Musical humor can be a master key to emotional survival

This is demonstrated by the musical humor content in movies and plays worldwide, but that is merely the tip of the iceberg.

For me, at least.

There WAS the summer of 1978, when I acted in three separate well known musicals, one after another. But that was just one year. In most OTHER years, time after time, writing and singing original musical humor in the form of a lighthearted folk or country song...THAT was the real key.

Commercially, the comedic singer/songwriters who have made it big in the world of commercial music (outside of movies and plays)...those great successes are few and far between, but they are definitely GREAT:

Homer and Jethro (countless parodies), Sheb Wooley (Purple People Eater), Jerry Reed (When You're Hot, You're Hot), Ray Stevens (Ahab the Arab, and a zillion others), and of course Carrie Underwood (Before He Cheats).

Naturally, amateur singer/songwriter Fred Baker (that's me) may not be able to compete with these greats...nor do we (yet, anyway) have sound on the site...(insert more excuses)...but here are the lyrics to one of my original songs anyway.

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Coyote of the County (with apologies to Kenny Rogers)
Copyright 1984 by Fred Baker

VERSE 1:

He can laugh at traps and trackers
For they never can find his lair
Raise a dozen coyote pups
And never turn a hair
He will not touch a poison bait
Yet his stomach is always full
He can butcher out a full grown sheep
And never touch the wool
There are some narrow minded men
Who really do not care
But he's got the respect of all the rest
From mouse to grizzly bear

VERSE 2:

He is the concert master
for a mournful coyote band
And runs a school to teach the pups
New ways to outwit man
He is so well regarded
And held in such high renown
Not even a full grown timber wolf
Would try to back him down
In fact it has been rumored
And it truly has been shown
Even the usual parasites
Leave THIS coyote alone!

REFRAIN:

He's the coyote of the county
Sly and swift and gray
He can snatch a chicken from a chicken coop
Before a fox could find a way
Duck a rifle bullet
And outrun air pursuit
Whip a pack of Russian wolfhounds
And never bloody his snoot

TAG:

He's the Coyote Of The County-y-y....

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That bit of musical humor was written while I driving down a rural gravel road in central Montana, having just left a difficult three-year relationship. I wasn't exactly depressed--the relief was too much for that--but neither was I jumping for joy. Suddenly this HUGE coyote crossed the road at an easy trot, maybe forty yards in front of me.

A big one? Oh yeah. He could have passed for a midsized wolf in low light. Cocky, too: Head up, ears pricked forward, looking at my car with caution but not an ounce of fear. Magnificent. Absolutely magnificent. Most of the song was written that day before noon.

Note: Though the title was inspired by Kenny Rogers (Coward Of The County), Coyote Of The County is NOT a parody. The melody is entirely different except for the tag; that single closing line does copy the closing melody from Coward.

I can't sing this one without smiling; musical humor to the rescue once again.

Thanks for reading,

Fred

P.S. Either the text link (below) or the graphic (above) will get to Ray Stevens' site--where you IMMEDIATELY get to hear a bit of his musical comedy. I'll be there often, but then, he IS sorta one of my musical hee-roes.

Or, feel free to check out any of my original music videos, some humorous, some not so much, starting with:

1. WHAT'S YOUR STORY?

2. THE DEVIL IN BLUE JEANS