Posted 6:44 PM by sport

(Apropos of previous posting, my song: CACTUS BOY. Since the 5 people who ever listened to the song all the way through probably never listened twice, here's the lyric.)

Go on and mingle among 'em a little bit, go on, child.
What's that quizzical sniffle they greet you with? What's that, child?
That's just the way they know their own... it's a very special smell!
When you catch a whiff of it, run like hell.

A group's a gang's a mob's an army: itching to deploy.
"Noli Me Tangere."
You tell 'em.
You're "IT," Cactus Boy.

There's a whole buncha nothing a-crawling through the world, child.
When it eyeballs on Something, it wants to make it die.

One's a soul, and two's a love song. Yonder come a hoi polloi...

Wish 'em all out into the cornfield, Cactus Boy.
Everybody!

-Copyright 2000 Sport Murphy-

(Note: "cactus" as in: Arms up, spines out, alone in the wasteland. "Noli Me Tangere" is Latin for "Don't Touch Me" …it's also the name of a plant bearing spurs. Hoi Polloi is the masses. All groups are dangerous. Most individuals are, to some extent, worth knowing; they're "something." They gravitate to groups, though, becoming nothing in the process. This is my proudest recorded accomplishment. The "everybody" shout at the end is a joke on sing-alongs, as well as announcing who should be "wished out into the cornfield" …which is another Twilight Zone reference. The episode is "It's A Good Life," starring Billy Mumy. I imagined the song as a Broadway song, performed by a cast of one to an empty theater. Musically, it was an attempt to answer the age-old question "what if Henry Cowell wrote "One For My Baby?")