>I always wondered if this song was a bastardization of a song in another language. It sure just seems like very rhythmic gibberish written out like this!

There's a warmup we do in rehearsal for improv... it's based on an African circle chant, and one of my fellow team members *hates* doing that warmup because he finds it insulting to the tradition it represents. I've never seen Roots, so I don't know how best to describe it. We've got it going as a name game/rhyme thing:

Shock boo ya, shock, shock, shock boo ya, Roll Call,
Shock boo ya, shock, shock, shock boo ya, Roll Call

My name is Dagny (Yeah)
Eyelids are saggy (Yeah)
Got a plastic baggy (Yeah)
And I breathe air (Roll Call)

Shock boo ya, etc - moving around the circle in the group.

Uh oh. Speaking of rehearsal, I'm going to be late... Better find my shoes.