Song picture
#147-Old John Morris (1994)
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About a lonely taxidermist, sung by a stuffed something or other
folk funny political sixties novelty gentle prolific idiosyncratic lehrer jefferson airplane ochs paxton steve goodman
Artist picture
Tom Paxton meets Jefferson Airplane. Extremely prolific singer songwriter with a wide range of styles from bizarre novelty tunes and surrealistic poetic songs t
With more than 300 songs and counting and for more than 30 years, I have written in a variety of acoustic styles from novelty tunes to love songs to historical ballads to poetic surrealistic songs to retro-acoustic pop. From bizarre to traditional from funny to poignant, whatever style the song is in, the melodies are usually memorable and the lyrics unpredictable. This site will eventually contain rough often first take demos of my entire song catalogue. Many of the earliest songs when I first started writing will of course be shaky. So expect the songs to get better as time goes on. Feel free to come back and browse often as I will constantly be adding songs, one by one in chronological order, starting in 1974. If you are looking for some unusual songs to cover from a little known but unique artist, you have come to the right place. Just e-mail me. If you find a song here that intrigues you, but you don't like a line or two, or you think it needs a bridge, drop me an e-mail and maybe you can earn writer's credit if it gets that song to be recorded or performed.... otherwise just enjoy. You can become a Rob Lincoln fan at no cost to you. I promise that if you keep coming back there will be some real surprises along the way. While mostly acoustic, some original material will veer into folk rock and even 60's pop, but the garage rock and loudest material will also be found in full band arrangement at soundclick.com/abrasiveflowers Eventually some of these 300+ tunes may be rerecorded and make it on to CD, including a novelty CD that would be suitable for Dr. Demento or an historical ballad CD or a political song CD--but until then, this is the only site you can hear most of these songs. (A few of my songs CAN be found on songramp.com/RobLincoln and myspace.com/lessickandlincoln)
Song Info
Charts
Peak #375
Peak in subgenre #73
Author
Rob Lincoln
Rights
1994
Uploaded
April 27, 2008
Track Files
MP3
MP3 4.1 MB 128 kbps 4:31
Story behind the song
This is an unusual character portrait to say the least. I actually wrote the words before the melody which is rare for me. Steve Lessick wrote most of the lyrics to the last verse. He was the lead vocalist for it in L&L and though I am singing lead here, I've retained much of the original harmony arrangement. Mp3 Club listeners gave this a 3.8 out of 5.0...Comments included: "What could be the symbolism of a taxidermist? Stuffs living creatures and makes them appear to still be alive. Perhaps we humans only appear to be alive while the true life spirit has been ripped from us. We remain abeautiful facade with no substance.( As long as we're being grim)" "For some reason I had trouble staying with the story" "Draggy, not too engaging, but nice melody" "Boring musically but great words..with an arrangement this could be quite good"
Lyrics
Round robin-a fat bird Poached on a window-silly as it seems Old goat heads stare into nothing Never chatting by the chipmunk That's mounted next to me But old John Morris, local taxidermist Lies in his stuffed chair Staring at the wall A jackrabbit with a moldy ear Glares intently at the racoon cut down in '55 The prized possession, a good-hearted bull moose Was too kind to charge---so he cashed it in But old John Morris, local taxidermist Sighs in his stuffed chair Staring at the wall Thoughts begin to crawl Smoking his Pall Mall Watch the ashes fall Life it seems so small When there's no one there at all Except his friends Takes his feather duster and tickles under my nose Talks to Fred the Possum Scolds his rooster Joe Outside the window a warm breeze is blowing So shut the window shade Keep the sun outside But old John Morris, local taxidermist Sighs in his stuffed chair Staring at the wall Thoughts begin to crawl Smoking his Pall Mall Watch the ashes fall Life it seems so small When there's no one there at all Except his friends
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