Ancestors - Dan Bull

What’s a man but a naked ape?

Just trying to make it from day-to-day

'Cause what’s a man but a naked ape?

But with fantasies of making a great escape

What’s a man but a naked ape?

It’s amazing, spectating it taking shape

What’s a man but a naked ape?

But every generation makes the same mistake

(What's a man but a naked ape?)

(What's a man but a naked ape?)

Yeah, Darwinian, carving our lineage

Into the Stone Age with shards of hard DNA

In the beginning, we didn’t need an Adam or Eve

Our ancestors inhabited trees

And handed down every habit that would have us succeed

At an increasingly gathering speed

Rapidly reproducing, how deep are the roots of your family tree?

How many branches on it?

How many leaves?

And what’s the plan when we leave for the savannas and plains?

As we abandon the rainforest, expand our terrain

Typical humans, look, they’re at it again

Never happy with the same thing, they have to seek change

And that’s the reason why they keep succeeding at everything

That life throws at them, treating every challenge as a game

If you fail to adapt, you will gradually endanger

The traits that made your race faster in the race

You want to die like that?

Thought not, so fight back

Your genetic code isn’t even written yet, so write that

Knowing you’re otherwise gonna die is quite a catalyst

You’re on a deoxyribonucleic acid trip

From Ardipithecus Ramidus to Australopithecus

To an Instagram influencer chuckin' another pic at us

Picture this, we’re a pick and mix of different bits

That tilt and shift, tip and pitch, twisted up in a helix

What’s a man but a naked ape?

Just trying to make it from day-to-day

'Cause what’s a man but a naked ape?

But with fantasies of making a great escape

What’s a man but a naked ape?

It’s amazing, spectating it taking shape

What’s a man but a naked ape?

But every generation makes the same mistake

(What's a man but a naked ape?)

(We're the same family, what can I say?)

What’s a man but a naked ape

With a little variation in facial shape?

And what’s an ape but another living thing

With some of the same DNA in another string?

And what’s a string of DNA but a cypher

Containing designs, dictating our nature

Explaining in writing the laser

Precise undertaking we’re staying alive for?

But if we find out why, will it make us any wiser?

Education, the great equalizer

Keep up with rivals

Peep what their eyeballs are seeing

When they read anything but the Bible

We’ve booked your mind on a voyage with the beagle

People better be ready for a big upheaval

Scholars bringing new knowledge

But the medieval elite theology will condemn and call it evil

Ha, don’t believe all the evidence you’ve been brought

Feel free to leave then, it’s better for the gene pool

Ever since we crawled, fresh from the fetal deep pool

We call the sea to the preschool

There have been people trying to make it illegal

To climb higher than the steeple of the cathedral

But it’s deceitful and lethal, we need reason

To reach freedom and leave from the prequel

Reboot from the seed to the roots of the tree

'Til we’re reaching the truth and we’re eating the fruit

Like an ape in the canopy

What can I say?

We’re the same family

(Like an ape in the canopy)

(What can I say? We’re the same family)

What’s a man but a naked ape?

Just trying to make it from day-to-day

'Cause what’s a man but a naked ape?

But with fantasies of making a great escape

What’s a man but a naked ape?

It’s amazing, spectating it taking shape

What’s a man but a naked ape?

But every generation makes the same mistake