Ode to Benjaminas Zelkevičius

Alright, as I crawl out from under papers to be graded and articles to be drafted, I offer you...
yes, a meme. I know there will be more substantive offerings soon...just not now. But, as memes go, this one is fairly substantive, especially when subjected to the analysis of Phil Ford over at Dial M.

Phil got it from Brent over at Musikwissenbloggenschaft
which I added to the MMM blogroll yesterday.


1. your song is going to have a title, a chorus, and two verses . . . is that too conformist for you? too bad. deal.

2. song title is the first random wikipedia article you pull up.

3. the first verse is the mash up of the first four words of the first four quotes and the last four words of the last four quotes from here. pair the first quotes first words with the last quotes last words, and so on.

4. the second verse is a mash up like the first, but refresh for a new page o' quotes.

5. the chorus you ask? the title of your song, four times, of course!

6. if you are feeling grammariffic, add prepositions and make verbs make sense (if possible). or don't let the grammar-man tell you what to do and skip it.

7. post the lyrics or--if you are feeling rather adventurous--record the thing.


I wound up with a folk song about a Lithuanian football coach. I took one word out to make the butter line work (yes, I'm feeling grammariffic, even if it is eh, regional grammar). The first verse has a lot of topical resonance, I think. A little touch of Eleanor Rigby plus one part Arlo Guthrie? I don't know, you tell me:

Benjaminas Zelkevičius

There's no secret about backing a winning candidate
In mathematics you don't have absence of fear
All truths are easy and in the recent past
I think people have to face rejection.

Benjaminas Zelkevičius (x4)

When the character of talking is waiting
Without the aid can never be complete
I don't even butter them things
Stubborness is also determination. [It's] kind of lousy.

Benjaminas Zelkevičius (x4)