A few weeks ago, a reader commented on that week’s Saturday’s Poem that songwriters also are poets and referenced the theme song for the long-running hit television series “The Big Bang Theory” as an example. The story about how it came to be is that Ed Robertson, lead singer for the Canadian alternative rock group Barenaked Ladies, had read British author Simon Singh’s book Big Bang and thought it would make for a good poem and/or song.
While his band was performing in Los Angeles, Robertson talked about the book and improvised a freestyle rap about the origins of the universe – which he called “The History of Everything.” It just so happened that the producers for the TV show were in the audience and they loved what they were hearing, and they asked Robertson if he would turn his rap poem into a song that could be used for the show.
Thus, from the creative mind of a songwriter/poet’s enjoyment of a book about science and history and “the whole universe” comes Saturday's Poem (with both the words and a link to a music video). Enjoy!
The History of Everything
Our
whole universe was in a hot dense state,
Then nearly 14 billion years ago expansion started. Wait...
The Earth began to cool,
The autotrophs began to drool,
Neanderthals developed tools,
We built a wall (we built the pyramids),
Math, science, history, unraveling the mystery,
That all started with the big bang! BANG!
"Since the dawn of man" is really not that long,
As every galaxy was formed in less time
than it takes to sing this song.
A fraction of a second and the elements were made.
The bipeds stood up straight,
The dinosaurs all met their fate,
They tried to leap but they were late
And they all died (they froze their asses off)
The ocean said "Pangaea?
"See ya, wouldn't wanna be ya!"
Set in motion by the same big BANG!
It all started with a big BANG!
It's expanding ever outward but one day
It will pause, then start to go the other way,
Collapsing ever inward,
We won't be here, it won’t be heard
Our best and brightest figure that
It'll make an even bigger bang!
Australopithecus would really have been sick of us
Debating how we're here,
They're catching deer (we're catching viruses)
Religion or astronomy (Descartes or Deuteronomy)
It all started with a big bang!
Music and mythology (Einstein and astrology)
It all started with a big bang!
It all started with a big BANG!
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