I
wrote some lyrics yesterday and sent them to a couple dozen music
friends, asking for suggestions. Since I wanted to get the song out
fast, I wanted to use a tune that people know or could find easily.
Adam
Miller suggested "The Rising of the Moon" (among other tunes), Bernie
Gilbert suggested dropping verse 2 (so I made the old chorus verse 2)
and now I have a more singable chorus and a solution to the problem
(The Bellybutton Amendment). Thanks for the ideas, folks. I knew you'd
come through.
“The
Rising of the Moon,” uses a simpler version of the tune to “The Wearing
of the Green,” a fine old Irish tune. If you are so moved, please sing
this and spread it around. It’s copyright-free. Just credit me, please. I
will, of course be singing this at my birthday show, which is just
three days after St. Patrick’s Day (March 20 at the Freight).
THE BELLYBUTTON TEST
To the tune of “The Rising of the Moon”
New words by Nancy Schimmel
I’ve read some science-fiction
And I know how to tell
A human from an android,
You know, I learned it well.
If it doesn’t have a navel
It’s an alien, at best
Or else it is an android,
It’s the bellybutton test.
Chorus
It’s the bellybutton test, it’s the bellybutton test,
We need a new amendment with the bellybutton test.
If it doesn’t pass the test
The bellybutton test,
It’s from a lawyer’s office
Or a pterodactyl nest
Don’t ya tell me that it’s human,
It is a thing possessed,
A corporation cannot pass
The bellybutton test.
Chorus
If Chevron is a person,
Would he adopt a child?
He’d expose the kid to benzene!
And wouldn’t that drive you wild?
If a corporation kills us
With toxins in the air,
Oh, can a corporation’s butt
Fit in the electric chair?
Chorus
©2010 by Nancy Schimmel
"I
hope we shall... crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed
corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial
of strength and bid defiance to the laws of
our country." --Thomas Jefferson to George Logan, 1816.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
THE BELLYBUTTON TEST
