Say Darwin, Say.
Channel: zeppmusic
Date: 2012-02-11

Oct 2017. Note--I have added the lyrics to the video—click the _cc_ icon beneath the bottom right corner of video on a monitor or the top of your cell phone screen to make the words visible as the song plays. 

Herewith my solo "singing" debut.  The song is based on the traditional tune "Say Darlin', Say," but my effort attempts to acknowledge the importance of morphological adaptations by finches to Charles Darwin's brilliant deduction regarding the manner in which survival of the fittest drives speciation and thus explains evolution.  I've done this specifically (no pun intended)  in honor of his 203rd birthday 12 Feb.12.

The banjo is an Ome North Star tuned to aCGCD and then capoed 2 frets to aDADE.  The lyrics are my own.

The lyrics (which also appear in the video if you click the *cc* icon beneath it):
Hush little baby, don't say a word
Papa's gonna tell you all about some birds.

A storm carried finches out to an isle
Where they thrived and multiplied a long, long while.

But success meant competition for each limited resource, so some
adapted to use others to survive, or course.

And as they specialized those birdies changed
'til over the island different* finches ranged.

Tiny morphologic changes came with each generation;
then survival of the fittest led to speciation

Darwin saw that the species of finches there
must have come from a common forebear

After much thinking and long reflection
he posited his theory of natural selection.

His tremendous insight caused a revolution
by showing speciation’s the result of evolution.

So thanks, Mr. Darwin, for what you've done
your birdies helped teach us where we all came from
--

* accidentally sung on video as “many.”  *sigh* You'll note my consternation, when I quickly decided to keep going... I  sort of rolled my eyes and added an extra measure while I considered stopping or keeping on...