UKE-SONG, derived from lyrics of a multi-verse limerick
ORIGINAL POETRY VERSES: Verses composed by Giorgio Coniglio, October 2017. These have been poetically published under the rubric "Toxic Vignettes" on the collaborative poetry website OEDILF, and on our blog "Daily Illustrated Nonsense" as a "brief saga". Click HERE for more sbout the brief saga.
MUICAL UNDERPINNINGS: These verses can be sung to the tune of "Summertime" from the opera "Porgy and Bess" by Heyward and Gershwin, as per YouTube HERE.
To return to our blog "Daily Edifying Nonsense" for further explanation of the context and details of the song, or to see the lyrics without the chord designations, click HERE.
METHYLATED SPIRITS
(to the tune of "Summertime")
Authors' Note: This tragic story is typical of events from Prohibition times in the U.S.A., but might still occur today.
Several different chemicals, 'denaturants', primarily toxic solvents, have been used by manufacturers to comply with regulations by taxation authorities and prevent the drinking of industrial ethanol. Frequently the latter is called 'methylated spirits', owing to the addition of the most commonly used denaturant, methanol, which is indistinguishable in appearance from ethanol, but routinely induces a life-threatening metabolic acidosis. The mixture may also be labelled as 'wood alcohol’ or ‘methyl hydrate’. Drinking denatured alcohol can still result in death or blindness in persons seeking an untaxed surrogate for consumer alcohol.
Readers might be surprised to learn that Giorgio, now long retired, had been a fellow of the American Academy of Clinical Toxicology during the earlier part of his career, and retains some interest, if not expertise, in this rather obscure area.
ORIGINAL SONG-LYRICS for "Summertime", the recipient (host) song.
Click on any chord chart to enlarge and enter thumbnail mode (the slides for both the parody and the original versions can then be enlarged and viewed in any order).
Here's a surprise that may delight some readers. We located the chord-and-lyric charts for our earlier attempt to bring music to this poetic story. We think the effort using the Gershwin operatic tune was more successful, but you can compare them, and makeup your own mind.
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