Feb 2022 headlinesong
Ben Folds is doing a fun exercise on his Patreon (you should join if you're a fan! patreon.com/benfolds) where we bring news stories every friday, then we pick one from the pile and we all make creative stuff from it. this was from 2 fridays ago and i finally got around to it. this was the story: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/monkey-business-escaped-laboratory-monkeys-after-pennsylvania-crash-found-180979460/
my song took some liberties, but it's from the point of view of a monkey in the truck.
i also livestreamed the process of writing this little ditty, which has been a new element to my songwriting. it's fun and also scary to do it this way, but... why not?
part 1: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1283320231
part 2: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1291277205
two roads diverged in a yellow wood
unfortunately both are no good
and i'm forced to choose which path that i'm gonna take
to the left i'm a monkey in someone's lab
to the right i find freedom but get stabbed
either way it's disaster no matter which choice i make
oh to be the driver of this truck
even when you're stopped, you're not stuck
no not like i am
two roads diverged in a yellow wood
and i'd decide different if i could
but it's not like the yellow brick road in the wizard of oz
where they find something good at the end of the road
no i seem to be burdened by this heavy load
that's been hoisted upon me... just because
fly, fly monkeys fly
into the sky my dears
i was hoping that i
would fly far away from here
two roads diverged in a yellow wood
and i'm caught in a net before i could
even try to decide which road i go down
don't be like i am
@hoppiern Mar 2022
Love this - how you brought in the idea of Wizard of Oz and then had the monkeys fly is brilliant. The piano/vocal is really well done too. Excellent song!! I’m your newest fan:-)
@elesimo Feb 2022
Love the story! The piano playing reminded me of Regina Spektor, one of my favorite singers. So good!
@skyezor Feb 2022
Absolutely dig your style. Its serving real Joan Osborrne/Suzanne Vega vibes and I'm HERE for it.
@cubizm Feb 2022
I love this story and I love your vocal delivery. Really fun.
@htcreates Feb 2022
lovely! love the lyrics and the melody. nicely done! to answer your question from my feed - I'm trying to get into sync licensing but just working towards it at this point :-) Thanks for your comment!
@berni1954 Feb 2022
I like the Frost pastiche in the opening lines of each verse. You had me from the opening lines.
This was a fun write. I like how underneath its jolly surface lurks a real criticism of animal experiments. Chapeau!
PS I lived in Nigeria as a child on a W.H.O. compound. They had rhesus monkeys in cages there that they kept for experiments. One day one escaped and came into our flat - it was quite aggressive and we were terrified it had been injected with some terrible tropical disease. It clung to the thief bars we had on our ground floor windows and screeched and complained about its predicament in much the same way your monkey does, I am guessing. Luckily, the WHO operators came and caught him (it was clearly a male) after my Dad phoned them. But I did feel sorry for it, until I saw it happily "servicing" a whole bunch of females a few days later in its cage. :-)
@brigetboyle Feb 2022
Yea! I love this. So much fun. Your voice sounds freaking great and I love these lyrics so much