HIPPOS IN MY GARDEN
(one of many Trevor Songs)

 

 

First, I little history:

 

At least once each week — and sometimes 2 or 3 times — I go to Montague MA and attend the Town Common Sing. It's a group of about 40 people who have been singing together on the Montague Town Common every single day since the pandemic started. Every. Single. Day. March 18, 2024 will mark 4 years of daily singing together!

 

On any given day, anywhere between 5-20 people just show up at 2:00 and sing together a cappella style for an hour. We sing everything: peace and justice songs, originals by members, old show tunes, rock, blues, pop, folk, funk, soul, country, bluegrass, jazz, reggae, gospel, nursery rhymes, movie and tv theme songs, indigenous music, foreign language songs, rounds, sea shanties, ballads... everything. Whatever someone feels like singing, that's what we sing.

 

We sometimes get on a theme because one flower song will remind others of another, and another, and another. So, on one day, we're on our third or fourth song about plants, and someone says, "But there's no songs about gardens," and several people instantly listed quite a few different songs about gardens. Later that same hour, after a string of animal songs, the same person said, "But there's no songs about hippopotamuses," and three people instantly began singing three different songs about hippopotamuses. That same person then interrupted in mock anger and said, "Fine! But there's no songs about gardens AND hippopotamuses!" And that finally stumped the group.

 

So on my 75-minute bike ride home that day (a normal ride for me), I wrote this song. After singing it to a few other groups to positive response, I presented it at the Town Common Sing in August of 2023, about a year after I wrote it, and it was an instant hit! We've been singing it several times a month ever since.

 

Here is a video of it recorded at the Town Common Sing in September of 2023.

And here is the sheet music with the lyrics:

 

[Music]

trevor@trevorthegamesman.com

PO Box 463, Haydenville, MA 01039