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  • 15 minutes ago
From Tiny Tim's immensely popular 1968 album, God Bless Tiny Tim, Tim's falsetto lowers a few registers to a bizarre rich baritone. Originally an anti-war song written by Irving Berlin in 1914. By 1968 when the song was covered by Tiny Tim, it was still largely an anti-war song, fitting for the Vietnam Era counter-culture, but some sound effects were added (such as female laughter) that also indicated that this not only anti-war but a commentary on the looser morals that came with the new culture. Technically, while largely anti-war, it was now anti-anything perceived to be "bad." Jump ahead to 2026 and that is the style that sticks with the worst aspects of humanity on public display in the media every single day. Still, the theatricality inherent in Berlin's original composition I have kept preserved as best I can.
Transcript
00:22Down below, down below
00:27Caught the devil talking to his son
00:30Who wanted to go up above
00:34Up above
00:36He cried, it's getting to offer me down here
00:40And so, I'm going way far up where I can have a little fun
00:45The devil slowly smiled and then he answered his son
00:49Stay down here where you belong
00:53The folks who live above you don't know right from wrong
00:57Who please their king, they've all gone out to war
01:02And none of them knows what he's fighting for
01:06Way up above
01:09They say that I'm a devil and I'm bad
01:12He's a pair of bigger devils than your dad
01:17They're breaking the hearts of brothers
01:19Making butchers of their brothers
01:22You'll find more heat up there than the river down below
01:34Kings up there
01:36They don't care
01:39For the mothers who must stay at home
01:42Their troubles of their stay at home
01:46Don't you roam
01:48Oh, oh, it's warm down here
01:50It's warm up there
01:52If you go way up there, my son
01:55I know you'll be surprised
01:57You'll find a lot of people who are not civilized
02:01Stay down here where you belong
02:05The folks who live above you don't know right from wrong
02:09Who please their king, they've all gone out to war
02:14And none of them knows what he's fighting for
02:18Way up above
02:20They say that I'm a devil and I'm bad
02:24He's a pair of bigger devils than your dad
02:28And breaking the hearts of brothers
02:31Making butchers of their brothers
02:33You'll find more heat up there than the river down below
02:37I know you'll find more heat up there than the river down below
02:39Much better than the river down below
02:39Yeah, I know you, apartheid
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