Help! My Internal Organs Are Late!

I'm writing this on Sunday, October 8, and the new Bad Wolf play about the human body was supposed to have been published on September 30th. It wasn't, but it'll be out on Tuesday, October 17.

You probably don't want to hear the list of reasons for the delay, so let me tell you about the show. It takes place at the annual induction ceremony for the Internal Organ Hall of Fame, in Cooperstown, NY. (Right across the street from that other hall of fame.) Who will be picked this year? What will the winners (and losers!) say? America wants to know.

I've had a whole bunch of music teachers tell me that their students cannot pick up melodies from an adult male voice, so I sing on just two of the numbers. Brenda Tzipori returns to sing three of the songs. Not only does Brenda have a beautiful voice, she always finds the right attitude for whichever character is singing. This was the 21st show we asked Brenda to record, and John and I absolutely love the way she sings our material.

Last spring we engaged singer/actress Dana Shaw for the first time to sing one and a half songs on Life Cycles. She did really well, and fortunately was in town for a couple of weeks before going back to performing at the Sonora Musical Theater in the Sierra foothills. So she sang three songs on the new show. It's really amazing to hear the contrast in her voice between songs---on the Radio Disneyish "It Takes Our Breath Away" she sounds like a twelve year-old. Incredible.

Mike Fishell came by one afternoon and spent a few hours adding electric guitar parts to a variety of songs. Mike (who is pictured on page 29 of this year's catalog) managed to play rock, bluesy slide-guitar, country, plus a few things I don't know how to describe.

Here's one of John's lyrics for you to check out. The song is sung by the Heart, who has just been selected for the hall of fame. The Heart has a very Hollywood attitude:

I'd like to thank the arteries to start
They carry all the blood to ev'ry part
And I thank the mouth for stallin'
All that high cholesterollin'
I love you dude, I mean it from the heart.

I'd like to thank the veins for hangin' in
They bring all of the blood back here again
Thank my valves for poppin' open
And I thank the hemoglobin
For giving limo rides to oxygen.

Without these supporters
There's not much more that I could achieve
Just heartache and heartbreak
Heartache and heartbreak
And wearin' myself on my sleeve.

I'd like to thank my chambers left and right
I'd like to thank the blood cells red and white
Thank the chest for helping win it
You can tell my heart is in it
I'm so pumped I might skip a beat tonight---
(spoken) Just joking
I'd like to thank you all you're out of sight.
(copyright 2006 Ron Fink and John Heath)

The first third of the script as well as four sample songs will be online at www.badwolfpress.com/internal_organs.htm within a few days. Check it out, I think you'll really enjoy it.