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Flanders & Swann
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The Gnu Song - 2003 Remastered Version
Here's another animal song.
A year ago, last Thursday, I was strolling in the zoo, When I met a man who thought he knew the lot. He was laying down the law about the habits of babboons, And the number of quills a porcupine has got. So I asked him, 'What's that creature there?' He answered, 'er, hit's a helk.' I might have gone on thinking that were true, If the animal in question hadn't put that chap to shame, When it remarked, 'I hain't a helk! I'm a g-nu!'
I'm a g-nu, I'm a g-nu, The g-nicest work of g-nature in the zoo. I'm a g-nu, how d'you do, You really ought to k-now w-ho's w-ho. I'm a g-nu, spelled G N U, I'm g-not a camel or a kangaroo, So let me introduce, I'm g-neither man or moose, Oh g-no g-no g-no, I'm a g-nu!
I had taken furnished lodgings down at Rustington-on-Sea, Whence I travelled on to Ashton-under-Lime, it was actually. And the second night I stayed there, I was wakened from a dream, Find more lyrics at ※ Mojim.com Which I'll tell you all about... some other time. Among the hunting trophies on the wall above my bed, Stuffed and mounted, was a face I thought I knew. A bison? ... no, not a bison. An okapi? ... unlikely. Could it be a hartebeest? Then I seemed to hear a voice: 'I'm a g-nu!'
I'm a g-nu, a-g-nother g-nu. I wish I could g-nash my teeth at you. I'm a g-nu, how d'you do, You really ought to k-now w-ho's w-ho. I'm a g-nu, spelled G N U, Call me bison or okapi and I'll sue; G-nor am I in the least like that dreadful hartebeest, Oh g-no g-no g-no, ... G-no g-no g-no, I'm a g-nu! G-no g-no g-no, I'm a g-nu!
That's very g-nice of you. Architecture, said Hagel, is frozen music, as you'll remember; Donald Swann's music has often been compared with defrosted architecture. Nowhere is this more evident than in his setting, a setting which has been described by critics all over this country as 'spiffing', of this song --
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