Answer:
Hold these between your knees if you want to set a Cuban beat.
You throw me out when you want to use me and you take me in when you don't want to use me. Who am I?
I'm a god. I'm a planet. I measure heat.
My life is often a volume of grief, your help is needed to turn a new leaf. Stiff is my spine and my body is pale. But I'm always ready to tell a tale.
Through its wounds, water does run. It once held many but now has none. What is it?
You use it between your head and your toes, the more it works the thinner it grows.