SONG:
ARTIST: grant.
SOURCE: Based on “Call for NIH research chimpanzees to be retired”, Nature, 6 July 2012, as used in the post “Chimp retirement plan.”.
ABSTRACT: This was written in response to the latest SongFu2012 prompt, from Ken Plume (the fellow who organizes the whole thing):“It’s my birthday this month, so I’m taking this prompt and giving you – Write an upbeat birthday song that never explicitly states it’s a birthday song.”. I have a habit, which I suppose I’m trying to break, of sending friends a video of the They Might Be Giants song “Older” on their birthdays. I love a fugue, and the passage of time… but that’s not terribly upbeat in any sense of the word.
So instead, I started with the story about the chimps. A birthday would likely not be celebrated at the NIH hepatitis lab, other than perhaps a checkmark on a form on a clipboard outside a chimpanzee’s enclosure. But it’s one day closer to retirement, even for a lab primate. So, retirement is a pretty upbeat thing to be heading toward, whether for a chimp or a hirsute online personality with a natty fedora. Probably even moreso for the NIH chimpanzee.
The rest fell into place around that. Nearly all SoundFonts, with some accidentally phased guitar I kept in there because it fit, a not-so-bad horn section and a whole lot of optimism about Louisiana’s Chimp Haven.
Best wishes, Mr. Plume.
Lyrics:
VS: A D(openE)
(formally: A and Dsus2)CH: A A(openB) D(openE) D(openE)
(formally: A Asus2 Dsus2 Dsus2)BR:
E – D
E – G – D – AYou may sign when I use English
But I think you’re quite distinguished
With that spray of silver hairs
Across your muzzle
And your eyes seem wise and gracious
Though your cage was not so spacious
While you helped us solve our biologic puzzles
CH:
Now you’re one day closer to the National Primate Home
Where you’ll leap from branch to branch beneath the sun
You’ve been such a giver – we were so hard on your liver –
Congratulations on a job well done.
You earned the lab’s respect from
the way you took injections
We thought your culture made a fine example.Your noble bearing
beyond the tags you’re wearing
Spelled out as much as any tissue sample.
CH:
Now you’re one day closer to the National Primate Home
Where you’ll leap from branch to branch beneath the sun
You were always such a giver – and thank you for your liver cells-
Congratulations on a job well done.
BR:
I expect to find there’s something in my eye at the time
When every lab technician waves goodbye
Goodbye!
And you ride beside the doctors to the National Primate Home
Four hours northwest of Lafayette
And Texarkana, well, it ain’t no Ghana,
But you-can preen your-friends while watching your sun set.One day closer to the National Primate Home
One day closer to the National Primate Home
One day closer to the National Primate Home