Expert: Bong Santos - 10/20/2007

Question
Dear sir, I would like to ask you about a song from the mid eighties '85-'86. All I can remember is the "boom boom boom shakalaka boom..." on it.
Thanks in advance.

Answer
Dear Simonetti,

Based on the clues you gave, that was undoubtedly WAS (NOT WAS)' WALK THE DINOSAUR, a top 10 Billboard Hot 100 hit for the group made up of DAVID WEISS (aka DAVID WAS), DON FAGENSON (aka DON WAS), HARRY BOWENS and "SWEET PEA" ATKINSON. It came from an album called WHAT UP, DOG?, a play on the BUGS BUNNY phrase WHAT'S UP DOC?, later becoming a standard hip-hop lingo. The song was the group biggest hit in the States peaking at No. 7 on the Hot 100 Chart on April 1, 1989. Here's its lyrics

WALK THE DINOSAUR / WAS (NOT WAS)

Boom boom acka-lacka-lacka boom
boom boom acka-lacko boom boom
Boom boom acka-lacka-lacka boom
boom boom acka-lacka boom boom

It was a night like this
fourty million years ago

I lit a cigarette
picked up a monkey
start to go.
The sun was spitting fire
the sky was blue as ice

I felt a little tired so I watched "Miami Vice".

I walked a dinosaur
I walked a dinosaur!
Open the door
get on the floor
everybody walk the dinosaur.
Open the door
get on the floor
everybody walk the dinosaur.
Open the door
get on the floor
everybody walk the dinosaur.
Open the door
get on the floor
everybody walk the dinosaur.

Boom boom acka-lacka-lacka boom
boom boom acka-lacka boom boom. . .

I met you in a cave
you were painting Buffalo

I said I'd be your slave
follow wherever you go.
That night we split a rattlesnake and danced beneath the stars

You fell asleep
I stayed awake and watched the passing cars.

I walked a dinosaur
I walked a dinosaur! . . .

A shadow from the sky
much too big to be a bird

A screaming
crashing noise
louder than I've ever heard.
It looked like two big silver trees
that somehow learned to soar

Suddenly a summer breeze and a mighty lion's roar.

I killed a dinosaur
I killed a dinosaur!
Open the door
get on the floor
everybody kill the dinosaur.
Open the door
get on the floor
everybody kill the dinosaur.
Open the door
get on the floor
everybody kill the dinosaur.
Open the door
get on the floor
everybody kill the dinosaur.
Open the door
get on the floor
everybody kill the dinosaur.

Boom boom acka-lacka-lacka boom
boom boom acka-lacka boom boom
Boom boom acko-locka-lacka boom
boom boom acka-lacko boom boom

Maraming salamat po!!

BONG M. SANTOS
Manila, Philippines