Zoo Atlanta: The Circus Left Town

Lyrics

[Intro]
Yeah.
You think you know the story?
Let me tell you how it really went down.

[Verse 1]
October, eighteen eighty-nine.
The big top's gone.
John T. Forepaugh packed his bags and ran.
Left the posters peeling in the rain.
Left the smell of popcorn and animal dung.
Left a dromedary camel looking confused.
A hyena laughing at a joke no one told.
The whole menagerie, stranded in Atlanta.
Silent wagons. Nervous beasts.

[Chorus]
The circus left town!
Yeah, the circus left town!
But they left the roar behind the fence.
Left a tiger pacing, made no sense.
The circus left town, went completely bust.
Left a brand new zoo for the rest of us.
Right here. In Grant Park's dust.

[Verse 2]
Along comes a man, George V. Gress.
Former mayor, saw the whole damn mess.
Heard the Humane Society's call.
Said, "I'll take 'em. I'll take 'em all."
Twenty-five hundred dollars, cash on the nail.
Saved a lion from a lonely trail.
Had one condition, plain and clear:
"Y'all are gonna keep these animals right here."

[Chorus]
The circus left town!
Yeah, the circus left town!
But they left the roar behind the fence.
Left a tiger pacing, made no sense.
The circus left town, went completely bust.
Left a brand new zoo for the rest of us.
Right here. In Grant Park's dust.

[Bridge]
Can you see it?
The clang of the first makeshift cage.
The kids pointing, turning a new page.
And Peanut the elephant, twenty-five years she'd stay.
The first citizen of our Zoo, born from a runaway.
A bankrupt showman's forgotten things...
Became the city's living, breathing wings.

[Chorus]
'Cause the circus left town!
Yeah, the circus left town!
But they left the roar behind the fence.
Left a tiger pacing, made no sense.
The circus left town, went completely bust.
Left a brand new zoo for the rest of us.
Right here. In Grant Park's dust.

[Outro]
The circus left town.
They left the heartbeat.
Yeah.
Just like that.
A happy accident.