THE AMERICAN:
Bangkok, Oriental setting
And the city don't know that the city is getting
The creme de la creme of the chess world in a
Show with everything but Yul Brynner.

Time flies, doesn't seem a minute
Since the Tirolean spa had the chess boys in it
All change, don't you know that when you
Play at this level there's no ordinary venue.

It's Iceland, or the Philippines, or Hastings, or
Or this place!

COMPANY:
One night in Bangkok and the world's your oyster
The bars are temples but the pearls ain't free
You'll find a god in every golden cloister
And if you're lucky then the god's a she
I can feel an angel sliding up to me.

THE AMERICAN:
One town's very like another
When your head's down over your pieces, brother.

COMPANY:
It's a drag, it's a bore, it's really such a pity
To be looking at the board, not looking at the city.

THE AMERICAN:
Whaddya mean? Ya seen one crowded, polluted, stinking town.

COMPANY:
Tea, girls, warm, sweet
Some are set up in the Somerset Maugham suite.

THE AMERICAN:
Get Thai'd! You're talking to a tourist
Whose every move's among the purest
I get my kicks above the waistline, sunshine.

COMPANY:
One night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble
Not much between despair and ecstasy
One night in Bangkok and the tough guys tumble
Can't be too careful with your company
I can feel the devil walking next to me.

THE AMERICAN:
Siam's gonna be the witness
To the ultimate test of cerebral fitness
This grips me more than would a
Muddy old river or reclining Buddha.

And thank God I'm only watching the game, controlling it.

I don't see you guys rating
The kind of mate I'm contemplating
I'd let you watch, I would invite you
But the queens we use would not excite you.

So you better go back to your bars, your temples
Your massage parlours.

COMPANY:
One night in Bangkok and the world's your oyster
The bars are temples but the pearls ain't free
You'll find a god in every golden cloister
A little flesh, a little history
I can feel an angel sliding up to me.

One night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble
Not much between despair and ecstasy
One night in Bangkok and the tough guys tumble
Can't be too careful with your company
I can feel the devil walking next to me.