Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

From the Quotation of the day mailing list, 2009-08-29:

"I could easily learn to prefer an elephant to any other vehicle, partly because of that immunity from collisions, and partly because of the fine view one has from up there, and partly because of the dignity one feels in that high place, and partly because one can look in at the windows and see what is going on privately among the family." -- Mark Twain, in 'Following the Equator'.

(submitted to the mailing list by Z.D. Hora)

Most of you know a centuries-old round called "Hey Ho Nobody Home", right? Well a rhythmic similarity to something I started hearing on television a lot got me playing around with it in my head, and I've finally come up with a second and third line that I like for what I had in mind ...

(At left: links to a typical way of notating a round -- as one line of music with the points marked at which the second and third voices join in -- and an each-voice-on-its-own-staff version of the same thing, for folks who prefer having it all explicit and page-filling. They're on TwitPic, so you'll need to find the "view full size" button on the hover menu when you get there.)

Slightly different from what's in those linked images of sheet music (because a refinement occurred to me while I was typing this here journal entry):

    We are the ninety-nine percent
    No vast fortunes; our money all gets spent
    Our shopping is what will drive job-creation
    We are the ninety-nine percent ...

If anybody other than myself likes this enough to actually sing it, I figure the 'folk process' will have the wording continue to shift. As long as the words still closely resemble what I wrote, I'd appreciate being given credit for them, but beyond that I'm not interested in putting a leash on it -- thus the Creative Commons license. Either its of some value to the Occupy movement, in which case it's my gift to them ... or it doesn't, in which case it's probably not really interesting to anybody else either.

(This should go without saying, but hey, it's the Internet, so ... Note that the economic assertion in the lyric is not a nuanced, carefuly argued examination of the economics or explanation of an ideological position; it's a bumper-sticker-sized condensation of a relevant idea into a space too small for nuance, "yes, but", or a list of assumptions. I think I could insert footnotes into a ballad^[1], but there's not that much room in a round. Three lines make a slogan, not a scholarly essay.)

[1] The distinction between 'could' and 'should' probably having some importance there.