Ben Sings!

The next part of this project is the altogether more ambitious part.

Dannycat is a cartoon character from an extremely irregular comic I post on random dry erase boards around the office: https://www.facebook.com/unquabain/media_set?set=a.10152714522189299.1073741840.850579298&type=3

How to Coffee

Re-did the chorus. Added background vocals and Xaphoon.

How To Coffee Take 2

I wanted this to be good, so I kept the fiddle to a minimum.

Hoffmann!

Nuh-uhn

This was a request from a colleague. I've been wearing my read Steve Zissou hat all this month, so I thought I'd Mark Mothersbaugh this joint.

Rocky Raccoon

I wrote this thing a while back and I've wanted to set it to music.

This was my first attempt: https://soundcloud.com/ben-forsberg/monosodium-glutamate

But after I put it together (on my phone) I didn't know how to fit lyrics in.

So here's my second attempt. I left out this couplet. After “deadlier still is the flour of wheat” comes:

Peanuts and milk have laid low so many.
Compared with their poisons, MSG hasn't any.

So there you go. There may be a third attempt, but probably there won't be.

Monosodium Glutamate

I asked Facebook what I should write a song about, and Laura Hincks said “Drivers who don't know how a four-way stop works.” Here you go, Laura.

Additional vocals provided by my wife, Cher Underwood Forsberg, my niece Natasha, and my daughter, who also did the auto-tuned freestyling.

All the percussion was made from sounds I recorded in my car.

Four Way Traffic Stop (feat. ZuZu)

I found this obscure track from an obscure band—there are several band names, actually, that I believe to be the same: “Deak and the Power Converters,” “The Canyon Beggars,“ “The Beggar's Canyon Raiders,” etc.—from an obscure planet called Tatooine. The vocalist is the mononymous Deak, the fiddle solo is by Windy “Starkiller” Marstrap. The song was written by Luke “Skywalker” (real name unknown). The band seems to have been heavily influenced by Led Zeppelin.

The band was never signed.

The lyrics are:

The lake is an illusion
Just ripples on a dune.
Below a dry, unfriendly sky
And twice a day it's noon.
I'm blue as milk.
Seems my time will never come.
If there's a bright center to the galaxy,
I'm on the world it's furthest from.

The Vaporator's busted.
There's raiders out of view.
There's not enough crop on this old rock
To wet my cheeks with dew.
I'm blue as milk.
My lips are cracked and dry.
Uncle's farm is underwater,
But I can't even cry.

I'm wasting days at Tosche Station
Living on imagination.
My Uncle's all procrastination.
Can't submit my application!
Judge me by my size, do you?
Obi-wan tells lies to you!

The Junglund Wastes are yellow.
Most Eisley's yellow, too.
In this whole damned world of yellow
I'm the only thing that's blue.
I'm blue as milk.
My mood is black as space.
I'd cut off my own right hand
Just to get out of this place.

I know self reliance:
My friend's an appliance.
I'm through with compliance
And hot desert silence.

If *I'm* given *my* chance
I'm going to do violence
For The Rebel Alliance!
Yeah yeah!

I'll show Owen and Ben
And all of their ilk
But until then.
I'm blue as milk.

Blue as Milk

My daughter, ZRF, wrote lyrics for her own theme song. The best part: She owns a vase!

(I wrote the choruses, though.)

Lyrics:

Dad: Hey, have you heard?
Tasha: Is it a bird?
Dad: No! Way better! (Whispered) Plus, she's really clever.
Tasha: Who could she be?
Dr. Zurf: She's me!

All: Dr Zurf!
Dad: She's as clever as can be.
All: Dr Zurf!
Dad: Good advice for you and me.
All: Dr Zurf!
Dad: She doesn't have a PhD.
All: Dr Zurf! 
Dad: She'll sort you out to A from Z.

Tasha: Who are you?
Dr. Zurf: I'm here to help you.
Mom: Are you from space?
Dr. Zurf: No! But I own a vase.
Tasha: Time to say bye!
Mom: Come on, let's get a pie!

All: Dr Zurf!
Dad: She's as clever as can be.
All: Dr Zurf!
Dad: Good advice for you and me.
All: Dr Zurf!
Dad: Got a vase for what it's worth.
All: Dr Zurf!
Dad: So come and talk to Doctor Zurf.

All: Dr Zurf!

Doctor Zurf

Lyrics by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, and Gaius Valerius Catullus. Additional vocals by Querulus (https://twitter.com/querulus)

Ben Sings!

Ben Forsberg