SONG: “Rats Get Into Everything”.
ARTIST: grant.
SOURCE: Nature, 11 July 2018, “Seabirds enhance coral reef productivity and functioning in the absence of invasive rats”, as used in the post “How rats can kill a coral reef”.
ABSTRACT:
It’s a blues song about rats. I mean, with twee-ish, shoegazer-ish quiet vocals, and a kind of pseudo-South African guitar figure, but still. Rats. They demand a certain directness of approach.
I would have gotten it done on time but I was doing a heck of a lot of driving the last couple of weeks (even after the last song post). Did the guitar figuring and the rest of the main instrumenting on time, some of it in the backseat at 75 miles per hour, then got some vocal ideas together on the 23rd, then… needed a break before I could even think how to sing them. Then decided to add an organ bit during what passes for “mastering” in my lo-fi workflow. Because little backbeats! I can’t tell if it’s too loud or not, but I’m glad it’s there. I like this thing as a song, you know? If I had better fingers, I bet I could do an OK version live, even.
Rats and systems. When I thought of tackling this as a subject, I thought at first of little clockwork minimalist Baroque “systems” music, all pieces slotting together in non-obvious ways, but nah. This is better.
Now, to find another science song to do a penitential cover.
LYRICS:
Fish breed beneath the colonies
The stone grows beneath the waves
Feed falls from the heavens
Bird shit saves(FEAG)-Like the sun boils the ocean
Like the fire coral stings
Like the surf pounds stone into sand
Rats get into everythingOn the trees above the beaches
Grow the fruit the ocean craves
Manna falls from the heavens
Bird shit savesAs long as eggshells stay unbroken
As long as feathers find the wind
Feed keeps falling from the heavens
Bird shit again(FEAG)-Like the sun boils the ocean
Like the fire coral stings
Like the surf pounds stone into sand
Rats get into everything.Rats get into nests and break them
Like famine, plague, death and war
Feed stops falling from the heavens
Bird shit no more(FEAG)-Like the sun boils the ocean
Like the fire coral stings
Like the surf pounds stone into sand
Rats get into everything.(FEAG)-Like the sun boils the ocean
Like the fire coral stings
Like the surf pounds stone into sand
Rats get into everything.
Rats get into everything.
Rats get into everything.