Uke-Song: "BROKEN ARROW", reminiscence of cold-war near-catastrophes

SAD ANTI-WAR SATIRE:

MUSICAL UNDERPINNINGS:  "Desperado", The Eagles, 1973. "Desperado", in addition to being the name of a sound-track, is also the title of the second studio album recorded by the band. 

SATIRE COMPOSED: Giorgio Coniglio, March 2018. 

To see the lyrics displayed more concisely without the chord-indications (and to return to "Daily Illustrated Nonsense"), click HERE.  

SONGLINK: The same tune was used as the vehicle for a parody song posted in 2014 entitled "Macadamias".

BROKEN ARROW

(to the tune of "Desperado")  


UKULELE-FRIENDLY VERSION (and guitar, too!)

(Click on any chord-chart slide to move to 'song-presentation mode'; then navigate through thumbnails at bottom of page.)

Specifics for C-tuned ukulele:
Am7 = 0000 (or 0030);  Gm6 = 0201;  Bm7 = 2222;  E11= 2202; A7 = 0100;  F#m = 2120; A7sus = 2230

ORIGINAL SONG-LYRICS
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). 

"Broken Arrow" - Why don't we drop the pretenses
The Department of Defense has hidden truth 'til now.
Hardened warheads (or just training simulation),

And the trigger didn't detonate the payload somehow.

We're talking Cold War '58, and a farm near Florence in our rural state.
Air pocket, training crew, bomber overhead.
They lost control of a big device
A nuclear explosion wouldn't be nice.
Had it triggered, folks in Florence'd all be dead.

"Broken Arrow" - from the heavens bomb tumbled.
When A-bombs are fumbled, there's no time for alarm.
Flattened farmhouse, and left a 30-foot crater, but
No plutonium detonater, so 'no serious harm'.

Just months before, off the Georgia shore, two Air Force planes collided;
Never found, an H-bomb ditched into the sea.
Plutonium capsule had been removed (official account's not yet disproved)
Near Tybee Island, the device rests quietly.

Broken Arrows - there are dozens of examples.
The evidence is ample, we should close off this gate.
World leaders, we're needing
Diplomatic moderation.
Let's halt reckless provocation, reckless provocation,
Let's stop arms proliferation before it's too late.

WHAT NOW?

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Divine Comedy, Inferno: Canto#5a, "MINOS'S TAIL-TWIST"

PASTICHE WITH PARODY SONG-LYRICS

ORIGINAL POEM:  "Inferno" by Dante Alighieri, the first book in the triad, "The Divine Comedy", written in the early 14th century.

MUSICAL UNDERPINNINGS: "The Mexican Hat Dance", Allan Sherman, 1963. 

PARODY COMPOSED: Giorgio Coniglio, November 2015. 

EXPLANATION: Resuming at Canto 5 of “The Inferno” after a considerable pause.... Dante, guided by the Roman poet Virgil is on a mission presumably sanctioned by heavenly powers, that leads them progressively further downward into the Circles of Hell.

To return to the current post on "Daily Illustrated Nonsense" (and to see the lyrics without the chord-chart indications) click HERE. 

MINOS’S TAIL-TWIST

(to the tune of "The Mexican Hat Dance")

UKULELE-FRIENDLY FORMAT: 

(Click on any chord-chart slide to advance to 'presentation/singalong' mode.)

ORIGINAL SONG-LYRICS
(Click on any slide to enlarge, and to enter thumbnail mode, comparing the original song to the parody).

WHAT NOW?

Choice #1: To leave a comment, click on the comment-'widget' at the bottom of this page (or, if that fails, find an alternate e-mail on "pages").

Choice #2: To find another song-parody, use the listings on the web-version by reverse date in the clickable 'Blog-Archive' at the top of the right-hand column.

Choice #3: To return to our broad-spectrum blog "Daily Illustrated Nonsense", click HERE.

Choice #4 (optional): If you found this stuff to be compellingly entertaining or educational, send a cheque/check. 

If you aren't on the 'web-version', you can get there by clicking that choice ('view web-version') at the very bottom of this blog-page!

SEP 9, Limerick-Uke-Saga: "CLINICAL TRIAL", prevention and cure

UKE-SONG, derived from lyrics of a multi-verse limerick.


MUSICAL UNDERPINNINGS: These verses can be sung to "The Limerick Song", as per YouTube HERE.


ORIGINAL POETRY LYRICS: Original verses were composed by registered pseudonym Giorgio Coniglio, November 2016. After undergoing their rigorous collaborative editing process, these have been published as a "brief saga", a poetic entity of three or more stanzas, on the poetry website OEDILF (Omnificent English Dictionary In Limerick Form); they have then been displayed as poetry lyrics on our blog "Daily Illustrated Nonsense". Click HERE to review Giorgio's blogged poem.

SETTING WORDS TO MUSIC: Readers might be interested to know that of more than 1000 short poems that we have published, only 50 or so would qualify as "brief sagas". Although almost any limerick verse (e.g. the "Nantucket limericks") can be set to music, we were particularly interested in exploring this transitiioning for these multiverse poems that warrant the time to pick up your ukulele.

The tunes we have exploited in this effort include, not surprisingly "The Limerick Song". But on occasion we have also used (minor modifications may be required) "Up", "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?", "The Anniversary Song", "Summertime" etc.

SONG-LINKS: Check out all of Giorgio's blogposts on health and medical issues, as summarized HERE.

 

first stanza:/ In my dream, a vast clinical trial/ (And the concept might cause you to smile),/ To assess ILLS’ prevention,/ And their cure, by extension — / Pharma’s magic, a drug in a vial. 

second stanza:/ First, a dose-finding intro we’ve got,/ With a single-dose, double-blind shot./ Near the onset: detection/ Of effective protection/ With one gram — so we’ve filled in that slot. 

third stanza: Active-drug group: all symptoms aborted,/ But placebo-arm (duly cohorted/ Volunteers): some turned ill;/ Now a double-blind pill/ Is provided for them, as reported.

fourth stanza:/ So each day they receive just one gram — / Oral magic, or (randomized) sham,/ In a month, half are cured./ Half stay sick (get inured!)/ ’Til the trial’s unblinded, then Wham!

fifth stanza:/ In the open phase, where it is needed,/ True “prevention” or “cure” is repeated./ Controlled treatment phase: mean/ Days of dosing — sixteen./ Plus, low dose for prevention’s conceded. 

Author's Note: The conclusion of this imaginary placebo-controlled trial of magic in the prevention and treatment of ILLS can be stated as follows:

Parenteral administration of a low dose (1 gram) was found uniformly effective in prevention. For treatment of later established cases, the dosage requirement was found to be higher by a factor of 16 times (95% confidence interval: 9 — 25).
The above conclusion could, with inherent limitations of proportionality, be converted back to older units --  "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

WHAT NOW?

Choice #1: To leave a comment, click on the comment-'widget' at the bottom of this page (or, if that fails, find an alternate e-mail on "pages").

Choice #2: To find another song-parody, use the listings on the web-version by reverse date in the clickable 'Blog-Archive' at the top of the right-hand column.

Choice #3: To return to our broad-spectrum blog "Daily Illustrated Nonsense", click HERE.

Choice #4 (optional): If you found this stuff to be compellingly entertaining or educational, send a cheque/check. 

If you aren't on the 'web-version', you can get there by clicking that choice ('view web-version') at the very bottom of this blog-page!