SONG CHALLENGE WINNER!

The Challenge:  This challenge was to write a song about a a report on National Public Radio that scientists in the US have made a fantastic advance in the study of honey bees -- they've caught several of the little buggers and glued diodes and antennae on their back with double-sided poster tape. "They look like hors d'oeuvres with glass toothpicks in them," said one of the researchers. Then the researchers release the honey bees and *attempt* to follow them in vans equipped with radio receivers; communicating with each other via walkie-talkies, evoking such conversations as: "He's going north." "Now he's going west." "He's going south -- nope, make that north again."

It's A Bee, Not A Bug! by Mbo


I think myself a smart young man 
For I know a lot of things 
Like what those little critters are 
That fly round on buzzing wings 
Collecting pollen every day 
From every single flower 
And making honey out of it 
For hour after hour 

But they can get so bothersome 
A-buzzing round your head 
And just one little sting from them 
Will swell and turn you red 
So one morning as I roamed about 
Partaking in the day 
I tried to smash one, and the people 
turned to me and said 

Let it be! You're a thug! 
It's a bee, not a bug! 
We wouldn't survive without them! 
They make sugar and honey 
And so for your money 
You can have them on toast or in tea 
Mercy me! 
It isn't a bug, it's a bee! 

Well I started think 
And actually ponder 
About what they'd said 
So I let my mind wander 
Back to my youth 
When I was just five 
And I used to hurl rocks 
At a giant bee hive 
It seemed so much fun 
Of all things the best 
But something was brewing 
Inside that nest. 
So I launched a large rock 
At the thing on the tree 
Then an angry swarm flew out 
And headed for me! 

And as they doctored my stings, they said.... 

Let them be! You're a thug! 
It's a bee, not a bug! 
We wouldn't survive without them! 
They make sugar and honey 
And so for your money 
You can have them on toast or in tea 
Mercy me! 
It isn't a bug, it's a bee!

Matthew Richard (2000)

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