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An Art Form
words © copyright 1994 Holly Tannen tune "The Female Sailor", traditional Irish |
Oh my name is Holly Tannen and I've just turned fifty-five* Through grad school and through menopause I'm glad I'm still alive. I used to be obnoxious, but I've been transformed somehow I've turned it into music and it's down to an art form now | |
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(Refrain) | Down to an art form now Down to an art form now I've turned it into music and it's Down to an art form now. |
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I hear these young folks singing songs and playing their guitars At pubs and clubs and festivals, all trying to be stars. They sing about the love they've lost upon their quest for fame And the songs and very lovely, and the songs are all the same. | |
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(Refrain) | |
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There are songs of love and charity and songs protesting war, Songs of solidarity, all these I do ignore. "Sing something inspirational," that's my good friends' advice But life's not always pretty and my songs aren't always nice. | |
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You know Beethoven was angry and Baudelaire was sad Rimbaud was hooked on absinthe, Van Gogh went slowly mad. They had to suffer for their art, they had to pay the price And they had one thing in common: none of them was nice. | |
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So here's a toast to bad taste, the surly and the crass And if you do not like it, well then you may kiss my nose. I used to be obnoxious, but I've been transformed somehow I've turned it into music and it's down to an art form now | |
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(Refrain) | Down to an art form now Down to an art form now I've turned it into music and it's Down to an art form now. |
* | I was 47 when I made up this song. I couldn't make "forty-seven" scan, so I wrote "I've just turned forty-five "I was never comfortable with this, as it makes me sad when I hear women lie about their age. So I made up a new rhyme each year. But to everything there is a season, and I've grown old enough that it works again. |
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| updated 29 March 2002 : 10:20 Caspar (Pacific) time |
copyright © 2002 by Holly Tannen