On the Amazon

Yesterday’s rummaging through the old cassette tapes I had yoinked from my dad proved quite fruitful: a Don McLean tape!

Yes, the ‘American Pie’ guy.

I’m a big fan. Like his music his taken over my ipod big fan. Like I may know all the lyrics to ‘American Pie’ big fan.

I think I squealed a little when I popped it into my stereo and found that the tape contained songs that I had never heard before, including a hysterical little ditty called “On the Amazon.”

Unfortunately, because the song is a tad out-of-date and one of McLean’s lesser known works, I was unable to find it on YouTube for your viewing pleasure (unless you count the one amateur version sung in some Slavic dialect). I did however, find the lyrics.

Through some rather Seussian humor, “On the Amazon” is a deft poke at the total misconception people have over certain terms (read: hypodermic, kodachromes, pax vobiscum, et al). These scientific-sounding words that often trip one up in the meaning department are re-cast by McLean as the frightening denizens of the exotic Amazon. If you have no idea what a duodenum is, than it sounds perfectly reasonable for it to be lurking in the trees, no?

So beware those apostrophes and that darn laryngitis! For, though they’re not as exotic as they sound, the former can be quite the tricky little bugger, and always, always avoid the latter.