Tico Tico [Tico Tico no Fubá]

Lyrics: [Aloysio Oliviera/Ervin Drake]
Music: Zequinha Abreu

Played as an instrumental by James Booker with the Jerry Garcia Band (though a fragment of one performance appears on setlists as Fandango"). Also played as a between-songs tuning jam by the Grateful Dead.

The original version had Portuguese lyrics written by Aloysio Oliviera. "Tico-tico" is the name of a type of sparrow; and "fubá" is cornmeal:

O tico tico tá, tá outra vez aqui
O tico tico tá comendo o meu fubá
Se o tico tico tem, tem que se alimentar
Que vá comer umas minhocas no pomar

O tico tico tá, tá outra vez aqui
O tico tico tá comendo o meu fubá
Eu sei que ele vem viver no meu quintal
E vem com ares de canário e de pardal

Mas por favor tira esse bicho do celeiro
Porque ele acaba comendo o fubá inteiro
Tira esse tico de lá, de cima do meu fubá
Tem tanta fruta que ele pode pinicar

Eu já fiz tudo para ver se conseguia
Botei alpiste para ver se ele comia
Botei um gato um espantalho e um alçapão
Mas ele acha que o fubá é que é boa alimentação

Oh, Tico Tico, tick
Oh, Tico Tico, tock
This Tico Tico, he's the cuckoo in my clock
And when he says "cuckoo"
He means it's time to woo
It's Tico time for all the lovers on the block

I've got a heavy date
A tete a tete at eight
So speak, oh, Tico, tell me if it's getting late
If I'm on time, cuckoo
But, if I'm late, woo-woo
The one my heart is gone to may not want to wait

For just a birdie, and a birdie who goes nowhere
He knows of every lover's lane and how to go there
For in affairs of the heart
My Tico's terribly smart
He tells me: "gently, sentiment'ly at the start"

Oh, oh, I hear my little Tico Tico calling
Because the time is right and shades of night are falling
I love that not-so-cuckoo cuckoo in the clock
Tico Tico, Tico Tico, Tico tock