[Verse 1: Tarantella male lead, fast and loud over frantic tambourines and a heavy kick] Every summer on the feast day, when the heat sits on the town I go limpin' through the market, and I tumble face-first down And I grab my ankle, holler that a spider bit me bad And the band comes runnin' with the tambourines and all they had 'Cause the old cure for a bite is that you dance until it's gone Three days, no sleep, no stoppin', till the poison's out and done And Dottore Russo looks me over, writes it on his pad "Bitten," thirty summers runnin', not a mark I've ever had Ahi, the drum goes, ahi, the tambourines go wild And I'm spinnin' in the piazza like a sunburnt little child [Hook: Tarantella male lead, full band] Call the band and call the doctor, ahi, I got bit Got a spider in my blood, and I can't sit, I can't sit Play it fast and play it all night, I'll be dancin' till I'm fit Is it real? Is it a bit? Well, it's a little bit of it [Verse 2: Tarantella male lead, faster, tambourines rattling, strummed guitar] And the whole town knows I'm fakin', every grandma, every priest But the bakery shuts early, and the butcher brings a feast And the band plays till their fingers bleed, the drummer's knuckles red And the mayor's dancin' with his wife, the first time since they wed Jamme, jamme, play it faster, I can feel it in my shin Where the spider never bit me, where the spider's never been Three days I dance the poison out that never once got in And on Monday I'm the healthiest, the happiest of men And the doctor signs the paper, and the town goes back to work And the spider in the cellar, if there is one, has to smirk [Hook: Tarantella male lead, full band] Call the band and call the doctor, ahi, I got bit Got a spider in my blood, and I can't sit, I can't sit Play it fast and play it all night, I'll be dancin' till I'm fit Is it real? Is it a bit? Well, it's a little bit of it [Breakdown: Tarantella male lead, tambourine flurry, the tambourines multiply bar by bar till the whole piazza rattles] Then this summer, on the feast day, Russo's kneelin' in the grass And he jumps up like a rocket, grabs his calf, and starts to gasp There's a spider on his sock, a real one, hairy, black, and fat And he's white as flour, he looks at me, and that's the end of that Thirty years he signed my paper, thirty years he let it slide So I take the doctor's hands, and I dance him, side by side Three days in the piazza, me and Russo and the band And it's real now, every step is real, the fever in his hand Ahi, ahi, who in town could dance him three whole days? Thirty summers' practice fakin', and the fakin' finally pays [Final Hook: Tarantella male lead, full band] Call the band and call the doctor, ahi, I got bit Got a spider in my blood, and I can't sit, I can't sit Play it fast and play it all night, I'll be dancin' till I'm fit Is it real? Is it a bit? Well, it's a little bit of it [End]
