Skip to content

Ahab, The Arab Lyrics By Ray Stevens

    let me tell you ’bout ahab the arab
    the sheik of the burning sand
    he had emeralds and rubies just dripping off ‘a him
    and a ring on every finger of his hands

    he wore a big ol’ turban wrapped around his head
    and a scimitar by his side
    and every evening about midnight
    he’d jump on his camel named clydeand ride

    spoken

    silently through the night to the sultan’s tent where he would secretly meet up with fatima of the seven veils swingingest grade a number one us choice dancer in the sultan’s whole harem ’cause heh him and her had a thing going you know and they’d been carrying on for some time now behind the sultan’s back and you could hear him talk to his camel as he rode out across the dunes his voice would cut through the still night desert air and he’d say imitate arabian speech which is arabic for stop clyde and clyde would say imitate camel voice which is camel for what the heck did he say anyway
    well

    he brought that camel to a screeching halt
    at the rear of fatima’s tent jumped off clyde
    snuck around the corner and into the tent he went
    there he saw fatima laying on a zebra skin rug
    wearing rings on her fingers and bells on her toes
    and a bone in her nose ho ho
    spoken

    there she was friends lying there in all her radiant beauty eating on a raisin grape apricot pomegranate bowl of chitterlings two bananas three hershey bars sipping on a r c cocola listening to her transistor watching the grand ole opry on the tube reading the mad magazine while she sung does your chewing gum lose it’s flavor and ahab walked up to her and he said imitate arabian speech which is arabic for let’s twist again like we did last summer baby laughter you know what i mean whew she looked up at him from off the rug give him one of the sly looks she said coy girlish laugh crazy baby
    ’round and around and around and aroundetc

    and that’s the story ’bout ahab the arab
    the sheik of the burnin’ sand
    ahab the arab
    the swinging sheik of the burnin’ sand

    Artist: Ray Stevens

    Year: 1962

    Decade: 60s

    Language: en

    Word Count: 211