From the recording Marvin
The full title of this song is: Marvin: The Ballad of the Reluctant Great Spangled Great Spangled Fritillary. I wanted to call it "transformation is a bitch" but thought that might reduce airplay. It's helpful to laugh at how awkward it is to change.
Lyrics
Marvin
Key F#
BPM = 120
Form – verse – chorus – verse – chorus - ½ verse – bridge – verse - chorus
I was minding my own business, not that I have a lot of business to mind
It was Tuesday, I was in the garden eating leaves in the sunshine
When all of the sudden, for no particular reason I started feeling ill at ease
the season for molting is way past gone I must have some new weird caterpillar disease
So I decide I’ll go find Edith, Edith always knows what’s going on
I look everywhere that I can think of but Edith, oh poor Edith, she’s gone
Now I’m feeling sick, worried and dizzy, so I pick a place to lie down
I stick my four back feet on a shady branch and let my head hang towards the ground
Chorus
Maybe I was just dreaming, Could be my imagination
but a voice just kept repeating, these are the blues of transformation
It gets worse, and I start shedding, no I mean really, on and on and on
Like every single bit of skin I’ve know and been slightly fond of
Every single bit of it is gone
Turns out my inner child is actually a shiny bright green
I haven’t had this bad a day since I was a larva
I know you know what I mean
Next my skin starts to harden, and I start feeling trapped
Anyone who tells you they enjoyed their cocoon, they are full of crap
That’s when things get really weird and I start to come apart
Talk about a breakdown baby, I’ve got no lungs no brain no heart
Chorus
When I finally wake up, I’m trapped and in the dark Trapped in the dark and all alone,
I tell myself self as soon as I get myself out of hear I am going home
I look for a door but there isn’t one, I have no idea what to do
There is no way out of here, the only way out is straight thru
So I push and I kick and I bite and I scream and I push and I pull…. And I’m out
I can’t believe it, I’m still in the garden, but somehow everything has changed
There’s something sticking out of my back, oh no, good god wings?
I stretch my legs, hey what happened to my legs, I had 16 now ten of them are gone
One thing I can tell right away is I’m gonna need a new way of holding o
Marvin, you look marvelous, what a beautiful proboscis you’ve got
You turned out fabulous, Marvin, I must say, you are hot
Edith, it sounds like Edith, Edith, what happened to you
I’m a butterfly now Marvin and you, you are too
No you haven’t been dreaming
This is not your imagination
It’s been me that’s been repeating these are the blues of transformation