Padda the Frog helps me sing “The Greens”!
Hi everybody on HIVE! I am writing to you from Cape Town, South Africa!
One of my main hobbies is song writing in a variety of styles and emotions, and I perform my songs mostly with acoustic guitar, harmonica and vocals. (You can read about my most recent gig with fellow Hivean @Clairemobey here: @jasperdick/music-live-videos-our-first - it went really well and was super encouraging!)
At the end of July 2021, I became a father for the first time. That means I first became aware that the baby was on the way in about November 2020! I thought it might be fun to try and mentally prepare by writing a few songs for toddlers that I can use to hopefully entertain my child (along with some adults) in a few years from now!
The inspiration for me to write some fun children’s song is now 10 months old and starting to enjoy drumming on things herself!
THE GREENS
“The Greens” is admittedly the least original song I have written. It has some major apologies to make:
Firstly, the music itself is derived from a blues-standard called “Hoochie Coochie Man”, which was released by the famous blues-artist Muddy Water back in 1954. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoochie_Coochie_Man)
Secondly, the theme of the song lyrics was inspired by a cartoon by the world-famous Gary Larson, which you can see below:
The genius cartoon by Gary Larson that inspired the writing of my own version of “The Greens”
Thirdly, in order to get three full verses – I asked my friend Padda (the Afrikaans word for Frog) to explain to me all the things that might happen in a frog’s life that would get him down and make him sing the blues, (ahem), sorry… “The Greens”.
If this song ever hits the big-time, my friend Padda also wants some song-writing royalties!
Without any further ado – here is a live version of the song soon after it was written. It has now become a bit of a must-play at gigs to lighten the mood after some more serious numbers. I hope you enjoy!
THE END