Joshua Kronengold

Inspired by a line from satyrblade

This song is -shamelessly- political. And decidedly time-bound, but hey, now's the time.

March, 2016 ("We're gonna miss him")
© 2016 Joshua Kronengold
(to the tune of "You're gonna miss me", Lulu and the Lampshades)

Obama's got less than a year to go,
Some people think he's on his way.
And I sure would like to send a lot of company,
Send some congress with him for the U-S-A.

When he's gone,
When he's gone,
We're gonna miss him when he's gone,
We'll miss his jokes made with aplomb,
We'll miss his air of peace and calm,
We're gonna miss him when he's gone.

Me and my friends are registered to vote,
For those that we like both old and new,
We've got ones who make us shiver,
We've got ones who makes us quiver,
But I sure wish we had Obama too,

When he's gone,
When he's gone.
We're gonna miss him when he's gone.
It's been a lovely seven years,
It's been full of right-wing tears,
We're gonna miss him when he's gone

The primary race has been a lot of fun,
With too many double-takes to list,
We've got a race that's kind of tight,
And a clown-car on the right,
But it's not for them that I sing this song,

When he's gone (when he's gone)
When he's gone (when he's gone)
We're gonna miss him when he's gone.
We'll miss the way he fills a tux,
And the year he gave no...buckets,
We're gonna miss him when he's gone.

When he's gone,
When he's gone,
We're gonna miss him when he's gone,
We'll miss his jokes made with aplomb,
We'll miss his air of peace and calm,
We're gonna miss him when he's gone.

I first heard talis_kimberley's "Cotton Tail Girls" in a Lady Mondegreen concert or oneshot -- with Batya, Merav, and Seanan kicking it out of the park with a triplicate lead and fantastic multi-part harmony. I'd not hear the original--didn't even know there was an original, but it was great stuff.

But, here's the thing about me and music:

I can't pay attention to everything at once.

So..I love clever lyrics, and rhythms, and harmony and melodies--but the first time I hear a song, I'm going to miss some stuff. So while grooving on Cotton Tail Girls for the first time, the only lines that really stuck were the chorus and demi-chorus, plus the lines about hearing for miles and about how if Hefner hadn't chosen a rabbit for the Playboy theme animal, the "Girls" would have been relegated to working in the cotton mills instead of the Playboy club.

This? Made me at first assume that the girls had some attributes that made them -particularly- well suited to working as Playboy bunnies. Of course, that's not the song Talis wrote. OTOH, it doesn't make a bad song idea...

Bunny Eared Girls
Joshua Kronengold
Heavily borrowed from and inspired by Cotton Tail Girls (Talis Kimberley)
To the tune of Cotton Mill Girls (c) Hedy West
(Note that the first verse has one extra stanza before the chorus)

(Jess)
Well, the silver screen has always made me swoon,
'cause my Pa was a human but my Momma's a 'toon, and it's

Hard times, bunny-eared girls, hard times everywhere.

(Betty)
I was born in a test tube in back in '93
When they tried to make a woman who could leap a tree, and it's

Hard times, bunny-eared girls, hard times everywhere.

(Luna)
I got bit by my boyfriend on a Saturday night,
Then I found he was a a rabbit when the moon was bright, and it's
Hard times, bunny-eared girls, hard times everywhere.

Hard times, bunny-eared girls, x3
hard times everywhere

(Betty)
I serve plenty of drinks, I make plenty of quips,
I give plenty of winks, I make plenty of tips, and it's

Hard times, bunny-eared girls, hard times everywhere.

It may look like you can break me but I kick like a mule,
(So) If you think you can take me, you will end up the fool, and it's

Hard times, bunny-eared girls, hard times everywhere.

Hard times, bunny-eared girls, x3
Hard times everywhere

(Luna)
I have to change my style as the moon grows brighter,
I can hear for miles, but my hair gets whiter, (and it's)

Hard times, bunny-eared girls, hard times everywhere.

My teeth are scary, but I don't eat meat,
My legs are hairy, and I've got big feet, and it's,

Hard times, bunny-eared girls, hard times everywhere.

Hard times, bunny-eared girls, x3
hard times everywhere

(Jess)
The ears are natural, but the tail's brand new,
As for my little black nose, well, I ain't telling you, and it's

Hard times, bunny-eared girls, hard times everywhere.

I work my tail off from five to one,
Then you can find me at the drive-in till I see the sun, (and it's)

Hard times, bunny-eared girls, hard times everywhere.

Hard times, bunny-eared girls, x3
hard times everywhere

(various, as appropriate)
You may think it silly that I (we?) wear these clothes
But we're glad it was a rabbit Mr Heffner chose, and it's

Hard times bunny-eared girls, hard times everywhere.

Cos if he'd had a spider or a lizard as a pet
We'd all be in a freak-show and we couldn't pay the vet, and it's

Hard times bunny-eared girls, hard times everywhere, yeah,

Hard times bunny-eared girls, hard times everywhere.

Hard times, bunny-eared girls, x3
Hard times everywhere


( Older Lyrics behind the cut )

This has taken a long time to post, mostly due to technical difficulties. Actually, I had to pull it out of archival to find it.

At batyatoon's housefilk (where I still am, yay!) Will claimed
that with its many parodies Still Alive was the Banned from Argo of its
time. And 'proved' it with the first of two parodies.

It was a pretty good song, but I don't think the parallel is quite right;
in fact, there's another song that is even more well known for being
parodied. An hour later, ( I sang this. )

All, you know, two of you.

Firefly Canon
ttto "Hey Ho, to the Greenwood", by William Byrd, 1543-1623

Take us out to the black, in joy and pain
The sky to gain
And there shall we find Wash, Mal and Jayne
The sky to gain
Inara, Book and River who's insane
The sky to gain

---

For the tune, well, you could websearch, but why do that when I did it for you?

Scan of the sheet music from Ravenscroft: http://home.uchicago.edu/~atterlep/Music/Songs/heyhotothegreenwood.htm

Or there's a midi file here: http://www.bcpl.net/~cbladey/guy/html/midis.html

And both midi and sheet music agree -- my decade+ old memory of the song's rhythm is Totally Off! So I'm going to have to relearn it!

The Folk Process
Joshua Kronengold
Tune: Original-ish

When you can't recall the words while standing on the stage,
Don't stop to find them in a book or storm off in a rage,
Do not scream or shout or call for lines or pound upon your head,
Just recall the shape the words once had and make them up instead.

It's the folk process, we do it all the time,
We change the music or the words, or even change the rhyme,
With the folk process, we make a song our own,
For music is not made out of a hard unyielding stone.

When I write a song and others sing it back...a little wrong,
I am tempted to sing back "What have you done to my song,"
It did nothing much to hurt them, but they haven't killed it dead,
For we know our music lives when we see blood flowing red.

It's the folk process, we do it all the time,
We change the music or the words, or even change the rhyme,
With the folk process, we make a song our own,
For music is not made out of a hard unyielding stone.

When I hear some words in music and they will not leave my brain,
And I twist the words and sing them back, quite wrong on each refrain,
It may start when I mishear a line, or have an evil thought,
But once I'm done, my victim justly fears what I have wrought.

It's the filk process--you need not show alarm,
For when you parody a song, you do not do it harm,
It's through this conversation that our music flows around,
And through these changes large and small that our hearts sound.

It's the folk process, we do it all the time,
We change the music or the words, or even change the rhyme,
With the folk process, we make a song our own,
For music is not made out of a hard unyielding stone.