THE PESCADERO VALLEY OUTDOOR SCHOOL SONGBOOK
A Collection of Music for All Ages
THE PESCADERO VALLEY OUTDOOR SCHOOL SONGBOOK
1
A Collection of Music for All Ages
Compiled and Edited by Joshua “Bobcat” Stacy
Previous edition compiled by Megan “Canyon” Phillips
With help from a lot of other people
Thanks to everyone who contributed one way or another to this amazing
collection of music. Special thanks to Paul “Palm” Mazzei for his compositions,
help with this songbook and setting a rockin’ tone at campfires here at San
Joaquin Outdoor School, thanks to Gregory “Grey Wolf” Bahr for his
encouragement during this project, and finally thanks to all of the musicians of
the valley for making magic every week and creating an environment where
music is an integral part of life. Music is one of the most powerful tools we have
as naturalists. It lifts spirits and engages minds in a way that is uniquely
captivating.
Preface and Acknowledgements from the previous edition:
Here’s a collection that will never be finished, for use with your voice,
guitar, shaker, tambourine, drum, flute, and laughter. Remember that kids
never love you more than when you get up and make a fool of yourself, on key
or not.
Thanks to Evergreen Eric for the original songbook (1995) which this is
based upon, to Solar Steve for unending musical and creative inspiration, and
to all the rock stars in the Pescadero Valley and beyond. We may not see each
other as often as we’d like but we’re all singin’ the same songs.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Teaching/Folk Songs
2
A Place in the Choir…………………………………………………….1
Air Cycle Swing…………………………………………………………..2
Algae………………………………………………………………………….3
The Ancient Egyptians………………………………………………….4
Anemone…………………………………………………………………….5
Banana Slug Song…………………………………………………………6
Bats Eat Bugs……………………………………………………………….7
Beatles' Earth Songs………………………………………………………8
Big Red Rap………………………………………………………………….9
Bizz Buzz…………………………………………………………………….10
The Boats They Come……………………………………………………11
Branching Out……………………………………………………………..12
Chigga Cheer
The Circle Game
Come as a Slug
Compost Cake
Country Roads
Decompostion
The Decomposer Song
Dead Skunk
Dirt
Dirt made My Lunch
Don’t Touch It, Don’t Eat It, Don’t Lick It
The Dodo Song
Endless Concert
Evil Waste
Expanding Universe
The FBI
Food Chain
Funky Fungus
Give Plants A Chance
The Garden Song
Go Into the Night
Gusano
Habitat
Harriet Tubman
I Am a Redwood
I Am an Animal
I Am Connected
I Believe In You
I Can't Help But Wonder
If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out
I'll Rot Away
I Wanna Be A Dog
Lichen
The Limbo
Live Oak, Live Oak
Living In the Redwoods
The Living Sea
3
Lizards
Likin' the Lichen
Moonshadow
Misquito Fiesta
Ode de la Marsh
Outdoor School I (First Day)
Outdoor School II (Last Day)
Pattycake Polka
Photosynthesis
Piece of Scat
Planet that is Green
Plankton Soup
Rainbow Connection
Recycling
Rocks in My Socks
Ripple
River Song
Rock & Trees
Roots, Stems, Leaves
Rooty Toot Toot For the Moon
Safe At Home
Salamander
Say Goodbye with Some Hello
Scat Makes the World Go Round
Sea Star
Semi-Aquatic Life
Shooting Star
Singing To the Moon
Slug Named Fred
Silent Spring
Silly Salamander
The Snake Song
So Why Aren't You?
Solar Energy Shout
Spawnin' Blues
Splendor of the World
Tidepool Boogie
The Tidepool Shuffle
Tube Feet
Water Cycle Boogie
Waves Come From Wind
Web of Life
We’re In This Together
Where Do the Children Play?
Wild Thing
Your Own Worst Enemy
Short Closing/Dismissal Songs
Friends
4
Goodnight and Sleep Well
Happiness Runs
Humble
If I Had Wings
Turn the World Around
Voices of One People
With People I Like
Chants
Air I Am
Connected
Deep Peace
Down Down Down
Fog
I Circle Around
Mammal
My Roots Go Down
River is Flowing
River of Birds
Standing Like A Tree
Sun, Soil, Water, and Air
Two Hands Hold The Earth
Waterfall
Who Were the Witches?
Campfire Stories/Skits
Falling Rock
The Lorax
The Other Way to Listen
Rindecella
Sunny Side
Whatif?
TEACHING/FOLK SONGS
5
A PLACE IN THE CHOIR (adapted from “All God’s Crittters” by Bill Staines)
Chorus:
G
All Earth’s critters got a place in the choir
D
G
G7
Some sing low and some sing higher
C
G
Some sing out loud on the telephone wire
D
G
Some just clap their hands, or paws, or fins, or claws, or anything
they got now
Listen to the bass it’s the one on the bottom
Where the bullfrog croaks and the hippopotamus
Moans and groans with a big to do,
The old cow just goes MOOOOO…
Chorus
The
The
The
The
dogs and the cats they take up the middle
hummingbird hums and the cricket fiddles
donkey brays and the pony neighs
old coyote HOWLS…
Chorus
Listen to the top where the little birdies sing
With the melodies and the high notes ringing
And the Screech Owl hollers over everything
And the Stellar’s Jay disagrees…
Chorus
Singing in the night time singing in the day
The skunk just grunts and he’s on his way
The possum ain’t got much to say
And the porcupine talks to himself…
Chorus
AIR CYCLE SWING
Chorus:
C
The air
C
The air
(Doug Greenfield)
Am
D7
G
cycle, it takes you and me;
Am
D7
G
cycle, we're breathing with the trees.
6
C
What we breathe
G
We trade CO2 for
E
F
F#
out, those plants breathe in;
G7
oxygen.
The trees got a kitchen up in their leaves;
Cooking up a recipe that we all need.
Sun, soil, water, and CO2,
Produces oxygen for me and you.
Chorus
Now every living thing everywhere
Has got to have a breath of that sweet fresh air.
By paving the land and cutting all of the trees,
We're endangering our planets livability.
Chorus
Have you been to a salt marsh?
Many plants growing in a land that's harsh.
In a sandy, sunny, windy, salty habitat,
Making oxygen is where it's at.
Chorus
Now listen folks, we've got to care,
Cause there's only so much sweet fresh air.
Clean up smoke stacks, tailpipes too,
To keep clean air for me and you.
Chorus
ALGAE
(Shagbark and Tortuga)
Chorus(4 beats on each G chord and 2 beats for C and D, reggae beat)
G
C
D
Algae, Algae, that's Mr. Algae to you
G
C
D
7
Algae, Algae, that's Mr. Algae to you
Verses
G
I come in red brown and green, but that's not it
C
D
I'm blue green diatom and dinoflagellate
G
If you go to the tidepools look underneath your shoe
C
D
Chances are that I’m there too
Take your ice cream carton see if you can see
A crazy word that came from me
It’s called carageenan and did you know
It makes ice cream creamy, hey yo
So if you’re not thinking about me baby you got some nerve
Give me the respect that I deserve
R-E-S-P-E-C-T to the A-L-G-A-E
Before you go dissing me for making you slip
Let me tell you something that will make you trip
I’m in ice cream and chocolate milk
And I make your hair feel just like silk
Let me tell you something you’re not realizing
While you go about your life I’m busy photosynthsizing
So you think that trees are important to you
I produce 80% of the earth’s O2
Hey little homies give me mad props
“Cause I’m just as important as your farmer’s crops
I’m the biggest crop in the sea
“Cause I’m doing some primary productivity
THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS
Chorus:
(Poi Dogs Pondering)
G
C
D
Well the ancient Egyptians and the other Africans,
G
C
D
The Mayans, the Incas, and all the Polynesians,
G
C
D
8
All around the world a long long time ago,
G
C
D
G
People would walk wherever they had to go.
Well, they didn't have car keys and they didn't have roads.
They didn't have ugly convenience stores, or Texaco's.
All around the world, a long long time ago,
People would walk wherever they had to go.
Chorus
Now it's the nineteen nineties and the gasoline does flow,
But I still try to walk to most of the places I have to go.
But sometimes my friends say, "Hey, ____, wait a minute,
There's a bus or a cab over there, why don't we go ahead and get in it?"
But I say, "No, no, no! And didn't you know,
You get to know things better when they go by slow.
Chorus
ANEMONE
(Palm)
Chorus
E
F#
E
F#
Anemone, Anemone, ain't got no hands, ain't got no feet
E
F#
E
F#
Anemone, Anemone, stinging cells that protect me
Anemone, Anemone, zooxanthellae in my belly
9
Everybody say, Anemone
Verses
B
F#
E
You know I've been waitin' all day long for the tide to get high
B
F#
E
F#
I'm hating life when I'm livin' high and dry
B
F#
E
I'm just a little brown blob when I pull my green tentacles inside
B
F#
E
F#
Spending my days just waiting for the next high tide
F#
F#
Chorus
I am a Cnidarian, that means jellyfish is my cousin
That's why I kind of look like an upside down version of him
We both have nematocysts, that is cells that sting
While his hurt real bad mine just feel kinda sticky
Chorus
When a fish swims by I close my tentacles down real tight
You know that's how I feed every day and every night
I also have a symbiosis where algae lives in my belly
But I prefer the term zooxanthellae
Chorus
BANANA SLUG SONG
(Kevin Beals; additional lyrics from various sources)
G
C
D
You know I love my baby (love my baby)
C
G
C
D
I love the way that she hugs (way that she hugs)
C
G
C
D
Some people don’t understand it (don’t understand it)
C
G
C
D
She’s a banana slug (banana slug)
D
BA-NA-NA SLUG!
10
He’s got just one foot
He ain’t got no toes
He hangs out in the forest
And helps it decompose.
On the side of her head
She’s got an all purpose hole
She’s got just one foot
But plenty of soul.
Well some folks say that she’s gross
But I won’t hear that jive
Cause if it weren’t for my baby
The forest might not survive.
The way you wiggle your antennae
You know you give me such bliss
Come on come on come on banana slug
Won’t you blow me a kiss.
The way you slide through the forest
You know you look so fine
Come on come on come on banana slug
Won’t you show me your slime.
You know I love my baby
But he don’t need me
That’s because he’s hermaphroditic
That means he’s also a she!
Sticky as peanut butter
Shade of yellow
Look like banana
But oh so mellow!
Shake it up baby
Twist and slime
Come on come on come on banana slug
Oh you slime so fine.
BATS EAT BUGS
(Steve Van Zandt)
G
C
Bats eat bugs they don’t eat people.
G
D7
Bats eat bugs they don’t fly in your hair.
G
C
Bats eat bugs they eat insects for dinner.
G
D7
G
That’s why they’re flying up there.
11
Coyotes eat rabbits they don’t eat people.
Coyotes eat rabbits cause you’re too big to bite.
Coyotes eat rabbits they eat rabbits for dinner.
That’s why they’re out at night.
Snakes eat mice they don’t eat people.
Snakes eat mice that’s why they’re on the ground.
Snakes eat mice cause we’re too big to swallow.
So they don’t want you hanging around.
Bears eat berries they don’t eat people.
Bears eat berries they don’t eat you or me.
Bears eat berries and they’ll steal your dinner.
So you better hang it high in a tree.
Nothing out there wants to eat you.
Nothing out there wants to make you its meal.
Nothing out there eats people for dinner.
Cause you know how sick they would feel.
BEATLES' EARTH SONGS
(adapted by Dan "Dirty D" Pascucci)
YOU’VE GOT TO HIDE YOUR LOVE AWAY
G
D
F
C
F
C
Here I stand with trash in hand, hanging at the ma-all
G
D
F
C
F C D7
If it were gone, I could move on, it’s really , really sma-a-all
Everywhere people stare, as I prepare to wa-aste
I can see them point at me, and I hear them sa-a-ay
Chorus
G
C
D7
Hey, you’ve got to throw your trash away
12
Hey, you’ve got to throw your trash away
LET IT BE
G
D
Em
C
When I find the earth in times of trouble, Mother Nature comes to me
G
D
C G-Am7-G
Speaking words of wisdom, plant a tree
And when there’s carbon dioxide, she is standing right in front of me
Speaking words of wisdom, plant a tree
Chorus
G
Em
D
C
G
Plant a tree, plant a tree, plant a tree, plant a tree
G
D
C G-Am7-G
Water it tomorrow, plant a tree
HEY JUDE
D
A
Hey Dude, don’t waste that stuff
A7
D
you could reuse it, and make it better
G
D
remember to cut down on all your trash
A
D
and in a flash, you’ll make earth better
Hey dude, don’t be afraid
it will not hurt you, to conserve water
The minutes, you cut down when you bathe
maybe will save, a little otter
hey dude, turn off the lights
it could save you, a lot of money
the power you save when you turn them off
can be a lot, I’m not being funny
BIG RED RAP (SMOE adaptation of Banana Slug String Band version)
Gonna tell you a story that you should know
‘Bout the tallest tree that ever did grow.
It’s a redwood tree and it stands so high
That its tallest branches nearly reach the sky.
BBBBBBB-Big
RRRRRRR-Red
Well, this tree is nearly 2000 years old
Knows many stories that never been told.
13
Knew the Indians and the Spaniards too
And he’s still around to get to know you.
BBBBBBB-Big
RRRRRRR-Red
Well, his age and his height are his claim to fame
By now you’ve probably guessed his name
You come to see him at Outdoor Ed.
That’s right, his name is Big Red.
BBBBBBB-Big
RRRRRRR-Red
Well, Red’s got a friend who stands close by
His name is Dead Fred and I’ll tell you why.
He’s all black and hollowed out inside
Cause years ago in a fire Fred died.
BBBBBBB-Big
RRRRRRR-Red
Well, you’re probably wondering how Big Red
Survived the fire that did in Fred.
The fire swept by without leaving a mark
Cause Red was protected by his thick strong bark.
BBBBBBB-Big
RRRRRRR-Red
People will come and people will go
But Red will remain and continue to grow.
But he needs your help to protect his home
And tell people with chainsaws to just go home.
BBBBBBB-Big
RRRRRRR-Red
14
BIZZ BUZZ (Tad Drake)
B
E
A bunch of busy bugs buzzin’ by my melon
B
E
Assaulting my skin like a cop on a felon
B
E
Yet I possess the power to kill or to not
B
(pause)
To brush ‘em in the air or to squash ‘em with a swat.
B
E
Now I do my part I recycle and don’t litter
B
E
But here’s a simple fact we need to consider
B
E
Of all the fellow forms given life at birth
B
(pause)
Who was that that crowned us the kings of the earth?
Chorus:
B
E
I see them fly, I brush ‘em on by
B
E
And don’t assume that I am almighty most high
B
E
Five finger fling, a busy buzzing.
B
(pause)
In my ear I hear their buzz song sing.
B
E
Bizz buzz
B
E
That’s their bizz-i-nuss
B
E
A bizz buzz bizz
B
(pause)
That’s what it is
Oh those pests let’s give them a rest, cause some
Where down the road our lives will be blessed
Though they wrap our skulls bean cere-burrito
We must have mercy on the mosquitos
Chorus
So don’t cry or whine make peace and be kind
And give your blood like a grape gives wine - Ding they swarm, they mean ho harm
If you let them live you receive good kharma!
Chorus
*can substiute chords G,C for B,E
THE BOATS THEY COME (Bill Staines)
15
Chorus:
G
C
G
The boats they come and the boats they go
Am
G
White sails a–flashin’ from Mexico
G
C
G
Wonder if some day they’ll ever know
Am
D
G
As they sail on the deep blue sea
He used to sit on the cliffs as the sun went down
Waving his arms like some colorful clown
Talking to the sea birds flying down
Over the deep blue sea
Chorus
Some thought he was crazy cause he thought he could fly
Some thought he was crazy from the look in his eye
At most he’s just a character constantly high
Singing by the deep blue sea
Bridge:
D
Now he’s gone
D
His house torn down
C
His white beard’s never been seen around
D
C
D
Children still recall the sound of music by the sea
They sing…
Chorus
Some thought he was crazy cause he said he could fly
He just leaned into life as it went on by
Like a sail on a wind, oh it carried him high
As he sailed on the deep blue sea
Chorus
BRANCHING OUT
(John Gorka; adaptation)
16
Chorus:
E
A
D
A
I’m gonna reach, I’m gonna reach, I’m gonna reach
E
Reach for the sky.
A
D
A
I’m gonna reach, I’m gonna reach, I’m gonna reach
E
Till I know why.
A
When I grow up I wanna be a tree
D
Gonna make my home with the birds and the bees
A
And the squirrels, they can count on me
E
When I grow up I’m gonna be a tree.
I’ll let my joints get stiff, put my feet on the ground
Take the winters off, settle down
Keep my clothes till they turn brown
When I grow up I’m gonna settle down.
Chorus
When the spring comes by I’m gonna get real green
If a dog comes by I’m gonna get real mean
On windy days I’ll bend and lean
When I grow up I’m gonna get real green.
Chorus
Bridge:
D
If I should fall in storm or slumber
E
A
Please don’t turn me into lumber
D
I’d rather be a hollow nest
E
Where creatures take their rest.
Chorus
Repeat first verse
17
CHIGGA CHEER (music by Mark Nolan)
Underlined word is replaced each time with a new one; e.g. the names of cabins)
A
C G
A
C G
Hey there all you kids, you’re real cool cats
A
C G
A
C G
You’ve got a whole lot of this and a whole lot of that
A
C G
A
C G
So stand right here and shake your rear
A
C G
A
C G
Show us how you do the chigga cheer!
C
A
G A
G A
Hands up! Chigga chigga, chigga chigga
Hands down! Chigga chigga, chigga chigga
To the left! Chigga chigga, chigga chigga
To the right! Chigga chigga, chigga chigga
Owwwwwww! (everybody screams)
THE CIRCLE GAME (Joni Mitchell)
18
Chorus:
G
C
G
And the seasons, they go round and round
C
G
And the painted ponies go up and down
C
G
We’re captive on a carousel of time
C
Bm
C
We can’t return we can only look behind from where we came
Bm
C
G
And go round and round and round in a circle game
G
C
G
Yesterday a child went out to wander
C
D
Caught a dragonfly inside a jar
G
C
Bm
Fearful when the sky was full of thunder
C
G
D G
And tearful at the falling of a star
Then the child moved then times round the seasons
Skated over ten clear frozen streams
Words like “when you’re older” must appease him
And promises of someday make up his dreams
Sixteen springs and sixteen summers gone now
Cartwheels turn to car wheels through the town
And they tell him ‘take your time, it won’t be long now
Till you drag your feet to slow the circles down’
So the years spin by and now the boy is twenty
Though his dreams have lost some grandeur coming true
There’ll be new dreams, maybe even better dreams and plenty
Before the last revolving year is through
Tuning: D G D G B D
COME AS A SLUG
(words by Tad Drake; to music of Nirvana’s “Come As You Are”)
19
F#m
E
F#m
Come as a slug, eat some duff
E
F#m
Decompose and make it dirt
E
F#m
Find a log, you gastropod
E
F#m
The forest floor is where we work
Chorus:
E
We slide along
F#m
We sing our song
E
We’re spineless souls
F#m
A
F#m
A
Invertebrates, invertebrates, invertebrates
Our yellow coats, with banana boat
Shine on slime, we like it wet
Dark and damp is where we camp
With one foot out we slowly step
Chorus
Light your yellow lamps, we’re supertramps
We love our lives we hermaphrodites
As sing and sang our lives began
So sultans of soil slide and unite
Chorus
Bridge:
F#m
A
F#m
A
Get your hand out of my pneumostome
F#m
A
I said that’s my pneumostome
F#m
A
Yeah that’s my pneumostome
COMPOST CAKE
(Steve Van Zandt)
20
Chorus:
G
C
G
In the compost pile, it’s a party for new soil
G
A
D
In the compost pile, new dirt is what we make
G
C
G
In the compost pile, come and join our celebration
G
D
G
In the compost pile, making compost cake
D
G
Cookin’ up a batch of that compost cake
G
C
G
C
G
Group 1: layer it & layer it, layer it & layer it, layer it & layer it, compost cake!
G
C
G
C
G
Group 2: turn it & turn it, let the air flow through it now, compost cake!
G
C
G
C
G
Group 3: pile it high, pile it high, pile it high, compost cake!
C
G
Layer it and layer it with straw or leaves
C
G
And that leftover salad that we didn’t eat
C
G
Microscopic life turns on the heat to bake it
A
D
It’s a compost cake, that’s what it takes to make it
Chorus
Turn it and turn it, let the air flow through it
The beetles, bugs, and worms will chew to renew it
Whatever is here will never ever stay the same
Because decomposition is the name of the game
Chorus
Pile it and pile it with more and more
To heat it up for sure we add some manure
This luscious steaming stack of organic decay
Whatever you’ve got we’ll watch it rot away
Chorus
21
COUNTRY ROADS
(John Denver)
G
Em
Almost heaven, West Virginia,
D
C
Blue Ridge Mountains, Shanandoah River.
G
Em
Life is old there, older than the trees,
D
C
Younger than the mountains, blowin' like a breeze.
Chorus:
G
D
Country roads, take me home
Em
C
To the place, I belong,
G
D
West Virginia, mountain mama,
C
G
Take me home, country roads.
All my memories, gather 'round her,
Miner's lady, stranger to blue water.
Dark and dusty, painted on the sky,
Misty taste of moonshine, teardrops in my eyes.
Chorus
Em
D
G
I hear her voice in the morning as she calls me,
C
G
D
The radio reminds me of my home far away.
Em
D
C
G
Driving down the road I get a feeling that I should have been home
D
D7
Yesterday, yesterday.
Chorus
DEAD SKUNK (Loudon Wainwright III)
22
D
A
Crossing the highway late last night,
G
D
He should’ve looked left and he should’ve looked right.
A
He didn’t see the station wagon car,
G
D
The skunk got squashed and there you are.
Chorus:
D
A
You got a dead skunk in the middle of the road,
G
D
Dead skunk in the middle of the road,
A
Dead skunk in the middle of the road,
G
D
And it’s stinkin’ to high heaven.
Take a whiff on me, that ain’t no rose.
Roll up your windows and hold your nose.
You don’t have to hear and you don’t have to see,
Cause you can feel it in your olfactory!
Chorus
Well you got your dead cat and you got your dead dog,
And on a moonlight night you’ve got your dead toad frog.
Got you rabbit and your dead raccoon.
The blood and guts, they’re going to make you swoon!
Chorus
DECOMPOSITION
(Steve Van Zandt)
23
E
A7
Is there waste? Well I don't know
E
A7
One thing dies to let another grow
E
A7
This circle we see almost every day
E
D
E
The name we call it is... decay.
Chorus:
G
D
Well come on all you people, gather 'round
G
D
Breakdown and listen...
E
A7
E
A7...
To decomposition:
Group 1: Muncha, muncha, muncha...
Group 2: Decomposition, decomposition...
Group 3: I get down, I break down, I get down...
There are many kinds of bugs
Worms and snails and banana slugs
They are useful for me and you
They help to make the soil... renew.
Chorus
Decomposition is a useful game
A tree drops its leaves, but they don't stay the same
A bug chews them up and spits them back out
Making the soil for a new tree to... sprout.
Chorus
THE DECOMPOSER SONG (sung to the tune of Cecilia by Paul Simon)
Lyrics by Jacob Sackin
24
G
C
D
G
C
G
D
Chorus: Decomposers turn rocks into dirt, turn logs and dead deer into soil.
C
G
C
G
C
G
D
Decomposers are maggots and flies, bacteria, worms and mushrooms, and
mushrooms.
GCDG X2
G
C
D
G
G
C
D
G
Ants and flies in the afternoon are eating the flesh of a dead raccoon.
G
C
D
G
G
C
D
In an Oak tree, in the park there are termites in tunnels beneath the
G
G
C
D
G
bark, there are termites in tunnels beneath the bark.
GCDG X2
Chorus
C G C
D
G
C
G
D
Decomposition recycles dead things, clears the forest floor of dead branches.
C G C
G
C
G
D
Decomposition recycles dead things, clears the forest floor of dead branches.
G
C
D
G
The Decomposer sooooooooooooong.
GCDG X2
Chorus
DIRT (adapted from Phish, additional lyrics by Jacob Sackin)
25
D
Am
C
G
I like to live beneath the dirt
D
Am
C
G
A tiny space to move and breathe is all that I will ever need
D
Am
C
G
I like to live beneath the dirt
D
Am
C
G
Where I am free from push and shove like all those swarming up above
E
C
D
Beneath your heels I spend my time
Am
C
G
Eating dead things with my friends
I’ll wiggle in the earth and dew
C
C
Beneath the roots of trucks and stems
Turn dead plants into something new
D
Am
With millipedes and snakes and ants
C
G
D
Am
And if you ever think of me kneel down and kiss the earth
C
G
And show me what my life is worth
E
C
D
Upon the worms our life depends
Am
C
G
D
Am
C
DIRT MADE MY LUNCH
G
(Steve Van Zandt)
26
Chorus:
C
F
C
Dirt made my lunch, dirt made my lunch,
F
C
Thank you dirt, thanks a bunch,
F
C
For my salad, my sandwich, my milk, and my munch
G
C
Dirt made my lunch.
Am
C
Dirt is a word we often use
Am
C
When we’re talkin’ about the earth beneath our shoes.
Am
C
It is a place where plants can sink their toes,
F
G
And in a little while a garden grows.
Chorus
A farmer’s plow will tickle the ground
You know the earth has laughed when wheat is found.
The grain is taken and the flour is ground,
For making a sandwich to munch on down.
Chorus
A stubby green beard grows upon the land
Out of the soil grass will stand.
But under hoof it must bow,
For making milk by way of a cow.
Chorus
27
DON’T TOUCH IT, DON’T EAT IT, DON’T LICK IT (Stu Branoff)
D
C
G
Walking through the forest, what did I see
D
C
G
It was a slimy banana slug looking right up at me
D
C
G
I wanted to pick it up and show it how much I really loved it
D
C
G
But my naturalist told me something better to do with it
Chorus:
G
S/he said
D
C
You don’t touch it, you don’t eat it
G
C
You don’t lick it, just leave it alone (2X)
DCGC
Walking through the forest, what did I see
It was a shiny plant with leaves of three
I wanted to pick some and take it home to my folks
But my naturalist said don’t touch that man, that’s poison oak
Walking through the desert, what did I see
It was a plant that was definitely spiky
I told my friend here’s something for ya
But my naturalist said don’t touch that, it’s a piece of cholla
Walking through Natural Bridges, what did I see
It was something green hanging near the milkweed
I wanted to grab it and say what is this
But my naturalist said don’t touch that, it’s a monarch chrysalis
Walking through the redwoods, what did I see
It was a fuzzy plant lying at my feet
It looked like a nice place for my butt to settle
But my naturalist said don’t touch that, it’s stinging nettle
Walking through the forest, what did I see
It was a brown lump that was a little bit smelly
I asked if I could take a taste of some of that
But my naturalist said no way, that’s a piece of scat
THE DODO SONG (Lyrics and Music by Burl)
28
Chorus:
D
C
G
D
This is the story of the lives that have past,
the creatures and the green things who were not allowed to last,
It’s a story of broken cycles and connections long ago,
like a wild free river whose not allowed to flow.
Relationships aren’t forever and at times hard to see,
Our dabbling with nature has disturbed things to be,
The Song of The Dodo is a song of the past,
Like other creatures and the green things who were not allowed to last.
Chorus
It’s the same story for the redwoods as well,
A history of people too difficult to tell,
Their voices have been lost to greed and false needs,
Perharps you will listen and help them succeed.
Chorus
Change is as old as the sun, stars and moon,
It creeps upon us slowly and some times too soon,
One thing I know is that change is to be
And there’s no other place than here, you and me.
Chorus
ENDLESS CONCERT (Steve Van Zandt)
29
G
D
Raccoon on the washboard, buzzards on the bones
C
D
G
Goose and gander on their saxophones
Little birds in bushes, play their piccolos
While the bullfrog takes the bass down low
Spider plays her violin as she does the swing
To the rhythm of the snake shake rattling
Chorus:
C7
Buzzin’ hummin’ drummin’
G
Joint is jumpin’ when they play
A
Nature’s endless concert
D
Db D
D Db D
Night and day, hear them play
Moo cow she likes country, jay birds rock and roll
While the dogs and cats they groove to blues and soul
Great Horned Owl likes opera, she’s the tenor in the trees
While crickets play in three part harmony
Humpback whale is singing an ancient gospel tune
While coyote howls a ballad at the moon
Chorus
From atop the highest mountain, to the bottom of the sea
Music is the thread of unity
So step outside and hear it, you can play along
Let your heart and soul fill right up with song
It’s an endless concert every night and day
These wild rhythms we can learn to play
Chorus
EVIL WASTE (adapted from Carlos Santana by Jonathan Ferris, last verse by
Maggie Wolfe)
30
Am
D
Am D Am D
You've got to change your evil waste, baby,
Am
D
Am
D
Before the landfills are full and closed.
Am D Am D
You've got to change, baby,
Am
D
Am
D
Your wasting ways are growing old.
Chorus:
Am
D
Am
D
You must reduce it, re-use it, recycle today;
Am
D
Am
D
Go tell your neighbors, your parents, do it today!
E
Am D Am D
This can't go on, you know you've got to change.
When you're asleep, baby,
Your faucets drip and your lights are on.
Water is life, baby,
And you know you're wasting energy.
Chorus
When you’re at meals, baby,
Food you don’t eat just goes to waste.
Bread crusts and milk, baby,
I’ve seen them sitting there on your plate.
Chorus
You've got to change your evil waste, baby
The air is brown and it's not too cool
Try takin' a walk, baby
Instead of driving and wasting fuel
Chorus
EXPANDING UNIVERSE
D
A
(Monty Python; adaptation)
G
31
D
Remember that you’re standing on a planet that’s revolving
A
Revolving at 900 miles an hour
It’s orbiting at 19 miles per second, so it’s reckoned
D
The sun is the source of all our power
A
G
D
The sun and you and me and all the stars that you can see
G
Are moving at a million miles a day
D
In an outer spiral orbit, 40 thousand miles an hour
A
G
D
In a galaxy we call the Milky Way.
Our galaxy contains 100 billion stars
And it’s 100 thousand light years side to side.
It bulges in the middle 16 thousand light years thick
But out by us it’s just 3 thousand light years wide.
We’re 30 thousand light years from galactic central point
We go round every 200 million years.
And our galaxy is only one of billions and billions
In this amazing expanding universe.
Our universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding
In all of the directions it can win.
As fast as it can go at the speed of light you know
12 million miles a minute that’s the fastest speed there is.
So remember when you’re feeling very small and insecure
How amazingly unlikely is your birth.
Sink your roots deep into the galaxy
Dance of life on Planet Earth.
Sink your roots deep into reality
Dance for life on Planet Earth.
32
THE FBI
Chorus:
(Steve Van Zandt)
Dm
F
G
The FBI, whenever something dies,
Dm
F
G
The FBI, is there on the scene
Dm
F
G
The FBI, is working overtime
Dm
F
G
Dm
The FBI, to pick those bones clean
F
G
Fungus!. (fungus), bacteria!. (bacteria),
Dm
F Am Dm
Invertebrates!. (invertebrates), the FBI
(2x)
Dm
There’s fungus all among us and it’s breaking things down
F
G
Dm
Returning nutrients into the fertile ground
Millions of mycelium underground that’s why
F
G Dm
When you hold a handful of the earth you hold the FBI
Chorus
There are billions of bacteria in that soil over there
Microscopic life is in all the water, land and air
You should know that they are there though they are too small for your eye
These are secret agents of the FBI
Chorus
Insects, bugs, slugs, and worms are working night and day
The invertebrate crew are special agents of decay
To remove whatever’s rotten they will hop, crawl, hide or fly
Enforcing nature’s laws they are the FBI
Chorus
Lay down very still in the duff and learn their ways
Lift up a rotten log and you will surely be amazed
Go creeping through the forest learn to see and be a spy
In search of evidence of the FBI
Chorus
FOOD CHAIN
(Steve Van Zandt)
33
E
D
E
G
E
Plants are producers, they’re sun users in the food chain; chain, chain
E
D
E
G
E
They make food from the sun and the food chain has begun, food chain; chain, chain
Chorus:
G
Predator and prey,
D
Producers and decay
E
G
E
Are in a food chain; chain chain (2x)
Rabbit comes along and eats the plants down in the food chain; chain chain
But the plants they have more to feed that herbivore in the food chain; chain chain
Chorus
Coyote likes to eat a little rabbit meat in the food chain; chain chain
And it really makes his day to eat that rabbit prey in the food chain; chain chain
Chorus
Coyote lifts his tail and scats on the trail in the food chain; chain chain
For the bugs that’s a deal, scat’s a gourmet meal in the food chain; chain chain
Chorus
The scat will decompose and a new plant grows in the food chain; chain chain
So the food chain never ends, it just begins again in the food chain; chain chain
Chorus
You can see from this song how energy moves along in the food chain; chain chain
So eat your food my friend but think of where it’s been in the food chain; chain chain
Chorus
34
FUNKY FUNGUS (Tad Drake)
F#
Chorus: I’m a funky fungus and I break out of the ground
C#
And if you’re among us, you best be breakin’ down
F#
I’m a funky fungus and I eat and rip and rot
C#
Organic material decomposing on the spot
B
C#
F
F#
Cause if you’re a fungus, and you’re among us, you’re breakin’ down
Many a fungi come in freaking funky shapes
We’re like superheroes wearin’ caps instead of capes
Our fruiting bodies elevated by a stalk
Rooted by a mycelium reaching everywhere you walk
Cause if you’re a fungus, and you’re among us, you’re breakin’ down.
Chorus
We’ve got our own kingdom, our own radical race
Spreadin’ our spores a hundred miles out into space
Released from our gills future families we do fling
Reproducing with wonder and in funky fairy rings
Cause if you’re a fungus, and you’re among us, you’re breakin’ down.
Chorus
Oyster mushrooms, candy caps, and chantrelles
You may eat us but you better know us well!
Cause if you’re mistaken, you’ll be sick or even dead
So get to know us or we’re decomposing you instead
Cause if you’re a fungus, and you’re among us, you’re breakin’ down.
Chorus
35
THE GARDEN SONG (unknown)
Chorus
G
C
G
Inch by inch, row by row
C
D
G
Gonna make this garden grow
C
D
G
Em
All it takes is a rake and a hoe
A7
D
And a piece of fertile ground
G
C
G
Inch by inch, row by row
C
D
G
Someone bless these seeds I sow
C
D
G
Em
Someone warm them from below
A7
D
Until the rain comes tumbling down
Verses
G
C
G
Pulling weeds and picking stones
C
D
G
Man is made of dreams and bones
C
D
G
Em
Feel the need to grow my own
A7
D
Because the time is close at hand
Grain for grain, sun and rain
Find my way in nature's chain
Tune my body and my brain
To the music from the land
GIVE PLANTS A CHANCE (Steve Van Zandt)
36
Chorus:
E
A
B
E
Plants (plants) Plants (plants) Give plants a chance
Plants (plants) Plants (plants) Give plants a chance
E
A
I like plants you could too
E
A
There’s so many things that plants can do
E
A
Feed them water watch them grow
E
A
There’s a lot of plants above but there’s even more below
E
A
Rich soil (rich soil) Fresh air (fresh air)
E
A
Sun and rain give them care
E
A
B
Plants are the reason this world’s so fine
B
When was the last time you thanked a vine?
Chorus
Believe me when I say that plants they can thrill us
Some can save us and some can kill us
The grow everywhere from the tundra to your room
They’re breaking through cement and they make the desert bloom
They creep and climb (creep and climb) grow upside down (upside down)
Grow real low or high above the ground
Plants are the reason this world’s so great
When was the last time you had plants on your plate?
Chorus
Plants are here so let’s celebrate them
With every breath we take, well, we can thank them
Plants hold the earth against the sky
And leaves are the reason this world’s alive
Brown and green (brown and green) Red and blue (red and blue)
Yellow orange, old and new
Plants are beauty growing free
When was the last time you hugged a tree?
GO INTO THE NIGHT
(Steve Van Zandt)
37
G
Am
If you go into the night there’s music in the night,
C
G
Calling out a song that’s clear.
G
Am
A night time pal is the great horned owl,
C
G
C
G
With a song that you can hear, and the owl you can hear.
If you go into the night there’s music in the night,
Calling out a song that’s clear.
Down in the bog there’s a million frogs,
With a song that you can hear, and the frogs you can hear,
And the owl you can hear.
If you go into the night there’s music in the night,
Calling out a song that’s clear.
Down in the thickets there are some crickets,
With a song that you can hear, and the crickets you can hear,
And the frogs you can hear,
And the owl you can hear.
If you go into the night there’s music in the night,
Calling out a song that’s clear.
The musical note of a lone coyote,
Is a song that you can hear, and the coyote you can hear,
And the crickets you can hear,
And the frogs you can hear,
And the owl you can hear.
If you go into the night there’s music in the night,
Calling out a song that’s clear.
The silent wonder of people’s hearts,
Is a song that you can hear, and the silence you can hear,
And the coyote you can hear,
And the crickets you can hear,
And the frogs you can hear,
And the owl you can hear.
38
GUSANO (I AM A WORM) (Mel McMurrin & Kevin Beals)
I am a worm
Am
The wondrous worm
It’s down under
E
That I love to squirm
To eat the dead
E
Am
Am
As a living’s my toil
E
Am
E
Am
And what comes out makes magnificent soil
Chorus:
Am
C
G
F
E
Gusano-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-SI!
C
G
F
E
Gusano-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-SI!
F
G
C
D
I aerate the earth as I tunnel and squirm
F
G
Am
Am
I am proud to be called a worm!
Our tunnels flood
It rains all night
Come up for air
Be killed by light
When people die
Worms attend though it’s dull
But no one comes to a worm’s funeral
Chorus
A robin’s cute
But have you heard
Of the massacre
Of the early bird
We do such good
From us you could learn
But you make us fishbait in return
Chorus
39
HABITAT
Chorus:
(Bill Oliver)
C
Am
F
G
Habitat, habitat, have to have a habitat (X3)
G
C
You have to have a habitat to carry on
C
Am
F
G
The ocean is a habitat a very special habitat
It’s where the deepest water’s at
It’s where the biggest mammal’s at
It’s where our future food is at
It keeps the atmosphere intact
G
C
The ocean is a habitat that we depend on
The forest is a habitat a very special habitat
It’s where the tallest trees are at
It’s where a bear can scratch its back
It keeps the ground from falling back
Renews the oxygen in fact
The forest is a habitat that we depend on
The river is a habitat a very special habitat
It’s where the freshest water’s at
For people fish and dusky woodrats
But when the people dump their trash
The river takes the biggest rap
The river is a habitat that we depend on
The marsh is a habitat a very special habitat
It’s where the waterfowl are at
It’s where a turtle takes a bath
It’s where the algae do their math
Multiplying very fast
The marsh is a habitat that we depend on
People are different than foxes and rabbits
Affect the whole world with their bad habits
Better to love it while we still have it
Or rat-a-tat-tat our habitat’s gone
HARRIET TUBMAN (John McCutcheon)
40
Am
One night I dreamed I was in slavery
C
G
Am
‘Bout 1850 was the time
C
E7
Am
Em
Am
Sorrow was the only sign, nothing about to ease my mind
Am
Out of the night appeared a lady
C
G
Am
Leading a distant pilgrim band.
C
E7
“First mate!” she cried, pointing her hand
Am
Em
Am
“Make room aboard for this young woman,” singing:
Chorus:
Am
Come on up, I’ve got a life line
C
G
Am
Come on up to this train of mine. (repeat)
G
Am
She said her name was Harriet Tubman
C
G
Em Am
And she drove for the underground railroad.
Hundreds of miles we traveled onward
Gathering slaves from town to town.
Seeking every lost and found,
Setting those free that once were bound.
Somehow my heart was growing weaker,
I fell by the wayside sinking sand.
Firmly did this lady stand,
Lifted me up and took my hand, singing:
Chorus
Am
Who are these children dressed in red?
G
E7 Am
Must be the ones that Sister Moses led.
Am
Who are these children dressed in red?
G
E7 Am
Must be the ones that Sister Moses led.
Chorus
She said her name was Harriet Tubman, and she drove for the underground
railroad… come on up!!!
41
I AM A REDWOOD (words by Tad Drake; to music of Counting Crows’ “Rain King”)
G
C9
D9
C9
G
C9
When I think of heaven, deliver me in a ring of redwood trees
D9
C9
G
C9
D9
I think of climbin, in this fog we’ll grow and gather
C9
G
C9
Render up our spirit to the burning soul…the sun
D
C9
In the beauty of a bright blue sky
Am
C
Am
C
So sisters join me, let’s sprout our limbs and soar
D
C9
And we will live forever more
Chorus:
G
C9
D9
C9
G
I belong along the California coast
C9 D9
C9
G
Standing strong in the valleys where it’s moist
C9
D9
G
The kings of tallness, I’m growin’ always
C9
G C9 D9 C9
G
‘Cause I am a redwood.
I say old growth brothers why are we so alone
We cannot live in fear that they may take us from our home
But we’re alive, we’re alive! Our roots are sinkin’ in
If there’s justice here on this earth we ask you people to save our kin
Don’t try to chop me ‘cause it’s been done before
And we choose to stand forever more.
Chorus
Am
C
Am
C
Bridge: I only want the same as anyone, to hold the earth and wave at the sun
D
C9
G
Each day freely, and then the animals will call me home.
When I think of heaven, deliver me in a forest free of swords
I think of smilin’, side by side we’ll sing together
Render up our voices to the breathing of the earth
The winds will ring our freedom loud.
So take a stand now, cause you possess the power
To help us live forever more!
Chorus
42
I AM AN ANIMAL (Dana Lyons; adaptation)
Chorus:
A
G
A
G
A
I am an animal, you are an animal
D
C
D A
G
A
We both are animals, we eat like animals
E
D
E
D
C
D
We dance like animals, we play like animals
A
G
A
G
A
We all are animals, we all are animals.
The reptiles have some class. They slither about in the grass.
They like it when the weather's damp. They party deep in the swamp.
They got smooth and shiny skins. Long tongues and longer tails.
Chorus
The birds do it all with their beaks. They eat and they clean and they speak.
Their wings take them high in the air. And who knows what they do up there.
They've got dances that can't be beat . With their feathers and rubber feet.
Chorus
The insects have some pride. They wear their skeletons outside.
They can live anywhere. Hot or cold they do not care.
With antennas and many eyes, they eat, reproduce and they die.
Chorus
The mammals are a wild bunch. They eat each other for lunch.
They've got fur as soft as silk. They feed their babies milk.
They sing all the latest tunes. At night they howl at the moon.
Chorus
The fish dig a whole other scene. Their whole world is aquamarine.
Some are thin and some are fat. Some of their faces are flat,
They take transatlantic trips. They do strange things with their lips.
Chorus
But let’s not forget the plants. The plants have so much fun.
They don’t eat anyone. They just soak up the sun.
They rub their branches in the breeze. Dandelions tickle the trees.
Chorus
43
I AM CONNECTED (Aaron Drake)
Chorus: I am connected to the b-slug, and the b-slug's connected to the
redwood, and the redwood's connected to the ocean and the ocean is connected
to me.
This week I got connected to my counselor, and my counselor is connected to
my naturalist, and my naturalist is connected to the night time, and the night
time is connected to me.
Then I got connected to Bancroft and Bancrofts connected to Valle Verde and
Valle Verde's connected to my cabin and the cabin is connected to me.
Chorus
In the forest got connected to the insects and the insect are connected to Big
Red, and Big Red's connected to Dead Fred, and Dead Fred's connected to me.
Also got connected to the bird nerd, and the bird nerd's connected to the
marsh, and the marsh is connected to the creek and the creek is connected to
me.
Chorus
We are connected to the garden, and the garden is connected to compost and
compost is connected to organic and organic is connected to me
Full moon's connected to the tide pool and the tide pool's connected to
anemone and anemone's connected to hermit crabs and hermit crabs are
connected to me.
Chorus
Peace is connected to a "Good Act" and a "Good Act's" connected to good fun
and good fun's connected to a Good Earth and Good Earth is connected to me.
You must always stay connected and I must always stay connected, and I must
always stay connected and we must always stay connected 'cuz you are
connected to me.
Chorus
I BELIEVE IN YOU
(Susan Grace)
44
G
D
C
The river’s rough, and I know you’re scared
G
D
C
Reach inside, the strength is there
G
D
C
Am
You can do it if you dare
G
D
C
C
Trust yourself and go on with the flow...
Chorus:
(mute)
because
G
D
C
I believe in you
G
D
C
Just like the river, there’s rocks in view
G D
C
Am
I know what you can do
G
D
C
My friend, I believe...
(mute)
G
D
C
I believe in you
(2x, last time 3x)
Sometimes this world seems so lonely
We’re all struggling through
Sometimes it seems like no one cares
But my friend I’m always here for you
Chorus
Just trust yourself to be who you are
Sing your song strong and true
Know that you are not alone
Cause we’re all traveling down that same road too
Chorus
45
I CAN’T HELP BUT WONDER (Tom Paxton)
C
F
Am Dm
It’s a long and dusty road, and it’s a hot and a heavy load
G
C
And the folks I meet ain’t always kind
C
F
Am
Dm
Some are bad and some are good, some have done the best they could
G
C
Some have tried to ease my troublin’ mind
Chorus:
Dm
And I can’t help but
Dm
And I can’t help but
C
G
C
Em
Am
wonder where I’m bound, where I’m bound
C
G
C
wonder where I’m bound
I have been around this land just a-doin’ the best I can
Tryin’ to find what I was meant to do
And the faces that I see are as worried as can be
And it looks like they are wonderin’ too
Chorus
I had a little gal one time, she had lips like sherry wine
And she loved me til my head went plumb insane
But I was too blind to see, she was driftin’ away from me
And one day she left on the morning train
Chorus
I’ve got a buddy from home but he started out to roam
And I hear he’s out by Frisco Bay
And sometimes when I’ve had a few, his voice comes singin’ thru
And I’m goin’ out to see him some old day
Chorus
If you see me passing by and you sit and wonder why
And you wish that you were a rambler, too
Nail your shoes to the kitchen floor, lace ‘em up and bar the door
Thank your stars for the roof that’s over you
Chorus
IF YOU WANT TO SING OUT, SING OUT (Cat Stevens)
46
C
G
F G
If you want to sing out, sing out
C
G
Am
And if you want to be free, be free
F
C
G
There’s a million ways to be
C
G (GC)
You know that there are
And if you want to sing high, sing high
And if you want to sing low, sing low
There’s a million ways to go,
You know that there are
C
F
G
C
You can do what you want, the opportunity’s on
C
F G
C
And if you find a new way, you can do it today
C
F
G
C
You can make it all true, and you can make it undo,
Am Em
Am
Em
Am
You see, ah ah ah, it’s easy, ah ah ah,
Em
G (GC)
You only need to know
If you want to say yes, say yes
And if you want to say no, say no
There’s a million ways to go
You know that there are
If you want to be me, be me
And if you want to be you, be you
There’s a million things to do
You know that there are
I’ll ROT AWAY (adaptation of Albert Brumley’s “I’ll Fly Away”)
G
47
In the ground where all the plants are found
C
G
I’ll rot away
G
For a while I’ll rot in your compost pile
D
G
I’ll rot away
*Chorus:
+Chorus:
C
G
I’ll rot away (like compost)
C
G
I’ll rot away (in the garden)
G
Back to the ground where the plants are found
C
G
I’ll rot away
G
I’ll rot away (like compost)
C
G
I’ll rot away (in the garden)
G
Em/G
Back to the ground where the plants are found
D
G
I’ll rot away
My nose and toes they both will decompose
I’ll rot away
My ears and knees will become food for the trees
I’ll rot away
Chorus
My eyes and thighs will be food for the flies
I’ll rot away
When I dies I guess I will fertilize
I’ll rot away
Chorus
Feed your garden with my head
I won’t need it I’ll be dead
I’ll rot away
When you eat a pea you’ll be eating part of me
I’ll rot away
Chorus
* Original Chords
+ Chords Rewritten by Bobcat
I WANNA BE A DOG
(Barry Louis Polisar)
48
G
C
G
Oh I wanna be a dog.
C
I wanna wag my tail,
D
Chase cars knock over garbage cans,
G
And bite the lady who brings the mail.
Chorus:
G
C
Oh I wanna have dog breath, (audience pants)
G
I wanna learn to growl. (audience growls)
A7
Scratch fleas and ticks, and run after sticks,
D
D7
I want the moon to make me hooowwl! (audience howls)
Oh I wanna be a dog.
I wanna drool on the floor,
Chase cats get fed, get pats on the head,
Chew your shoes and bark at the door.
Chorus
Oh I wanna be a dog.
I wanna dig big holes.
I wanna sniff French poodles, and basset hounds,
And pee on telephone poles.
Chorus
Oh I wanna be a dog.
I wanna big wet nose.
I wanna run in the street, get mud on my feet,
And jump up onto your clothes.
Chorus
Oh I wanna be a dog.
I wanna sleep on the ground.
Being human these days is getting too crazy,
I just wanna be a hound
49
THE LAYER SONG
(To the Tune of "This Land is Your Land" adapted by Dan "Dirty D" Pascucci)
F
You layer your clothes
C
I’ll layer my clothes
G
we’ll keep Jack Frost from
C
nipping at our nose
F
We’ll do what Dan says
C-G-C
because he knows
G
G7
C
layers are good for you and me
when it is freezing
you might start sneezing
or maybe frostbite
I am not teasing
you’ll find that layers
are much more pleasing
layers are good for you and me
as I was working
down by the river
I got so cold I
started to shiver
so hear this message
that I deliver
Layers are good for you and me
you could get real sick
or hypothermic
if you don’t layer
‘cause that’s the real trick
and don’t wear cotton
because it won’t wick
layers are good for you and me
watch for convection
and radiation
vasoconstriction
vasodilation
conduction can cool
and evaporation
that’s how your body looses heat
50
cover your head and
your feet and your hands
use wool and fleece cause
they both are real grand
make sure your outfits
are all good and planned
Layers are good for you and me
We are sixth graders
we wear our layers
and layer our clothes
cause nothings greater
than staying warm while
collecting dater
Layers are good for you and me
LICHEN (adapted from LaBamba, lyrics by Jacob Sackin)
51
Chorus:
G C D C
La La Lichen (3X)
G
C
D
C G
La la la la la la lichen (2X)
C D
C
G
C
D
Is a fungus that grows in the tree bark
C
G
C
D
C
G
Yes it grows on the tree bark and the boulders turning them into soil
C
G
C
D
It turns them into soil so new plants can grow
C
G
C
D
New plants can grow, new plants can grow
C D
Chorus
But it is also an algae
Yes it is also algae, a sun eater turning light into sugar
It turns light into sugar so it can eat
So it can eat, so it can eat
Chorus
It’s 2 things working together
It’s 2 things working together, it’s symbiotic, it’s a symbiotic relationship
The fungus and algae turn light into sugar and rocks to dirt
So it can eat and new plants can grow
Chorus
LIKIN’ THE LICHEN
(Bug Johnson)
52
Chorus:
C
G
C
G
Well the algae likes the fungus and the fungus likes the algae
C
G
C
G
Now we’re all likin the lichen
C
G
C G
C
G
And it’s plain to see in the big city or in the mountains when you’re
C
G7
hikin
C
G
C
G
C
G
C
G
Now sit right back and I’ll tell you a tale about something you might not have noticed
C
G
C
G
C
G
C
It’s about two life forms getting together in a thing called symbiosis
Deep in the forest or a high rocky bluff and going on under your feet
A pretty green algae and a beautiful fungus decided they should meet
F
C
G
C
It was a chance encounter that really makes you wonder ‘bout the beauty that occurs
G7
And if you get real quiet and you get real close you see a friendship that endures
Chorus
C
G
C
G
C
G
Well you might not think that these species are important but here you would be
C G
mistiken
For if you like clean air and you like healthy soil you should be lovin’ the lichen
F
C
G
C
The dissolve down rocks as easy as you please providing food for the forest
G
I can’t think of any more words to rhyme so lets just sing the chorus
Chorus
THE LIMBO (unknown origin)
53
A
Every boy and every girl
E
A
All around the limbo world
A
Do the limbo rock
E
A
All around the limbo clock.
Chorus:
D
Jack be nimble, Jack be quick
A
E
Jack go under the limbo stick
E
Around the limbo clock
A
E
A
They do the limbo rock.
First you spread your limbo feet
Then you move to limbo beat
Limbo ankle limbo knee
Bend back like a limbo tree.
Chorus
Now you find a limbo girl
Give that limbo girl a whirl
There’s a limbo moon tonight
We can limbo all night
Chorus
LIVE OAK, LIVE OAK (adapted from Chuck Berry’s “Louie, Louie”)
A
D
54
Chorus:
Live Oak, Live Oak, (ch ch)
E
D
A
D
Ooh baby, let your xylem flow (uh!)
E
D
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
A
D
Live Oak, Live Oak, (ch ch)
E
D
A
D E D
Ooh baby, let your xylem flow. (uh!)
Grey squirrel told me just the other day,
Found an acorn and he ran away,
Dug a hole and he stuck it in the sand,
New tall trees grow across the land.
Chorus
A Live Oak's roots grow way down low,
Where water and nutrients begin to flow,
They raise their branches up to the sun,
Now photosynthesis has begun.
Chorus
Live oak leaves will prick your skin
Touch them once, won’t touch them again
Oak woodland is their favorite home
So pay them a visit in their own life zone.
55
LIVING IN THE REDWOODS
(Mark Nolan)
Chorus:
D G
I like singing in the Redwoods
D A
I like hiking through the tall trees
D G
I like living in the Redwoods
Em A D
So let the Redwoods live
Verse:
D Em
In every coastal valley in Northern California
G A D
There grows the tallest trees on Earth
D Em
Early in the morning you hear the thrushes song
G A D
Hiking through the Redwoods singing along
Chorus
D
Em
A hundred years ago loggers came and cut them down
G A D
Nothing left but barren ground
D Em
But out of those tree stumps new trees grew
G A D
Redwood forests are able to renew
Chorus
D
Em
Go hiking through a Redwood forest give a tree a hug
G A
Find a magic spot kiss a Banana Slug
D Em
It a special place still hear because people show they care
G
A
Keep the forests green and growing everywhere
Chorus
So let the Redwoods live (3x)
THE LIVING SEA (Steve Van Zandt)
56
Chorus:
G
Ooh,
G
Ooh,
G
Ooh,
G
Ooh,
A
D
ooh, ooh,
A
ooh, ooh,
A
D
ooh, ooh,
A
ooh, ooh,
with the living sea
D
ooh, ooh Celebration
with the living sea
D
ooh, ooh Celebrate
D
G
A
D
The ocean is the mother of every land
G
D
A
From the Himalayan snow to the Arabian sand
D
G
A
D
And the ocean gives the living what the living need
Bm
G
A
We are breathing with the ocean with the living sea
Chorus
Everything is touched by the ocean’s reach
From the high mountain tops to the wind blown beach
We are all island people surrounded by one sea
As the ocean give the living what the living need
Chorus
To the moon and the stars our rockets can soar
But the depths of the ocean have not yet been explored
There is wisdom, there is beauty, there is mystery
In the pulsing, rocking, rhythm of the living sea
Chorus
The ancient salty sea flows within us all
The largest life is in the ocean down to the very small
Keep it vital, treat is kind, give it sanctity
All life is intertwined with the living sea
Chorus
LIZARDS
(Steve Van Zandt)
57
Chorus:
D
Bb
A
Lizards, turtles and snakes
D
Bb
A
So lizards, here’s what it takes to be a
D
Bb
C
Lizard! To be reptilian...
D
Bb
D
It takes cold blood and scaly skin (4X)
C
D
Lots of lazy lizards laying on the stone
C
D
I said I must be in a lizard zone
C
D
Lots of lazy lizards soaking up the sun
Bb
A
Sometimes I wish that I was one…
Chorus
Lots of lazy lizards, they were there by the dozens
I started thinking ‘bout their ancient cousins
Who roamed this earth a million years or more
They were giant lizards called dinosaurs…
Chorus
If I could I would surely be
Part of this great family
Of lizards, snakes, and crocodiles
You can just call me reptile…
Chorus
MOONSHADOW (Cat Stevens)
D
A7
58
D
Chorus:
I’m being followed by a moonshadow
G
A7
D
Moonshadow, moonshadow.
D
A7 D
Leaping and hopping on a moonshadow
G
A7
D
Moonshadow, moonshadow.
G D G
D
And if I ever lose my hands
G
D
Em
A7
Lose my plow, lose my land
G D G
D
Yes, if I ever lose my hands
Em
A7
D
Bm
Away – ay ay ay ay, ay ay ay ay
Em
A7
D
I won’t have to work no more.
Chorus
And if I ever lose my eyes
If my colors all run dry
Yes if I ever lose my eyes
Away – ay ay ay ay, ay ay ay ay
I won’t have to cry no more.
Chorus
And if I ever lose my legs,
I won’t moan and I won’t beg
Oh, if I ever lose my legs
Away – ay ay ay ay, ay ay ay ay
I won’t have to walk no more.
Chorus
And if I ever lose my mouth,
All my teeth, north and south
Yes, if I ever lose my mouth
Away – ay ay ay ay, ay ay ay ay
I won’t have to talk (pause)
Chorus
Bridge:
E7
A
Did it take long to find me?
E7
A
I asked the faithful light
E7
A
Yes, did it take long to find me
E7
A A7
And are you gonna stay the night?
MOSQUITO FIESTA (Daryll Cherney; additional lyrics by David Bruns)
G
59
Chorus:
We’re getting eaten by mosquitos
C
We are like mosquito fritos
G
They like to nibble on our noses
C
They do not care about our clothes
F
Because their mouths can go right through them
C
Sometimes they even stop to chew them
G
We’re getting eaten by mosquitos
C
Mosquito fiesta…Ole!
And when they nibble on your knuckles
it will not make you want to chuckle
And when they bite upon your ankle
you will not be very thankful
And when they feast upon your forearms
you’re going to end up with some sore arms
You’ll wish you had two more arms
Mosquito fiesta…ole!
And when they bite you on your fingers
You will really feel their stingers
And when they bite you on your elbows
you’ll wish it was another fellow
And if they bite you on your tummy
They’re going to think that you are yummy
You will not think that it is funny
Mosquito fiesta…ole!
And when you go out forest hiking
it will be much to their liking
And when you go down to the beach now
You will be within their reach now
If you’re a loser or a winner
To a mosquito you’re just dinner
And they’re not getting any thinner
Mosquito fiesta…ole!
ODE A LA MARSH
Chorus
G
(Palm)
C
60
Whether cormorant or eagle, mallard duck or egret
Em
D
Don't take away the marsh, 'cause the birds really need it
G
C
A wader (WADER!) A diver (DIVER!)
Em
D
A swimmer (SWIMMER!) A flyer (FLYER!)
Verses
Em
D
The egret was making his way on the Pacific Flyway
C
D
When he got hungry and he needed a break
Em
D
He needed a hotel motel, holiday inn
C
D
There was so much food that he could bring his friends
Chorus
They found steelhead trout when they were feeling down and out
And it finally gave them a reason to shout
So at the bird blind you should sit real still
And know that tired hungry birds are getting their fill
Chorus
When you go to the marsh you never know what your finding
It's more precious than the finest diamond
Lizard's tail, Coyote brush and caifornia Buckwheat
I've never seen so much biodiversity
Chorus
The marsh can filter out all the sediment and muck
And the stuff in your water that makes you go yuck
But more than that the marsh is so beautiful
It makes me wanna say I love outdoor school
Chorus
OUTDOOR SCHOOL I (adapted from Farmhouse by Phish, Lyrics by Jacob
Sackin)
Chorus:
C
G
I never ever saw the stars so bright
61
Am
F
Our counselors (cabin leaders) are hecka tight
C
G
The redwood trees reach amazing heights
Am
F
A week outside will make me feel allright (2X)*
C
G
Am
*allright, allright, allright, allright, allright, allright
C
G
Am
F
F
C
G
Am
Welcome this is outdoor school
F
C
We have trees, rocks and birds
G
C
G
A creek and a lot of dirt
C
G
Am
The forest floor is your classroom
F
C G C
G
And there’s no chairs walls or desks, or carpet
Am
G
You’ll go on hikes both far and near
C
F
If you’re quiet you might see some deer.
Am
G
If you get dirty we won’t get mad.
C
G
C
You miss your parents but don’t feel sad…
Chorus
Am
G
Go on a hike and explore the dark
C
F
Coyotes howl and foxes bark
Am
G
Careful not to squash the banana slugs
C
G
Find out what a decomposer does
OUTDOOR SCHOOL II (adapted from Farmhouse by Phish, lyrics by Jacob
Sackin)
Chorus:
C
G
I never ever saw the stars so bright
62
Am
F
Our counselors (cabin leaders) are hecka tight
C
G
The redwood trees reach amazing heights
Am
F
A week outside will make me feel allright (2X)*
C
G
Am
*allright, allright, allright, allright, allright, allright
C
G
Am
F
C
G
Am
It’s the last day of Outdoor School
F
C
We hope you had a lot of fun
G
C
G
And come back as a counselor (cabin leader)
C
G
Am
Go home to your friends and family
F
C
G
C
Tell them all that you have learned about nature
Am
G
You’ve gone on hikes both far and near
C
F
If you were quiet you might have seen some deer
Am
G
When you go home you might feel sad
C
G
C
But you can’t wait to see your mom and dad…
Chorus
When you get home you’ll watch TV
Take a bath and eat candy
But don’t forget what you now know
The Planet Earth is your home
Chorus
PATTYCAKE POLKA (unknown)
C
Heel and a toe, heel and a toe, and slide, slide slide
63
G
F
G
Heel and a toe, heel and a toe, and slide, slide slide
C
Clap right, clap left, clap both, clap knees
G
C
Right elbow swing and move to the left right now.
Each time, as you speed up, move up a key; the progression goes:
C/G
D/A
E / B7
G/D
PHOTOSYNTHESIS
Chorus:
(Steve Van Zandt)
F
It’s a miracle up in those trees
F
64
Bb
C
(A miracle, a miracle)
Bb
C
It’s a miracle in each green leaf (A miracle, a miracle)
F
Bb
C
All of life depends on this (A miracle, a miracle)
F
Bb
C
Miracle, photosynthesis
(A miracle, a miracle)
F
Group 1: ...sunlight coming down...
Bb
C
Group 2: ...a miracle, a miracle
F
Group 3: …photosynthesis!!!
F
Scientists don’t even know how it’s done
Bb
C
How plants make sugar out of the sun
F
Water, air combined with skill
Bb
C
By the magical green stuff chlorophyll
Chorus
Now you can’t go out and take a bite
Of the water, air, or the sunlight
We depend on the plants to survive
Making food to keep us alive
Chorus
*can also be played: G (F),C (Bb),D (C)
PIECE OF SCAT (SMOE adaptation of Neil Young’s “Piece of Crap”)
Chorus:
Em
G
Em
G
It starts with an “S” and it ends with a “T”
Em
G
Em
G
It comes out of you and it comes out of me
65
Em
G
Em
G
Now I know what you’re thinking, but don’t call it that
Em
G
Em
G
Let’s be scientific and call it scat!
Em
G
Em
It was a piece of scat! (audience responds: PIECE OF SCAT!!!)
Em
G
You can find it on the ground
Em
G
It’s usually colored brown
Em
G
It is shaped in a mound
Em
G
Em
It is a piece of scat (PIECE OF SCAT!)
You can smell it with your nose
It’s gonna decompose
It’s where the fungus grows
It is a piece of scat!
It was a piece of scat!
It’s full of FBI
You can’t see them with your eye
But without them we would die
It is a piece of scat!
I was tired of TV
I was checking out the trees
I could smell it in the breeze
It was a piece of scat!
A squirrel ate a nut
Digested in his gut
It came out his butt
It was a piece of scat!
They look like raisinettes
But please don’t eat them yet
They’re from a deer I bet
It is a piece of scat!
I know it’s kind of gory
But it’s a true story
It marks territory
It is a piece of scat!
Bird flying through the air
Look out! Beware!
It landed in my hair
66
PLANET THAT IS GREEN
(sung to the tune of yellow submarine by The Beatles)
By Jacob Sackin
G
D
C
G
Em
Am
C
On the street where I was born, lived a girl in Apartment E
G
D
C
G
Em
Am
C D
And she told me of her life, looking under rocks and climbing trees.
So one day I followed her, till we left behind the city streets
And we played deep in the woods, on our planet that is green.
G
D
Chorus: We all live on a planet that is green, a planet that is green,
a planet that is green. X 2
G
As we hiked between the trees, crawling through the mud on our knees
We watched the birds, we swam in streams, on our planet that is green.
Chorus
But back at home I'm always bored, playing with Pokemon cards on the floor
I'm so tired oh don't you see laying on the couch, watching TV
But that was then and now I see, everyone of us has all we need
Sky of blue and trees of green, on our planet that is Green
Chorus
We all live on a planet that is green, a planet that is green,
a planet that is green.
PLANKTON SOUP (Steve Van Zandt)
67
D
D
G
D
G
If you live out in the sea then the thing that you should eat
D
A
D
It’s a mix of plants and meat called Plankton Soup
D
G
D
G
Out where algae grows in a lovely sea meadow
D
A
D
That’s where you’ll find a batch of Plankton Soup
Chorus: (2X)
D
Plankton Soup, Plankton Soup
G
D
Aye! You really ought to try some
A
D
The ocean is alive with Plankton Soup
Now the diatoms catch some sun then the soup it has begun
That’s how you cook a batch of plankton soup
Then the zoo plankton can munch on a phyto plankton lunch
There’s a food chain in each bite of plankton soup
Chorus
The great whale takes its fill of Plankton soup and krill
A thousand pounds each meal of plankton soup
The whale sucks soup between its strainers called baleen
And spits off the briny broth of plankton soup
Chorus
Plankton plants make oxygen which we must all breathe in
All of life depends on plankton soup
It’s such a little thing but life is what it brings
So let us all now sing to plankton soup
Chorus
If you sail out in the sea and you meet a salt like me
I’ll show you where to find some plankton soup
It’s the staff of life out here there’s a new batch every year
The ocean is alive with plankton soup
Chorus
RAINBOW CONNECTION (Kermit the Frog)
68
C
Am
F
G
Why are there so many songs about rainbows
C
Am F
G
And what’s on the other side?
C
Am
F
G
Rainbows are visions, but only illusions
C
Am
F
G
And rainbows have nothing to hide
Dm
F
Dm
F
So we’ve been told and some choose to believe it
G
G7
I know they’re wrong, wait and see
Chorus:
Dm
G
Em
Am7
Someday we’ll find it, the rainbow connection
F
G
C
F
C
F
The lovers, the dreamers, and me
Who said that every wish would be heard and answered
When wished on the morning star?
Somebody thought of that, and someone believed it
And look what it’s done so far
What’s so amazing that keeps us stargazing
And what do we think we might see?
Chorus
F
C
Em
F
Em
G
G7
All of us under its spell, we know that it’s probably magic
Have you been half asleep, and have you heard voices
I’ve heard them calling my name
Are these the sweet songs that called the young sailors?
The voice may be one and the same
I’ve heard it too many times to ignore it
It’s something that I’m supposed to be
Chorus
F
C
Em
F
Em
C…
La de da da dee da dum, la da dee da la dee da doooo
RECYCLING
By Jacob Sackin (sung to the tune of Free Fallin' by Tom Petty)
69
She's a good girl, separates her garbage, takes out tin cans and aluminum too.
Cleans a soup can out with cold water. Takes the caps off plastic bottles and
jars.
Takes her cardboard to the recycling center, cans of soda, newspaper and
glass. Stomps on milk jugs along with her brother, so they can be made into
coats.
And I'm Re……. Recycling X 2
She does her homework on once used paper. Drinks her juice from an old
spaghetti jar. Sews a patch on a hole in a green sock, instead of buying a new
pair at the store.
And I'm Re….. Reusing X 2
Reusing now I'm reusing. Recycling now I'm recycling.
In the kitchen her father sets the table. He uses paper napkins and plates. She
comes downstairs and tells him it's wasting. Gets out clay plates and napkins
made of cloth. And I'm Re… Reducing X 2
And all the trash that sits in the landfills, in the oceans, rivers and parks, can
be reduced, reused and recycled by parents and children like you. And I'm
Re…… Recycling. And I'm Re……. Reusing. And I'm Re….. Reducing.
RIPPLE (Jerry Garcia & Robert Hunter)
G
C G
C
If my words did glow with the gold of sunshine
70
G
And my tunes were played on the harp unstrung.
C G
C
Would you hear my voice come through the music?
G
D
C
G
Would you hold it near as it were your own?
It’s a hand me down, the thoughts are broken
Perhaps they’re better left unsaid
And I don’t know, don’t really care
Let there be songs to fill the air
Chorus:
Am
D
Ripple in still water
G
C
Where there is no pebble tossed
A7
D
Nor wind to blow
Reach out your hand if your cup be empty
If your cup be full let it be again
Let it be known there is a fountain
That was not made by the hands of men
There is a road, no simple highway
Between the dawn and the dark of night
And if you go no one may follow
That path is for your steps alone
Chorus
You who choose to lead must follow
But if you fall you fall alone
If you should stand, then who’s to guide you?
If I knew the way, I would take you home
Chorus
RIVER SONG
(Steve Van Zandt)
D
G
D
A7
It happened one day on a mountain so high,
71
D
G
D
A7 D
A river was born from out of the sky.
D
G
D
A7
The rain and the snow came falling down,
D
G
D A7
D
And they started to run as they hit the ground.
Chorus:
D
G
D
A7
Blurp-ah-pa-shosh rum-bl-ly pound
D
G
D
A7
D
A white rapid river makes a wonderful sound.
D
G
D
A7
Blurp-ah-pa-shosh rum-bl-ly pound
D
G
D
A7 D
A white rapid river makes a wonderful sound.
Over beds made of granite it swept and it rolled,
It was narrow and steep and so icy cold.
It carved out a valley and gouged out the land,
It carried small rocks and ground them to sand.
Chorus
It filled up a lake and was still for a day,
But soon the wide river went along on its way.
It rolled past rocks and banks lined with trees,
It carried small boats of fall colored leaves.
Chorus
It wound and it wound till it wound past me,
And I knew it was happy, it was wild and free.
I knew it was happy, it was wild and free,
But I waved it goodbye as it entered the sea.
Chorus
The water in the sea soon rose to the sky
And the wind blew a cloud to the mountain so high.
The rain and the snow came falling down
And flowed to the river as they hit the ground.
Chorus
ROCKS & TREES (unknown)
Rocks and trees are all of me (2X)
Grass and dew are all of you (2X)
72
This is the middle of the song
It helps the rest to get along
Just like the stem between the flowers and the roots
This is the middle of the song
Come and get you up and take a walk out in the sun
Come and get you up you will be there and so will I
73
ROCKS IN MY SOCKS (Bug Johnson and Aloe Brand)
Chorus:
(2x):
(2x):
E
D
I’ve got rocks in my socks and pebbles in my pockets
A
Boulders on my shoulders and stones in my bones
E
D
I’ve got sand in my hand and dirt in my shirt,
A
Quartz in my shorts and mud in my blood
B
D
I’ve got a one track mind for the science of geology
A
Everybody knows that I know my stones
B
D
So when I say geology you say “ROCKS!”
Geology
Geology
(Rocks!)
(Rocks!)
(Repeat the last part of what I say here)
E
D
Bring it down to the ground (down to the ground)
A
Bring it down into the dirt (down into the dirt)
Bring it down to the bedrock (down to the bedrock)
Bring it down to the mantle (down to the mantle)
Bring it down to the core (down to the core)
I said it’s getting kind of hot (getting kind of hot)
Got to go back to the mantle (back to the mantle)
Bust up through the bedrock (bust up through the bedrock)
Gotta get back to the surface (back to the surface)
Out through the volcano (out through the volcano)
Hold A: now we’re turning back to dirt so SCREAM!!! (repeat chorus)
ROOTS, STEMS, LEAVES
(Steve Van Zandt)
74
Chorus:
C
Roots, stems, leaves, flowers, fruits, and seeds.
C
G
Roots, stems, leaves, flowers, fruits, and seeds.
C
That’s six parts, six parts,
C
G
C
Six plant parts that plants and people need.
C
The roots hold the plant in the ground,
C
G
They gather up the water that falls around.
C
And there’s a root inside of me
C
G
C
Because a carrot is a root that I eat.
Chorus
A stem is an elevator growing up from the ground
The water goes up and the sugar back down
And there’s a stem inside of me
Because celery is a stem that I eat.
Chorus
The leaves are the kitchens where the food is done
They breathe the air and catch rays from the sun.
And there’s a leaf inside of me
Because lettuce is a leaf that I eat.
Chorus
The flowers are dressed so colorfully
They hold the pollen and attract the bees
And there’s a flower inside of me
Because cauliflower is a flower that I eat.
Chorus
The fruit gets ripe, then it falls on down
It holds the seeds and feeds the ground
And there’s a fruit inside of me
Because an apple is a fruit that I eat.
Chorus
The seeds get buried in the earth
And the cycle starts again with a new plant’s birth
And there are seeds inside of me
Because sunflower is a seed that I eat.
Chorus
Now you all know what this whole world needs,
It’s roots, stems, leaves, flowers, fruits, and seeds.
There’s six plant parts inside of me
Because a garden salad is what I eat.
Chorus
ROOTY TOOT TOOT FOR THE MOON (Greg Brown; adaptation)
75
G
The whole kit & caboodle is in disrepair
C
There’s no place to go if not here
D
D7
Little captains and cuckoos from here to Timbuctoo
G
C
D
They’re all counting their dough in the mirror
Chorus:
G
Singing rooty toot toot for the moon
C
It’s the biggest star I’ve ever seen
D
D7
It’s a pearl of wisdom, a slice of green cheese
G
C
D
D
G
And’s it burning just like kerosene, it’s burning just like kerosene
Some of us are classmates, some of us are friends
Some of us were together in the fall
There are periods of blindness and periods of kindness
And some times that never come at all
Chorus
So God bless motorcycles and far out trifles
You know I can’t memorize Zen
Hang your hat on your nose, don’t hide in your clothes
Kiss a moose and begin to begin
Chorus
SAFE AT HOME (Steve Van Zandt)
G
One baby otter in the cradle of the sea
76
C
G
Two baby owls in the hollow of a tree
C
G
Three baby fawn in the forest where they’ve grown
D
G
And all the baby animals safe at home
Four baby bears coming home to rest
Five baby mice are sleeping in their nest
Six baby chicks to the coup they have gone
And all the baby animals safe at home
Seven baby pigs all snuggled in their pen
Eight baby fox are lying in their den
Nine baby geese back to the weeds have flown
And all the baby animals safe at home
And all the baby animals safe at home
One cradle rocking by the warm fire light
One child sleeping peaceful in the night
Love is the reason you’ll never feel alone
Like all the baby animals safe at home
One baby otter in the cradle of the sea
Two baby owls in the hollow of a tree
Three baby fawn in the forest where they’ve grown
And all the baby animals safe at home
And all the baby animals safe at home
And all the baby animals safe at home.
77
SALAMANDER (adapted from LaBamba, lyrics by Mike Westphal and Rich Seymour)
Chorus:
C
F
G
F
Sal – A – Mander (3X)
C
F
G
And I’m a Newt!
(G)
C
F
G
1. I am a salamander
C
F
G
I am a salamander and I’ve got rough skin
C
F G
And that makes me a newt now
C
F
G
And that makes me a newt which means I am cute
C
F
G
And I wander I wander
C
F
G
Oh I wander I wander when it rains
C
F
G
Oh when it rains oh when it rains (chorus)
2. Oh my rough skin is poisonous
Oh my rough skin is poisonous so you don’t want to kiss me
No, you don’t want to kiss me
But don’t you worry ‘cause I find my mates
In ponds and lakes in ponds and lakes (chorus)
3. Oh I can live to be thirty
Oh I can live to be thirty even if you cut off my toes and my fingers
You can take your dirty scalpel and hack and hack
But they’ll grow back, but they’ll grow back (chorus)
SAY GOODBYE WITH SOME HELLO
(Steve Van Zandt)
78
G
C
G
Our time has come to end, it’s time to say goodbye.
C
We’ve learned to care and make new friends,
G
We’ve shared the earth and sky.
C
G
It’s time for new beginnings, but don’t let that spirit die
C
Like a golden bird, the tallest tree, the waves at sea
G
Just let your spirit fly.
Chorus:
Am
C
G
Say goodbye with some hello in your goodbye. (4X)
We will plant a tree, as a symbol of our youth.
A tree will set our hearts free,
The wind will blow the truth.
We have come together, like a wide and rolling sea.
Now we must part, but we still won’t part,
Without fond memories.
Chorus
Let the tree within you grow, let your shade spread across the land.
Knowing that your destiny
Is at your own command.
And as you go remember, back to the place where you now stand.
A family, a newborn tree,
A circle holding hands.
Chorus
SCAT MAKES THE WORLD GO ROUND (unknown origin)
79
Chorus:
C
G
Scat makes the world go round
C
The forest can't survive if it's not on the ground
F
G
So when I step in a lump of scat
C
I jump for joy and tell myself that's where it's at
A cowpie does a wonderful deed
Cause nutrients are what the soil needs
A cowpie rots and goes back to the earth
To make good soil for a new plant's birth
Chorus
Coyote scat comes in a neat gray stick
And if you look inside you might get a kick
You'll find fur and bones and teeth and claws
From the little critter it had in its jaws
Chorus
Raccoon scat is red and rather neat
Cause manzanita berries are its favorite treat
It's dry and it easily crumbles away
You'll see decomposition start and then you'll say
Chorus
Bear scat will make you blink your eyes
It's big and there's almost anything inside
Buckeyes, insects, plastic bags
Trash in scat will really make you gag
Chorus
So next time you walk in a forest green
Remember all the different kinds of scat you've seen
Don't scream but please get it off your shoe
Cause scat has some very special work to do
Chorus
80
SEA STAR (adapted from “All Star” by Smashmouth, lyrics by Glacier Dan)
Intro:
G
D
Am
C (x2)
Verse 1
G
D
Am
C
Somebody once told me, the tide’s gonna roll me
I’m not the sharpest echin – o – derm
An urchin’s much harder, pincushion in the water
But I’m about as soft as an earthworm
G
D
Am
C
Well the waves start comin’ and they don’t stop comin’, fed to a gull if I’m not stuck to
somethin’
G
D
Am
C
I can’t put seafood in my mouth so I have to stick my stomach out
G
D
Am
C
So much to do, so much to eat, so much power under my tube feet
G
D
Am
C
You’ll never eat if you don’t pull, you’ll never live if you don’t flow
Chorus:
G
C
C#
C
Hey now, you’re a sea star you can grow from one ray
G
C
C#
C
Hey now, you’re a bat star, stick your stomach out, hey
G
D
Am
All that glitters is kelp
G F
Am
C
The tidepool web of life needs your help
It’s a cool place, and they say it gets hotter
When the sun shines on the tidepool water
If you come on one of the lucky days
You can see a sunflower with 24 rays
The ones with six are tiny and slim
The water’s gettin’ high so I might as well swim
My world is rocky, how ‘bout yours?
That’s the way I like it and I never get bored
Chorus
Somebody once showed me two bat stars in a fight
It was a battle royale in the ocean
They were pushin’ for position, a struggle for good fishin’
But the whole thing took place in slow motion
Well the waves start comin’ and they don’t stop comin’, fed to a gull if I’m not stuck to
somethin’
I can’t put seafood in my mouth so I have to stick my stomach out
So much to do, so much to eat, so much power under my tube feet
You’ll never eat if you don’t pull, you’ll never live if you don’t flow
Chorus
81
SEMI-AQUATIC LIFE (adapted from “Semi-Charmed Life” by 3rd Eye Blind,
lyrics by Jeremy Leonard and Jonas Ehudin)
Chorus:
G
D
C
I want something else
G D
C
To get me through this semi-aquatic life, baby, baby
G
D
C
I want something else
G
D
I’m not listening when you say
C
They’ll dry…
G
D
C
1. It’s wet and I’m walking, She’s swimming, She’s living, She’s golden-brown for me
G
D
C
She says she swims for ovulation, She’s got motivation, She swims down
G
and she swims under me
D
C
And I make her dive, It’s like a dance for you, Do whatever you wanna do
G
swimming under you
D
C
Keep on diving, What we go through, One drop to the bottom that’ll find you
G
D
C
G
And I speak like a tree frog chorus in the firs, Croak another line like a Yoda with a curse
D
C
Come in like a creek toad takes the stage, Protect the eggs we laid (chorus)
2. The sky was gray, It was wet
I was taking every chance I could get
And I wish I could get back there
Swimming in the pond where I was born
Down in the crystal springs
I’m gonna swim until I’m worn
And I won’t stop, won’t slow down
With the tick-tock rhythm and the bump on my chin
And I jumped up, took the hop that I was given
And I jumped again, and I jumped again (chorus)
Bridge:
D
C
How do I get back there to
D
C
The place where I was a legless tadpole
D
C
D
How do I get myself back to the place where she said… (chorus)
3. I believe in the mud beneath my toes
The pond gives a feeling, a vernal feeling
I believe that our eggs will grow
Though an early spring could make them dry
When I’m with you I feel like they won’t dry
And that would be alright, alright (chorus)
82
SHOOTING STAR (Anon.)
Chorus:
G
D
And I was thinking maybe somewhere down the road
G
D
After all our stories have been told
D
A
Bm
G
I’ll sit and think of you, a dear friend I once knew
D
A
D
Shot through my life like a shooting star
D
A
Bm
G
Please, won’t you catch a shooting star for me
D
A
D
And take it with you on your way
D
A
Bm
G
Though it seems that we’ve just met, you’re the one I won’t forget
D
A
D
D7
Hope some kind wind blows you back my way
You are so dear, you’re my bright and shining star
You brighten each and every day
Your are so near, but soon you’ll be so far
So why not hold my hand today
Sometimes I know that a part of you will show
Deep in my heart and in my smile
There will always be a part of you deep in side my heart
And I’ll know just when to let it go
83
SILENT SPRING (sung to the tune of I Will Survive)
Lyrics by Jacob Sackin
Am
D
G
C
California Condors use to fill the sky, but 15 years ago there were only 9 alive.
F
B
E
And so we caught them 1 by 1, bred them in captivity, and set them free, now
E
Am
D
G
there’s 150. But we have lost, the Grizzly Bear. They use to live in California
C
F
B
but because we didn’t care, there’s no grizzlies in the hills, not one in
E
Yosemite and the state of California has less biodiversity.
Am
D
G
Chorus: So stop and think, look out your door. There aren’t as many wolves
C
F
or seals as there were before. Cause when we cut down all the trees, building
B
E
roads and factories and homes like mine, the animals must find new homes
Am
D
G
C
or they will die, and we will be, living all alone on concrete below silent
F
B
empty trees. They’ll be no birds in the sky, all the fish and frogs will die and
E
we will cry, and we will cry, hey hey.
Am D G C F B E
Am
D
G
West of California lies the deep blue sea, where the sea lions and whales live
C
F
B
so peacefully. But when we throw away our waste near creeks and rivers
E
Am
every day, its washed away, and ends up lying on some beach in Monterey.
D
G
C
And that's not good, our waste is toxic, made of plastic so it won't biodegrade.
F
B
E
And the gray whales eat the fish that drink the oil in the sea and pretty soon
they’ll be no water spouts or tails for us to see.
Chorus
Am
D
G
The sea otters in the ocean that sleep on beds of kelp, were almost hunted to
C
F
B
extinction for their furry pelts. If just one oil tanker spilled the last sea otters
E
would be killed. A smart mammal using tools, one more species we could
Am
D
G
lose and they'd be gone, forever more. Think of the elephant seals doing
C
F
B
battle on the shore. One hundred thousand live today because of laws that we
E
have made. Migrating giants swim and dive under the sea. They will
84
survive!
Chorus
SILLY SALAMANDER (Palm)
Chorus:
C
F
Silly Salamander with your smooth, smooth skin
G
F
That's how some of you do your breathing
Silly salamander only four front toes
If you cut one off it just grows and grows
Am
C
California slender, great pretender
G
F
Looks like a snake but that's a mistake
Please I beg look at the four tiny legs
As it forages at night for worms to bite
Chorus
Pacific Giant salamander, take a gander
Because there's not one that is grander
This amphibian is almost 1 foot long
And can eat banana slugs all day long
Chorus
California newt has skin that's rough
And seeing them is not too tough
Because they move real slow and strike a warning pose
And if you ate just one you'd start to decompose
Chorus
Ensatina salamandra la mas fina
Si tiene miedo va debajo de una piedra
A ti te gustan bosques mojados
Y pueden vivir por quince anos
Chorus
85
SINGING TO THE MOON (Steve Van Zandt)
C
Down in the mud I wiggle my toes
In every flower I sink my nose
Round and round this world goes
G
C
I’m singing to the moon
I hop the creek from rock to rock
I hug a tree and hear it talk
I take a bug out for a walk
I’m singing to the moon
Chorus:
F
C
G
C
Go out in the rain and listen to the thunder
F
C
G
Am
Lie down in the grass and watch the clouds roll by
F
C
G
C
Reach up to the stars and set your mind to wonder
F
C
G
Am
F
Of all there is to do in life and all there is to try and soon
C
You’ll be singing to the moon
I crawl along the forest floor
I take a peek in mole’s front door
I eat from a snail’s grocery store
I’m singing to the moon
I take a swim with my froggy pals
I hoot a song with an old barn owl
Coyote and I you can hear us howl
We’re singing to the moon
Down where the ocean touches land
I like to roll in the warm white sand
Hey! Mister crab let me shake your hand
I’m singing to the moon
Come explore this world with me
86
There’s so much to do so much to see
Jump right in and soon you’ll be
Singing to the moon
SLUG NAMED FRED
(mid 80’s SMOE creation)
D
A
Gonna tell you a story about a slug named Fred
D
Poor little critter barely kept his family fed
G
Then, one day someone stepped on his head
D
A
D
Sad, but true, Fred was dead
Squished, that is... yellow goo.
And then the decomposer became the decomposed
And up from the critter soil arose
And on to the ground fell a tiny seed
And up from the tree grew a redwood tree.
Tall, that is... majestic.
And then one day the forest burned down
But that old tree held his ground
Around these parts he’s called Dead Fred
And now there’s little critters with black stuff on their heads.
Charred, that is... and funny looking.
So the next time you see a banana slug
Bend right down and give him a hug
You never know who he might be
Part of Dead Fred’s family tree.
Related, that is... co-o-onnected.
And that’s the end of our little song
We got to be moseying along
We’d like to tell you more about Dead Fred
But you little critters gotta get along to bed.
Soon, that is... and quiet like.
87
THE SNAKE SONG
Lyrics by Jacob Sackin
Chords: F Bb C
(Sung to the tune of “Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes” by P. Simon)
People say I'm scary I've got no arms, a long tongue and no feet.
They run away when they see me slither down the street
cause I've got no arms, a long tongue and no feet.
I was slitherin' through the forest looking for a mouse or mole cause I was
hungry. Saw 2 boys swinging in a tree like they were monkeys,
in the branches with their hands and their feet.
CHORUS: And I cried Oooooooooooooooooo. It seems like every boy and
girl is afraid of me. I mean that every single human being is afraid of me
cause I've got no arms, a long tongue and no feet.
The boys climbed down from the tree, the tall one started to walk my way
he saw me and in terror he exclaimed:
"There's a king snake in the grass by my feet!"
And he yelled: "Danny step on its head!" and they threw rocks as I tried to
slip away. Through the tall green grass I barely made my escape
under some cool dark rocks where no one could see.
CHORUS
People say I'm scary I've got no arms, a long tongue and no feet. In a way it
makes me happy my life's carefree, cause most people they just let me be.
And in face I'm pretty scared when I see a person coming with their big feet.
I get afraid they might be mean and try to step on me.
Because of my no arms, a long tongue and no feet.
CHORUS
SO WHY AREN’T YOU? (Steve Van Zandt)
88
D
G
D
The fawn in the meadow like to play all day
G
D
But when the sun goes down they hear their mother say
Bm
G
D
Go and get your rest until the day breaks new
G
D
A
D
Now the fawn are fast asleep so why aren’t you?
Into the night little rabbits stay awake
But even they go to sleep when the hour is late
They cuddle all together until the day breaks new
Now the rabbits in the grass
And the fawn are fast asleep, so why aren’t you?
The squirrels jump and play in the old oak tree
But when the sun goes down they curl up in the leaves
All is still until the day breaks new
Now the squirrels are in the branches
And the rabbits in the grass
And the fawn are fast asleep, so why aren’t you?
The crow above my garden teases me all day
Swoops down on my corn and I shoo him away
But when the sun goes down until the day breaks new
The crow rests in his nest
And the squirrels are in the branches
And the rabbits in the grass
And the fawn are fast asleep, so why aren’t you?
You’ve had warm milk and I’m singing you this song
But I’ll be asleep before very long
Close your eyes and dream your dreams until the day breaks new
Now I’m sleeping by your side
As crow rests in his nest
And the squirrels are in their branches
And the rabbits in the grass
And the fawn are fast asleep, so why aren’t you?
SOLAR ENERGY SHOUT
(Steve Van Zandt)
89
G
Chorus: Everybody’s doing the solar energy shout... solar energy!!!
C
G
Everybody’s doing the solar energy shout... solar energy!!!
D7
C
G
We can do it all day cause we never never will run out.. solar energy!!!
G
Oil is scarce and coal dirties the air... solar energy!!!
C
G
Nuclear waste is a chance we’d rather not dare... solar energy!!!
D7
C
G
So, now is the hour solar power is everywhere... solar energy!!!
Chorus
The plants use the sun just ask the birds in the trees... solar energy!!!
The sun moves the seas just by movin’ the breeze... solar energy!!!
If it wasn’t for the sun we’d all be in a deep freeze... solar energy!!!
Chorus
If it wasn’t for the sun, fire would never have been found... solar energy!!!
There would be no oil pumped from out of the ground... solar energy!!!
The sky would be lonely without any clouds around... solar energy!!!
Chorus
The sun is the reason that this whole world can live... solar energy!!!
The sun never takes it’s always willing to give... solar energy!!!
Let’s meet the sun, learn to live and to give... solar energy!!!
Chorus
SPAWNIN’ BLUES (Dan “Dirty D” Pascucci)
I am a salmon
just look and see
90
if you live in Alaska
you’ve seen a lot like me
I’m born in a river
cause I like the water’s motion
and when I get older
I go live in the ocean
when it comes time for spawning
you know I go back to
back to the river I was born in
and this is what I do
I see a pretty female
makin’ a redd, her nest
and I go fertilize her eggs
cause she likes me the best
then you know what children
that is when I die
but don’t you worry none
and baby don’t you cry
cause when the eggs hatch out now
my body has made the stream healthy
the nutrients are rich
and my offspring, they are wealthy
but listen to me people
as I tell you this and that
please be kind to the river
don’t mess my habitat
I need the vegetation
that hides me and gives me shade
so when you’re out there fishing
don’t trample the bank, please wade
now you people need clean air
and water’s what I’ve got
so please do not pollute it
or the water will be too hot
so when you’re out there fishing
wishing I was on your plate
listen to what I ask you
and everything will be great
91
be kind to the salmon
and treat em like old friends
you can eat ‘em or feed ‘em
Cause if they come back all depends
well thanks for listening
and for hearing me out
remember to love your salmon
and the dollys and the trout
SPLENDOR OF THE WORLD (Steve Van Zandt)
Chorus (2xs):
Am
G
The light the word
F
E
The life giving Splendor
92
Am
Of the world
F
G
Showers overflowing
Am
Mercy rain
F
At the door we bow
G
Am
Oh heal us now again
What path do we follow
What mountain do we climb
To the well of understanding
The sublime
Chorus (2xs)
We savor the goodness
Of this place
Our truth is
What we can embrace
This is how
The spirit spins
Blow through us
Now oh sacred wind
Tag:
Chorus (2xs)
F
E
The life giving ________________________ (splendor, spirit, hope, joy,
passion, truth, light, vision,
Am
beauty, tears, laughter, peace)
Of the world
TIDEPOOL BOOGIE
Chorus:
(Steve Van Zandt)
C
If you go down to the ocean,
F
C
Down by some rocky shore
93
F
C
When the tide goes out you’ll be dancing,
D
G
C
Like you never never danced before.
F
G
C
Crabs, they pinch out the rhythm
F
G
C
Sea stars walk on hollow feet
F
C
Sea anemones are waving their tentacles
D
G
Sculpins are looking for something to eat
F
C
F
C
Bridge: Do the tidepool boogie, boogie woogie woogie; listen to that ocean beat
F
C
D
G
Do the tidepool boogie, boogie woogie woogie; it’s amazing who you’ll meet!
F
C
F
D
Do the tidepool boogie, boogie woogie woogie; as the wind and water play
F
C
D
G
C
Do the tidepool boogie, boogie woogie woogie; you can do it now twice a day!
Mussels are holding on tightly
Limpets do the one-foot slide
Hermit Crabs are looking for new homes
While Sea Palms sway with the tide.
Chorus & Bridge
Echinoderms have skin that is spiny
Cephalopods, a head with arm-feet
Gastropods, the foot’s near the stomach
Tidepool critters are the strangest you’ll meet!
Chorus & Bridge
THE TIDEPOOL SHUFFLE
(to the tune of the Crawdad Song, blue grass strum)
-lyrics by Shagbark, Cicada, and Palm (Spring 2005)
Chorus
G
G
What you gonna do when the tide goes out, honey
G
D
What you gonna do when the tide goes out babe
G
G
94
What gonna do when the tide goes out
C
C (hard down strokes on the C chord)
FIND SOME WATER SO I DON'T DRY OUT!
G
D
G
Honey, sugar, baby mine
Verses (same chord progression as the chorus)
Heard the hermit crab say to the snail, honey
Heard the hermit crab say to the snail, babe
Heard the hermit crab say to the snail
"Hey buddy can I have your shell,
I need a home of my own"
Hey sea star did you lose an arm, honey
Hey sea star did you lose an arm, babe
Hey sea star did you lose an arm
"Don't worry it won't do me no harm
I can regenerate"
Anemone with a crab in its belly, honey
Anemone with a crab in its belly, babe
Anemone with a crab in its belly
"But I get more food from my zooxanthellae,
an algae that lives inside of me"
Nudibranchs chill at the low tide line, honey
Nudibranchs chill at the low tide line, babe
Nudibranchs chill at the low tide line
"So colorful, but so hard to find,
banana slugs are cousins of mine"
Purple shore crab crawlin' all around, honey
Purple shore crab crawlin' all around, babe
Purple shore crab crawlin' all around
"Eating anything that comes around,
all crabs are scavengers"
Burrowed in the rock is a sea urchin, honey
Burrowed in the rock is a sea urchin, babe
Burrowed in the rock is a sea urchin
"Don't poke too hard cause I could prick your skin
Sea stars are my kin"
What you gonna do when tide comes in, honey
What you gonna do when tide comes in, babe
What you gonna do when tide comes in
Step out of my shell and go for a swim
Honey, sugar baby mine
TUBE FEET
by Jacob Sackin (sung to the tune of Heavy Things by Phish)
CG CG
C
G
C
G
Chorus: Waves are crashing down on me. They pull me towards the open
95
CG CG
C
G
C
G
CGCG
sea.
I hold on tight to rock and stone, protect my space in the tide zone.
F
G
CG CG
I just try to stay alive......and hope the seagulls don't eat me.
F
C
F
C F
The sea stars stick out their tube feet, trying to catch something to eat. An
C
G F
arm breaks off but that's okay, it will grow back in a few weeks. It turns its
C F
C
F
stomach inside out, sticks it in clam and mussel shells. Gets cracked open and
C
G
eaten by the otters resting on the kelp.
Chorus
F
C
F
C F
Anenomes have tentacles. They stick to you and start to pull. Tiny harpoons
C
G
F
that paralyze, pull their prey toward their mouth hole. The tide is high the
C F
C F
tide is low. The hermit crabs crawl to and fro. An empty turban snail shell
C
G
makes a perfect place for a new home___
Chorus
F
C
F
C
F
The limpets eat algae at night, get shriveled up by the sunlight. They store
C
G
F
water around their skin, make sure their shells are airtight. Sea urchins
C
F
C
F
have long pointy spines, upon the algae they will dine. An herbivore
C
G
beneath the sea, cleaning the rocks below the tide.
Chorus
WATER CYCLE BOOGIE
A
(Doug Greenfield)
D
B
96
Chorus:
Evaporation, condensation, precipitation,
B
E
The water cycle boogie goes round and round.
B
E
The water cycle boogie goes up and down.
A
The sun gives the water cycle power to spin
D
The water goes up and down again
B
The surface of the water heats up with the sun
E
The water rises up and then the boogie's begun
B
E
What's that called? What's that called? (EVAPORATION!!)
Chorus
Water holds together chemically,
Hydrogen bonding is what you see.
All those airborne vapors they squeeze together,
To form a cloud that could change the weather.
What's that called? What's that called? (CONDENSATION!!)
Chorus (beginning with condensation)
All those dark clouds can't hold together,
The water boogies down bringing stormy weather.
Fog, rain, hail, flurries, ice and sleet,
Splish, splash, and crunch beneath your feet.
What's that called? What's that called? (PRECIPITATION!!)
Chorus (beginning with precipitation)
Two thirds of the earth is water, it's true,
It gives life to every plant and animal too.
Respect water's power, only use your share,
Don't waste a drop, there's none to spare.
Let's do the water cycle boogie again! Let's go for another spin!
Chorus
97
WAVES COME FROM WIND
(Palm)
Chorus
G
Em
Think of where a wave begins
C
F
A thousand miles away in the deepest ocean
G
Em
C
Waves come from wind, now say it again!
F
G
Waves come from wind
G
F
Part 1:Building, Building Building, Building, Building BREAK!
Part 2: Chop…..Chop,
Chop……..Chop
Part 3: SWELLLLLLLLLLLLLL(get louder and then softer)
Verses
C
G
The wind blows on the water and causes a little ripple
C
G
But this energy's alive long after the storm fizzles
C
G
White caps come together forming lines of swell so clean
D
D
Then the ocean looks like corduroy moving through the sea
(the rest of the verses follow the same pattern as shown above)
During spring fall and winter, Alaskan storms just stay
Then they start to blow their mighty winds our way
And from this wind a wave begins to form
And pretty soon it's gonna break on the California shore
When a wave hits the beach and crashes head on
The water is forces down and creates a current so strong
And then from the surface, the water's forced below
Careful not to get pulled out by the undertow
En las olas siento libre
Pero ten cuidado porque el mar es muy fuerte
Muestra respeto al océano
Entonces las focas dicen gracias a todos
With the waves crashing down, think of the harbor seal
Out looking for fish, just think how they must feel
They'll swim a little deeper to avoid getting pounded by the waves
Then climb up on the rock and hope for a sunny day
98
WEB OF LIFE (words by Jacob Sackin, Rebecca Silver and Allison Young;
to the music of “Cup of Life” by Ricky Martin)
Am
E
Am
Go Go Go! (Go go go!) Ale Ale Ale! (Ale Ale Ale!)
Am
Go! (Go!) Go (Go!) Go Go Go Go Here We Go!
Am Am -
Dm
E
Am
Am x2
Am
Dm E
Am
The web of life starts with the sun
Am
Dm E
Am
All the food chains, bottom to top
The eagle’s song, gotta be strong
Sharks swim along, don’t ever stop
E
Am
Raccoons creep through the night, moths fly around the lights
Dm
Am
Rain falls from the sky into the ocean.
E
Am
Ants on an apple core, termites inside the door
Dm
E
Strands in the web of life, you’re a part of it (yeah!) x4
Chorus:
Am
Dm
Am
Oak trees grow -- Ale ale ale!
Am
E
Am
Grow grow grow! -- (Ale ale ale!)
Tonight’s the night -- We’re gonna celebrate
The web of life – Ale ale ale!
La vida es competicion. Hay que comer, ser campeon.
Trebajadores de decomposition. Banana slugs y gusanos.
The sun turns up the heat, plants make some food to eat
Deer browse on the leaves deep in the forest.
To make the web complete, hawks like the taste of meat
Flies eat carnivores, Turn them to soil (x4)
WE’RE IN THIS TOGETHER (Steve Van Zandt)
99
Chorus:
C
There’s a hole in the ceiling and the rain is coming through
F
But I’ll be there to get wet with you
C
F
Because we’re in this together, we’re in this together
C
F
We’re in this together, we’re in this together
Ageless river has a song we hear
It cuts through the time that brought us all here
Oh we’re in this together…
Sometimes a sadness creeps into me
You hold my hand silently
Because we’re in this together…
The gators were nippin’, I was up a tree
You came and took my place for me
Because we’re in this together…
Big rock moved our path around
With each hand that passes we wear it down
Because we’re in this together…
WHERE DO THE CHILDREN PLAY?
(Cat Stevens)
100
D
G
D
G
Well I think it’s fine, building jumbo planes.
D
G
D
G
Or taking a ride on a cosmic train.
D
G
D
G
Switch on summer, from a slot machine.
D
G
You get what you want to if you want
D
G
Cause you can get anything.
Em
A
Em
A
I know we’ve come a long way, we’re changing day to day.
Em
A
D
G D G D G
But tell me where do the children play?
D
Well you roll on roads over fresh green grass.
For your lorry loads pumping petrol gas.
And you make them long, and you make them tough
And they just go on and on, and it seems that you can’t get off.
I know we’ve come a long way, we’re changing day to day,
But tell me, where do the children play? G D G G C Em
Well you’ve cracked the sky, scrapers fill the air
But will you just keep building higher
Till there’s no more room up there.
Will you make us laugh, will you make us cry,
Will you tell us when to live, will you tell us when to die?
I know we’ve come a long way, we’re changing day to day
But tell me where do the children play?
Doo doo doo doo doo, doo doo doo doo doo (repeat)
101
G
Am
WILD THING
Chorus:
(adapted from The Troggs)
A
D E
Wild thing,
D
A
D E
You make the forest sing;
D
A
D E
D
You make everything... groovy.
A
GAGA
Mule deer, I think I love you.
GAGA
But I want to know for sure.
Eating up all those grasses and leaves,
GAGA
I guess that makes you an (let the crowd guess) HERBIVORE!!!
Chorus
Bobcat, I think I love you.
But I want to know for sure.
Hunting all those meaty little animals,
I guess that makes you a CARNIVORE!!!
Chorus
Turkey vulture, I think I love you.
But I want to know for sure.
Eating all those dead animal carcasses off the ground
I guess that makes you a SCAVENGER!!!
Chorus
Banana slug, I think I love you.
But I want to know for sure.
Eating all the dead plant matter and turning it into soil,
I guess that makes you a DECOMPOSER!!!
Chorus
102
YOUR OWN WORST ENEMY (Adapted from “My Own Worst Enemy” by Lit,
lyrics by Jonas Ehudin and Jer Leonard)
Chorus:
G
Can’t you see my white stripe?
A
D
And don’t you smell my scent glands?
G
You’d better take a step back
A
D
A
G D
Or I’ll hose you down, hose you down
D
A
G
Don’t you forget about the smell I made I am a skunk
D
A
G
Too bad I had to spray like that
D
A
G
It’s not my fault ‘cause when you came and tried to play with me,
D
You scared me, please tell me why
Chorus
D
A G
It’s no surprise to me, you are your own worst enemy
D
A
G
Bathe in tomato juice, it is the only remedy
D
A
G
My handstand isn’t cute, it’s a display, a fighting stance
D
I’m aiming, it’s your last chance…
Chorus
103
CLOSING/DISMISSAL SONGS
In each of these songs underlined words can be replaced with others for use as a dismissal song.
FRIENDS (unknown origin)
C
Am
F
G
Friends are special when they sing together,
F
G
They may sing the whole day,
C
Am
They may sing the night away,
F
G
They may sing together,
C
They may sing.
HAPPINESS RUNS (Donovan Leitch; adaptation)
Part 1:
D
A
E
A
Happiness runs in a circular motion
D
A
E
A
Love is like a little boat upon the sea
D
A
E
A
Everybody is a part of everything anyway
D
A
E
A
You can be a part if you set yourself free
Part 2:
Happiness runs, happiness runs happiness,
Happiness runs, happiness runs runs (repeat)
Part 3:
La la la la la la la la…
HUMBLE
(Traditional)
104
Em
D
Em
Humble yourself in the sight of the redwoods
D
You’ve got to ask them what they know,
Em
D
Em
And humble yourself in the sight of the redwoods,
D
You’ve got to know what they know.
Chorus:
C
D
Em
And we shall lift each other up,
D
Higher and higher,
C
D
Em
And we shall lift each other up.
D
Em
IF I HAD WINGS (unknown origin)
D
G
A
If I had wings, if I had wings,
D
G
A
I’d fly away back to my home,
D
G
A
Now I have wings, now I have wings,
G
A
D
I’ll fly away to my home.
GOODNIGHT AND SLEEP WELL (Bug Johnson)
G
C
G
Goodnight and sleep well my friends
G
C
D
Goodnight and sleep well my friends
Em
C
We’ll all be together tomorrow again
C
D
G
So goodnight and sleep well my friends
TURN THE WORLD AROUND
(adapted from Harry Belafonte)
105
D
G
We come from the water,
A
D
All of us the water,
D
G
Go back to the water,
A
D
Turn the world around.
Chorus:
D
G
A
D
We come from the water,
D
G
A
D
Go back to the water, turn the world around!
VOICES OF ONE PEOPLE (Steve Van Zandt of the Banana Slug String Band)
C
We are the voices of one people
G
Spinning around the sun
F
C
Diversity in unity
F G C
We are one
C
Let _______ fill your spirit
G
Let _______ be your guide
F
Let _______ be your companion
C
By your side
WITH PEOPLE I LIKE (Steve Van Zandt of the Banana Slug String Band)
D
Em
D
G
It’s so nice to be here with people I like
106
D
Em
D
G
It’s so nice to hear them all say
D
Em
D
G
That it’s so nice to be here with people I like
D
Em
D GD
And with them to share a new day.
CHANTS
AIR I AM
(unknown origin)
107
Air I am
Fire I am
Water, earth, and spirit I am
CONNECTED (Steve Van Zandt of the Banana Slug String Band)
Connected, connected, everything’s connected
Connected, connected, (clap) to everything else
DEEP PEACE (Diane Gibbons)
Sing both lines, then repeat. Then replace underlined phrase with lines
of your choice. Sounds great with a drum.
Deep peace, deep peace to you
Deep peace of the running deer to you.
DOWN DOWN DOWN (Walt Sadauskus)
Use with a discussion about roots preventing erosion or when exploring
the adaptations of dune and beach plants. This chant is a call and
response with every line.
Down down down
Down to the solid ground
Stopping that sifting sand
We are special (2X)
Green plants (2X)
FOG (Walt Sadauskus)
Have the group hold their hands out like leaves while you mist their
hands with a spray bottle. Everyone chants:
Fog, you are so beautiful (2X)
Come, come, come feed the forest (2X)
Follow up: Choose someone to spray your hair or beard and notice how
the water drips to your feet (roots). Now demonstrate the same on an
evergreen. Sing chant as you continue walking.
I CIRCLE AROUND (Arapaho Native American)
Start the round at the beginning of any line. Nice to end by doing it
silently with only the hand motions.
Wearing my long tail feathers as I fly (outstretched arms)
Wearing my long tail feathers as I fly (outstretched arms)
I circle around, I circle around (draw a circle twice with one hand)
The boundaries of the Earth (draw a circle from top to bottom w/both hands)
The planet of my birth (open hands cupped in front of you)
MAMMAL (David Stokes)
This is a call and response with each line. Replace bat and snake with
other examples. Ask your kids to name a mammal and a non-mammal
each time.
It’s got a hard backbone
108
Hair on its skin
Nurses from its mother
And is warm within
A bat is a mammal but a snake is not
You can tell a bat’s a mammal by the kind of things it’s got.
MY ROOTS GO DOWN (Sarah Pirtle)
Great as a dismissal song or on trail. Have kids make up their own
lines.
My roots go down, down to the earth (3X)
My roots go down.
I am a pine tree on a mountainside (3X)
My roots go down.
I am a willow swaying in a storm (3X)
My roots go down.
I am a wildflower reaching for the sun (3x)
My roots go down.
I am a waterfall skipping home (3X)
My roots go down.
RIVER IS FLOWING (Traditional)
Start the round at the beginning of any line.
River she is flowing, flowing and growing
River she is flowing, down to the sea.
Mother carry me, your child I will always be
Mother carry me down to the sea.
RIVER OF BIRDS (Libana)
Sung as a round.
A river of birds in migration,
A nation of women with wings.
STANDING LIKE A TREE (unknown origin)
This chant works best when you act out the tree with hand & body
motions.
Standing like a tree
With my roots dug down
My branches wide and open
Down comes the rain
Down comes the fruit
To a heart that is open to be standing like a tree (repeat)
SUN, SOIL, WATER, & AIR (Steve Van Zandt of the Banana Slug String Band)
This chant is great as a follow up to a four mysteries activity. It is a
call and response with each line. Snap the rhythm.
Sun, soil, water, and air (2X)
Everything you eat
And everything you wear
Everything comes from (2X)
109
Sun, soil, water, and air
TWO HANDS HOLD THE EARTH (Sarah Pirtle)
Works well as a repeat-after-me song.
My feet are on the ground, ground, ground.
My head is in the sky, sky, sky.
And what about my blood?
It’s from the trees.
And what about my breath?
It’s a mountain breeze.
And my hands, oh my hands,
My two hands hold the earth.
WATERFALL (Walt Sadauskus)
Clap and listen silently between all verses.
Waterfall you are the joy of the forest (2x)
Water and air mixed together ha ha ha (2x)
WHO WERE THE WITCHES? (Bonnie Lockhart)
Can change “witches” to names of cabins and “women” to “creatures”;
great as a dismissal song.
Who were the witches?
Where did they come from?
Maybe your great, great grandmother was one.
Witches were wise, wise women, they say,
There’s a little witch in every one of us today.
CAMPFIRE STORIES/SKITS
FALLING ROCK (unknown origin)
Once (one finger up)
long ago (spread hands apart)
there was a kingdom whose queen (hands form crown)
had died. (universal choking sign and “ugg”)
There was great sorrow. (cry and wail)
110
The three (hold up three fingers)
wise women (stroke chin and “hmm”)
of the kingdom (hold fingers out as if multitude of people)
held a great council (bring three fingers together and make whispering sound)
and decided there would be a great contest (do rock, paper, scissors)
to choose the new queen.
Three
young women (curve hands)
were picked (pick nose)
for the contest.
They were: Running Water who Dances Heavy Rock (air guitar licks)
Ugly Woman Who Hides Her Face (scream and hide face)
and Falling Rock. (fall down and “aaah”)
The three
young women
were to bring back a fish from the Magic Lake (fish face and “bloop”)
a tail feather from an eagle (jump in air and “ding”)
and each had to stand in line for showers without her towel. (cover self, turn and “No way!”)
One moon passed (arm motion like clock hand and “creak”)
and Running Water Who Dances Heavy Rock
brought back to camp a fish from the Magic Lake
and a tail feather from an eagle
but (turn and point to butt)
she would not stand in line for showers without her towel.
Two moons passed
and Ugly Woman Who Hides Her Face
brought back to camp a fish from the Magic Lake
and she stood in line for showers without her towel (hands on hips & “what are you looking at?”)
but
the great bird the eagle had failed her. (jump up & then act as if scat drops in eye)
Three moons passed
and still there was no sign (point up and say “McDonalds”)
of falling rock.
The three wise women
of the kingdom
held a great council
and they announced (“attention K-mart shoppers”)
that “Falling Rock
was dead.”
“Falling Rock
was dead.”
“Falling Rock
was dead.” (say “OK, so all three of them said it” or jolt reader as if to stop skipping)
Running Water Who Dances Heavy Rock
was picked (pick nose and pretend to fling booger at audience)
as the new queen.
Ugly Woman Who Hides Her Face
got a face lift (contort face with hands)
and became a _______ naturalist. (point surreptitiously at the person reading)
Even to this day as we drive the highways (simulated driving)
we still see the signs
that say “Watch for falling rock.”
THE END (both folks turn away from audience and point at butts)
111
THE LORAX (Dr. Suess; script adaptation)
NARRATOR:
AT THE FAR END OF TOWN WHERE THE GRICKLE-GRASS GROWS
AND THE WIND SMELLS SLOW-AND-SOUR WHEN IT BLOWS
AND NO BIRDS EVER SING EXCEPTING OLD CROWS…
IS THE STREET OF THE LIFTED LORAX.
AND DEEP IN THE GRICKLE-GRASS, SOME PEOPLE SAY,
IF YOU LOOK DEEP ENOUGH YOU CAN STILL SEE, TODAY.
WHERE THE LORAX ONCE STOOD JUST AS LONG AS HE COULD
BEFORE SOMEBODY LIFTED THE LORAX AWAY.
WHAT WAS THE LORAX? AND WHY WAS IT THERE?
AND WHY WAS IT LIFTED AND TAKEN SOMEWHERE
FROM THE FAR END OF TOWN WHERE THE GRICKLE-GRASS GROWS?
ASK HIM. HE KNOWS.
The Once-ler:
It all started way back…
Such a long, long time back…
Way back in the days when the grass was still green
And the pond was still wet and the clouds were still clean,
And the song of the Swamee-Swans rang out in space…
One morning, I came to this glorious place.
And I first saw the trees! The Truffula Trees!
The bright-colored tufts of the Truffula Trees!
Mile after mile in the fresh morning breeze.
And, under the trees, I saw Brown Bar-ba-loots
Frisking around in their Bar-ba-loot suits
As they played in the shade and ate Truffula fruits.
From the rippulous pond came the comfortable sound
of the Humming-Fish humming while splashing around.
But those trees! Those trees!
All my life I’d been searching for trees such as these.
The touch of their Tufts was much softer than silk.
And they had the sweet smell of fresh butterfly milk.
I felt a great leaping of joy in my heart. I knew what I’d do! I’d unload my cart.
In no time at all, I had built a small shop
Then I chopped down a Truffula Tree with one chop.
And with a great skillful skill and a great speedy speed,
I took the soft tuft and I knitted a Thneed!
The instant I’d finish I heard a ga-zump!
I looked. I saw something pop out of the stump
Of the tree I’d chopped down. It was a sort of a man.
Describe him? That’s hard. I don’t know if I can.
He was shortish. And oldish. And brownish. And mossy.
And he spoke with a voice that was sharpish and bossy.
The Lorax:
Mister! I am the Lorax! I speak for the trees.
I speak for the trees, for the trees have no tongues.
And I’m asking you sir, at the top of my lungs –
What’s that thing you’ve made of my Truffula tuft?
Look Lorax, I said, there’s no cause for alarm.
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I chopped just one tree, I am doing no harm.
I’m being quite useful. This is a Thneed.
And a Thneed’s a fine something that everyone needs.
It’s a shirt. It’s a sock. It’s a glove. It’s a hat.
But it has other uses, yes, far beyond that.
You can use it for carpet. For pillows! For sheets!
Or curtains! Or covers for bicycle seats!
Sir, you’re crazy with greed.
There’s no one on earth who’d buy that fool Thneed.
But at that very minute I proved he was wrong.
For, just at that minute a chap came along,
And he thought that the Thneed I had knitted was great.
He happily bought it for three ninety-eight.
I laughed at the Lorax, you poor stupid guy!
You never can tell what some people will buy.
I repeat!
I speak for the trees!
I’m busy,
Hush up if you please.
(Lorax exits)
HE RUSHED ‘CROSS THE ROOM AND IN NO TIME AT ALL,
BUILT A RADIO-PHONE. HE PUT IN A QUICK CALL.
HE CALLED ALL HIS BROTHERS AND UNCLES AND AUNTS
AND HE SAID,
Listen here! Here’s a wonderful chance
For the whole Once-ler family to get mighty rich!
Get over here fast! Take the road to North Nitch.
Turn left at Weehawken. Sharp right at South Stich.
AND, IN NO TIME AT ALL, IN THE FACTORY HE BUILT,
THE WHOLE ONCE-LER FAMILY WAS WORKING FULL TILT.
THEY WERE ALL KNITTING THNEEDS JUST AS BUSY AS BEES,
TO THE SOUND OF THE CHOPPING OF TRUFFULA TREES.
THEN…
Oh baby oh! How my business did grow!
Now chopping one tree at a time was too slow.
So I quickly invented my Super-Axe-Hacker
Which wacked off four Truffula Trees at one smacker.
We were making Thneeds four times as fast as before!
And that Lorax?…
He didn’t show up anymore.
But the next week he knocked
At my new office door.
I’m the Lorax who speaks for the trees
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Which you seem to be chopping as fast as you please.
But I’m also in charge of the Brown Bar-ba-loots
Who played in the shade in their Bar-ba-loot suits
And happily lived, eating Truffula fruit.
NOW…thanks to your hacking my trees to the ground,
There’s not enough Truffula fruit to go ‘round.
And my poor Bar-ba-loots are getting the crummies
Because they have gas, and no food in their tummies!
They loved living here. But I can’t let them stay.
They’ll have to find food. And I hope that they may.
Good luck boys. I must send them away.
(Lorax exits)
I, the Once-ler, felt sad as I watched them all go.
BUT… business is business and business must grow
Regardless of crummies in tummies, you know.
I meant no harm. I most truly did not.
But I had to grow bigger. So bigger I got.
I biggered my factory. I biggered my roads.
I biggered my wagons. I biggered my loads
of Thneeds I shipped out. I was shipping them forth
to the South! To the East! To the West! To the North!
I went right on biggering… selling more Thneeds.
And I biggered my money, which everyone needs.
Then again he came back! I was fixing some pipes
When that old nuisance Lorax came back with more gripes.
I am the Lorax (cough, wheeze)
Once-ler (snuffle, sneeze)
Once-ler! Your making such smogulous smoke!
My poor Swamee-Swans… why, they can’t sing a note!
No one can sing who has smog in his throat.
And so, (cough, cough)
Please pardon my coughThey cannot live here. I’m sending them off.
Where will they go? I don’t hopefully know.
They may have to fly for a month..or a year…
To escape from the smog you’ve smogged up around here.
What’s more…
Let me say a few words about Gluppity-Glupp.
Your machinery chugs on, day and night without stop
Making Gluppity-Glupp and Schloppity-Schlopp.
And what do you do with this leftover goo?…
I’ll show you. You dirty old Once-ler man you!
You’re glumping the pond where the Humming-Fish hummed!
No more can they hum, for their gills are all gummed.
So I’m sending them off. Oh, their future is dreary.
They’ll walk on their fins and get woefully weary
In search of some water that isn’t so smeary.
I hear that things are just as bad in Lake Erie.
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And then I got mad. I got terribly mad.
I yelled at the Lorax, Now listen here Dad!
All you do is yap-yap and say bad! bad! bad!
Well, I have my rights, sir, I’m telling you
I’m intending to go on doing just what I do.
And, for your information, you Lorax, I’m figuring
On biggering, AND BIGGERING, AND BIGGERING!
Turning more Truffula Trees into Thneeds
Which everyone, EVERYONE, EVERYONE needs!
AND AT THAT VERY MOMENT THEY HEARD A LOUD WHACK!
FROM OUTSIDE IN THE FIELDS CAME A SICKENING SMACK
OF AN AXE ON A TREE. THEN WE HEARD THE TREE FALL.
THE VERY LAST TRUFFULA TREE OF THEM ALL!
No more trees. No more Thneeds. No more work to be done.
So, in no time, my uncles and aunts, every one,
All waved me good-bye. They jumped into my cars
And drove away under the smoke-smuggered stars.
Now all that was left ‘neath the bed-smelling sky
Was my bid empty factory, the Lorax…
And I.
The Lorax said nothing, just gave me a glance…
Just gave me a very sad, sad backward glance…
As he lifted himself by the seat of his pants.
And I’ll never forget the grim look on his face
When he heisted himself and took leave of this place,
Through a hole in the smog without leaving a trace.
And all that the Lorax left here in this mess
Was a small pile of rocks, with one word…
UNLESS.
Whatever that meant, well, I just couldn’t guess.
That was long, long ago. But each day since that day
I’ve sat here and worried and worried away.
Through the years, while my buildings have fallen apart
I’ve worried about it with all of my heart.
But now, now that you’re here
The words of the Lorax seem perfectly clear.
UNLESS someone like you cares a whole awful lot,
Nothing is going to get better.
It’s not.
So…here…catch.
I’ll let something fall. It’s a Truffula seed. It’s the last one of all!
You’re in charge of the last of the Truffula seeds.
And Truffula seeds are what everyone needs.
Plant a new Truffula. Treat it with care.
Give it clean water. And feed it fresh air.
Grow a forest. Protect it from axes that hack.
Then the Lorax and all of his friends
May come back.
THE OTHER WAY TO LISTEN (Byrd Baylor)
I used to know an old man who could walk by any cornfield and hear the corn
singing. "Teach me," I'd say when we'd passed on by. (I never said a word
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while he was listening.) "Just tell me how you learned to hear that corn." And
he'd say, "It takes a lot of practice. You can't be in a hurry." And I'd say, "I
have the time."
He was so good at listening - once he heard wildflower seeds burst open,
beginning to grow under ground. That's hard to do. He said he was just lucky
to have been by himself up there in the canyon after a rain. He said it was the
quietest place he'd ever been and he stayed there long enough to understand
the quiet.
Another time he heard a rock kind of murmur good things to a lizard. I was
there. We saw the lizard sunning on a rock. Of course we stopped. The old
man said, "I wonder how that lizard feels about the rock it's sitting on and how
the rock feels about the lizard?" He always asked himself hard questions that
take awhile to answer
We leaned against another rock. Along time passed, and then he said, "Did you
hear that? They like each other fine." I said, "I didn't hear a thing." He said,
"Sometimes EVERTHING BEING RIGHT makes a kind of sound. Like just now.
It wasn't much more than a good feeling that I heard from that old rock." "Were
you surprised to hear it?" I always had to ask. He said, "Not a bit. It seemed
like the most natural thing in the world." "I said, "I wish I'd heard it too." He
said he thought I might some day.
He told me how a friend of his once heard a whole sky full of start when she
was seven. And later on when she was eighty three she heard a cactus
blooming in the dark.
At first she didn't know what she was hearing.
She found it by just following the sound. There were twenty flowers on one
cactus and they were all white as the moon. The old man said, "Most people
never hear those things at all."
I said, "I wonder why." He said, "They just don't take the time you need for
something that important." I said, "I'll take the time, but first you have to
teach me."
"I'd like to if I could," he said "but the thing is… you have to learn it from the
hills and ants and lizards and weeds and things like that. They do the teaching
around here." "Just give me a clue on how to start." I said.
And so he said, "Do this: go get to know one thing as well as you can. It should
be something small. Don't start with a mountain. Don't start with the whole
Pacific Ocean. Start with one seed pod or one dry weed or one horned toad or
one handful of dirt or one sandy wash." I said, "I'll take the sandy wash." He
said, "I started with one tree."
Every morning of his life when he was young he climbed a cottonwood and sat
there listening. He told me it was worth the time. He said trees are very
honest and they don't care much for fancy people. And he said he doesn't
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know of anything he ever did as important as sitting in that tree. "Tell me
everything you can," I said. He said, "Well, you have to respect that tree or hill
or whatever it is you're with. Take a horned toad, for example. If you think
you're better than a horned toad you'll never hear its voice - even if you sit
there in the sun forever." And he said, "Don't be ashamed to learn from bugs
or sand or anything." I said, "I won't." He thought of one more thing. "It's good
to walk with people but sometimes go alone." "That way," he said, "you can
always stop and listen at the right time."
"I'll remember everything." I said. And I did. But nothing worked.
I thought there must be something wrong with me because I only heard wind
and quails and coyotes and doves - just things that anyone can hear. I almost
gave up trying. Of course I still went walking in my hills. In fact, I used to sing
to them a lot. I thought that since they wouldn't sing to me, I'd just sing to
them instead. The day I'm telling you about now I was singing and the whole
song was this: HELLO HILLS HELLO HILLS HELLO HILLS HELLO.
That was after I had been away five days and I had missed those hills - five
days. I went out earlier than usual. You know how everything looks new at
sunshine. Well, all those hills were looking new. I was just walking where I
always walk but that morning I kept thinking HERE I AM! And whatever way I
happened to go was always right. I climbed the rocky side, not the path. The
rocky side is steeper but I like it best, and anyway that's where I found my
three hawk feathers. I stood at the top where I always stand looking down.
HELLO HILLS HELLO HILLS HELLO HILLS HELLO.
All I know is suddenly I wasn't the only one singing. The hills were singing too.
I stopped. I didn't move for maybe an hour: I never listened so hard in my life.
Of course their kind of singing isn't loud. It isn't any sound you can explain. It
isn't made with words. You couldn't write it down. All I can say is it came
straight up from those dark shinny lava rocks humming. It moved around like
wind. It seemed to be the oldest sound in the world.
All I can say is I was standing in the middle of that sound at seven o'clock in
the morning… just thinking HERE I AM! and thinking LISTEN! and not even
being surprised.
It seemed like the most natural thing in the world.
THE END
RINDECELLA: A Tairy Fale by the Brimm Grothers (as told by Derek
Fowles, with some other additions)
Tonce upon a wime, there lived a geautiful birl named Rindecella.
Rindecella lived with her muel stepcrother and two sasty stepnisters. They
made Rindecella do all the jummy crobs, like cheaning the climney, and
dwashing the wishes, and flopping the moor.
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One day the prandsome Hince announced that he was hosting a bancy
fall in his cagnificent mastle, and everyone was invited. Well, all the kadies in
the lingdom crent wazy. The prandsome Hince, you see, had never married,
and every woman wanted to be the Brince’s pride. And, he was also a real fart
smeller. Rindecella’s sasty stepnisters bought gancy fowns, and got canimures
and cedipures, and nainted their pails, and got pavy werms, and they put
fakeup on their maces. But Rindecella’s muel stepcrother wouldn’t let poor
Rindecella go to the bancy fall. “Don’t forget to flop the moor!” they said as
they left.
Poor Rindecella. As she flopped the moor she pretended she was at the
bancy fall, and went mancing with her dop across the kitchen, but then she
looked at her ress made of drags, and started woftly seeping.
Just then, her gairy fodmother appeared. “Oh gairy fodmother,” said
Rindecella. “I want to go to the bancy fall, but my rothes are all in clags!” So
her gairy fodmother tapped Rindecella’s claggedy rothes with her wagic mawnd.
*FOOP* Suddenly Rindecella was wearing a dragnificent mess, and out in the
street was a sparkling corse-drawn harriage. “Just remember,” said her gairy
fodmother, “the twell only lasts until spelve.”
Rindecella rode to the cagnificent mastle in her corse-drawn harriage. It
was a blendid spall. The prandsome Hince noticed Rindecella as soon as she
arrived, and they ended up nancing the dight away. Suddenly, the strock
began to clike. Rindecella cried “No oh! It’s nidmight!” and ran for her corsedrawn harriage. In her haste, she slopped her dripper. The prandsome Hince
ran after her calling “Bum cack! Bum cack!” but all he found was a single slass
glipper.
The next day, the pritten Smince rode all through town, trying to find
the enstranting changer who slost her lipper. Word spread like fildwire, and
every kady in the lingdom tried it on, but no one could sit the flipper. The
prandsome Hince was dearly nespairing when he came to Rindecella’s house.
First the muel stepcrother and then the sasty stepnisters slied the tripper, but
it find’t dit. The prandsome Hince noticed Rindecella flopping the moor. The
muel stepcrother said, “She wever nent to the bancy fall. Here, let my ditty
praughters sly that tripper again.” But the prandsome Hince insisted, and the
slass glipper slipped perfectly onto Rindecella’s fainty doot! Then the
prandsome Hince knew who Rindecella was (because remember, he was a real
fart smeller) and he fept her off her sweet and harried her comb to his
cagnificent mastle, where they lived happily ever after.
THE END
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SUNNY SIDE (adaptation of A.P. Carter & Gary Garett’s “Keep on the Sunny Side”)
Teach the chorus to the kids and have them tell jokes in between.
C
F
Stay on the sunny side, always on the sunny side
C
G
Stay on the sunny side of life.
C
F
You’ll feel no pain as we drive you insane
C
G
C
Just stay on the sunny side of life.
Joke! Joke! Joke!
WHATIF? (Shel Silverstein)
Have one person read while another acts it out.
Last night, while I lay thinking here,
Some Whatifs crawled inside my ear
And pranced and partied all night long
And sang their same old Whatif song:
Whatif I’m dumb in school?
Whatif they’ve closed the swimming pool?
Whatif I get beat up?
Whatif there’s poison in my cup?
Whatif I start to cry?
Whatif I get sick and die?
Whatif I flunk that test?
Whatif green hair grows on my chest?
Whatif nobody likes me?
Whatif a bolt of lightning strikes me?
Whatif I don’t grow taller?
Whatif my head starts getting smaller?
Whatif the fish won’t bite?
Whatif the wind tears up my kite?
Whatif they start a war?
Whatif my parents get divorced?
Whatif the bus is late?
Whatif my teeth don’t grow in straight?
Whatif I tear my pants?
Whatif I never learn to dance?
Everything seems swell, and then
The nighttime Whatifs strike again.
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