8. Chicken Lips
8. Chicken Lips (by John and Nancy Cassidy)
The Bruce Springstein version of this song was on a CD given to me as a baby gift for Felix
by a former piano student, Anna Patrick. Kevin always liked this song and kept trying to
talk me into recording it. Then finally, one day I agreed to put it on IF he would agree to
sing it. You have to understand he NEVER sings in public (although he does lots of
impressions at home- you should hear his Kermit the Frog and John Crooke! And don't
even get me started on his Dwight Yoakim...) so it took lots of persuading to finally get
him (begrudgingly) in front of the mic. He ended up sounding amazing and now I try to
get him to sing with me on all the songs. He stills says no, but I'm working on him.
I got a couple of my piano students and their 3rd musketeer to come in and sing on the
choruses: Jack Guitton, Stephen Hagler and Michael McCormack. We sang it through
several times and I recorded each one. Every take got a little sillier and on the last one,
they let Felix sit in with them. He added a "yuck!" and a "gross!" here and there and
sang with them on the choruses. When I listened back to pick which track to use, they
were all so funny, I just decided to use them all, one layered on top of the other. It
ended up sounding like a live recording with lots of boys singing along instead of just
the four of them.
This is my first recording of cover songs, so I had to acquire the rights to use each song. It
was new to me, but was a pretty easy process. Most of the songs were listed on a
database and I just shopped though, picked out the songs I wanted, specified how
many copies I'd be making and then paid a one-time fee at the checkout. This song
was one of the more difficult ones to acquire the rights to. In the end I actually got in
touch with the songwriter, a lovely lady named Nancy Cassidy. She wrote this song
ages ago and was excited that another generation of kids would be listening to her
song. She's written tons of great kid songs and she and her husband are still out there
playing sold-out shows to kids across the country. Check out her website on our links
page.
CHICKEN LIPS
This one goes out to all you kids out there who don't like it when
your mom and dad try to get you to eat everything on your dinner
plate!
V1
Well when I was a little kid I never liked to eat
My mom would put things on my plate and I'd dump 'em on her
feet
Then one day she made this soup and I ate it all in bed
I asked her what she put in it, and this is what she said:
CHORUS
Chicken lips and lizard hips and alligator eyes
Monkey legs and buzzard eggs and salamander thighs
Well rabbit ears and camel rears and tasty toenail pie
Stir it all together- it's Mama's soup surprise!
(That's nothing, my mom makes me eat grasshoppers.
Oh come on! That's better than caterpillar legs!
My mom makes me eat spinach!
NASTY!)
V2
I went into the bathroom and I stood beside the sink
I said, I'm feeling slightly ill and I think I'd like a drink
Well Mama said I've just the thing, I'll get it in a wink
It's full of lots of proteins and vitamins, I think!
CHORUS