| Rhymenocerous On a Roll |
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Rhymenocerous by Tim Seston My name's Rhymenocerous. He's Hiphopapotamus We're here to tell our tale is this great metropolis See I’ve got the rhyme and Hippe has the rhythm He lays down the beat and I follow right with him Our story begins in the African Jungle Where I found myself in a bit of a bungle You see I learned to rhyme when I was just a calf I’d sit with all my cousins and make them all laugh When I told a silly joke so the story goes A rhino bull snorted grass right out of his nose It made me laugh so hard, you should have seen his horn But next thing I knew, I wish I hadn’t been born Because that rhino bull told the rest of the herd Not to listen anymore to my rhyming word So I left my home and traveled out on the plain Fell asleep in a puddle in the pouring rain chorus In the morning I awoke and what did I hear This huge hippopotamus was mooing in my ear I was startled at first by this deafening sound I jumped up to my feet and then I stood my ground I sized up the hippo and as he stared at me I knew that he was just as scared as scared can be Then I asked him some questions, “Am I in your home? Or did I just pick a puddle where you like to roam? He turned his back on me then with a giant thud Plopped down on the ground just to wallow in the mud Well I thought he'd dissed me, but then instead He started clapping both his hoofs and shaking his head chorus So I lay back down like a rhinoceros should When in a situation that he knows is good We were the fastest of friends and we spent our time Hippe making rhythms while I thought up the rhymes We practiced for a year on the African plain Under a scorching sun and the torrential rain Then with the laughter and the blessing of a lion’s roar We prepared ourselves for an incredible tour Then we packed all our bags and we said our goodbye Found a way for a rhino and a hippo to fly Our plan was ingenious, we traveled here by crates To find fame and fortune in the fifty states chorus |
| Steve Gross of Project Joy challenged me to write a song about these two characters back when I was just starting out as a songwriter. I loved the idea and wrote the song in less than a day. When we learned that the names of these characters had been used already in an adult song by the Flight of the Conchords we didn't pursue the song to any extent. However, when I decided to make a CD about dealing with adversity and thinking about the challenges that children have to overcome on a day to day basis, I went back to the archives. This story is about being excluded from one group only to find friendship where it was not expected. Children are resilient but they need to know that it is OK to step away from the "in crowd" and build strong relationships in our diverse and complex world. |
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