Released: June 4, 1973
Songwriter: Tom Cochrane Jimmy Buffett
Producer: Don Gant
By: Jimmy Buffett, Tom Corcoran
1973
Well now Billy Voltaire was a piano player up from Miami way
He used to play in the bars, he could sound like the stars
Ladies would pay and pay
One night he did wind up playin' in Havana town
Nobody knew, least Billy Voltaire that these were his final sounds
He met up with Meritta, a dancer in from the Coast
Half woman, half child, she drove him half wild
He loved that lady the most
One night he did find her in the arms of Shrimper Dan
So he pulled a knife, took poor Danny's life
And then he turned his own cold hand
Chorus:
And it's just a Cuban crime of passion
Messy and old fashioned
Yeah, that's what the papers did say
It's just a Cuban crime of passion
Añejo and knives a slashin'
Yeah but that's what the people like to read about
Up in America, up in America
Well now they never found Meritta, some people say she got ill
Billy Voltaire had no one to claim him, he was buried on pauper's hill
And no one talks about 'em no more, it happened just a week ago
But people get by and people get high
In the tropics they come and they go
Chorus:
And it's just a Cuban crime of passion
Messy and old fashioned
Yeah, that's what the papers did say
It's just a Cuban crime of passion
Añejo and knives a slashin'
But that's what the people like to read about
Up in America, up in America
1973
Well now Billy Voltaire was a piano player up from Miami way
He used to play in the bars, he could sound like the stars
Ladies would pay and pay
One night he did wind up playin' in Havana town
Nobody knew, least Billy Voltaire that these were his final sounds
He met up with Meritta, a dancer in from the Coast
Half woman, half child, she drove him half wild
He loved that lady the most
One night he did find her in the arms of Shrimper Dan
So he pulled a knife, took poor Danny's life
And then he turned his own cold hand
Chorus:
And it's just a Cuban crime of passion
Messy and old fashioned
Yeah, that's what the papers did say
It's just a Cuban crime of passion
Añejo and knives a slashin'
Yeah but that's what the people like to read about
Up in America, up in America
Well now they never found Meritta, some people say she got ill
Billy Voltaire had no one to claim him, he was buried on pauper's hill
And no one talks about 'em no more, it happened just a week ago
But people get by and people get high
In the tropics they come and they go
Chorus:
And it's just a Cuban crime of passion
Messy and old fashioned
Yeah, that's what the papers did say
It's just a Cuban crime of passion
Añejo and knives a slashin'
But that's what the people like to read about
Up in America, up in America
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