PETRO DOLLARS (Parody of) Wooly Bully by Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs

I don’t know if you heard the news but supposedly Biden is going to announce the introduction of the US Crypto Dollar on the 26th of July 2023. There is rampant speculation about what this means including speculation that it’s a move toward a cashless economy. At any rate it seemed like a good time to repost this, originally posted in 2018..

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Lyrics to PETRO DOLLARS

Nixon told Saudi
We will buy your oil
and supply you weapons
to create turmoil,

Petro-dollars
Petro-dollars
It’s why Saudi
can be naughty
Petro-dollars.

Saudi told Kerry
We will foot the bill
if you transform Syria
into a big landfill.

Petro-dollars
Petro-dollars
If you buy oil
from the Saudis
It’s Petro -dollars.

It’s the US dollar
you are forced to use
otherwise your country
will be where missiles cruise.

Petro-dollars
Petro-dollars
Keeps the corrupt
from goin’ bankrupt,
Petro-dollars.

So what is Saudi
gettin’ from the deal?
They get our military
to bend over and squeal –

Petro-dollars
Petro-dollars
We form positions
on their conditions.
Petro-dollars

Petro-dollars
Petro-dollars
If you buy oil
from the Saudis
It’s Petro -dollars.

Keeps the corrupt
from goin’ bankrupt,
Petro-dollars.

It’s why Saudi
can be naughty
Petro-dollars.

ABOUT THE SOURCE SONG – Wooly Bully

In 1965, as the Pharaohs began work on their debut album, lead singer “Sam the Sham” (Domingo Samudio) expressed a desire to write a tribute to the Hully Gully dance. His record label’s legal department feared using that title due to the existence of another song with a similar title. The song was given the green light after Sam rewrote the lyrics and replaced “Hully Gully” with “Wooly Bully.”

The lyrics of “Wooly Bully” were hard to understand, and some radio stations banned the song. The lyrics describe a conversation between “Mattie” and “Hattie” concerning the “Wooly Bully” (a creature which Mattie describes as “a thing she saw [that] had two big horns and a wooly jaw”) and the desirability of developing dancing skills, although no attempt is made to synthesize these divergent topics.

The warning, “Let’s not be L-7”, means “Let’s not be square”, from the shape formed by the fingers making an L on one hand and a 7 on the other. Sam the Sham underscores the Tex-Mex nature of the song by counting out the rhythm in Spanish and English, and the characteristic simple organ riffing.

According to Sam: “The name of my cat was ‘Wooly Bully’, so I started from there. The count down part of the song was also not planned. I was just goofing around and counted off in Tex-Mex. It just blew everybody away, and actually, I wanted it taken off the record. We did three takes, all of them different, and they took the first take and released it.”

For more from Parody Project you can watch our parody of The Battle Hymn of the Republic. Also we have Tippy Top, a commentary on the Nuclear Posture Review of 2018.