Lyrics Harry Belafonte

Harry Belafonte

The Ballad of Sigmund Freud

Now we'd like to tell you the story of probably the grandfather of all modern day psychoanalysts, the great Doctor Sigmund Freud.

Well, it started in Vienna not so many years ago

When not enough folks were getting sick

That a starving young physician tried to better his position

By discovering what made his patients tick

He forgot about sclerosis and invented the psychosis

And a hundred ways that sex could be enjoyed

He adopted as his credo "down repression up libido!"

And that was the start of Doctor Sigmund Freud

Well, Doctor Freud (Doctor Freud), oh Doctor Freud (Doctor Freud)

How we wish you had been differently employed

But the set of circumstances still enhances the finances

Of the followers of Doctor Sigmund Freud

Well, he analyzed the dreams of the teens and libertines

Substituted monologue for pills

He drew crowds just like Will Sadler, when along came Jung and Adler

And they said by God, there's gold in them darn' ills!

They encountered no resistance, when they served as Freud's assistants

As with ego and with id they deftly toyed

But instead of toting bedpans, they wore analytic deadpans

Those ambitious doctors Adler, Jung and Freud!

Well, Doctor Freud, (Doctor Freud), goes marching in (goes marching in?)

How we wish you had been differently employed

But the set of circumstances still enhances the finances

Of the followers of Doctor Sigmund Freud

Now the big three have departed, but not so the code the started

No, it's being carried on by a goodly band

And to trauma shock and more shock, someone's gone and added Rorschach

And the whole thing's got completely out of hand!

So old boys with double chinsies, and a thousand would-be Kinseys

They discuss it at the drop of a repression

And I wouldn't be complaining, but for all the loot I'm paying

Just to lie on someone's couch and say confession?

Well, Doctor Freud (cha cha cha), oh Doctor Freud (cha cha cha)

How we wish you had been differently employed

But the set of circumstances still enhances the finances

Of the followers of Doctor Sigmund Freud

(soft)

But the set of circumstances still enhances the finances

(that was beautiful, fellas)

Of the followers of Doctor Sigmund Freud, cha cha cha