
and do the sphunx,
do the sphunx

Baby come upstairs and check out my hieroglyphics
The girls say they’re terrific when they get down to specifics

Join the flagship of the Nile
Mother Africa awaits
Grim Anubis in his blue bus
Waits for he who hesitates

Grab yourself a mummy mama
Go to the Aeonic drama
Fast approaches hour of Rama
Salvadore the Dali Lama

Issues the divine decree
to his madcap monks
to do the sphunx
do the sphunx