This song is the climactic end-of-an-era for A Talking Fish. It is the last song released for 3 years, and marked the end of the primary music-writing and video-producing era of the group.
Given this fact, it is imbued with references to many other A Talking Fish songs. The following is a list of all the references:
0:00 – This intro is derived from a very, very, very early intro song on the A Talking Fish YouTube channel
0:24 – The lyrics “beautiful day” references the song “Don’t Bring Me Down (Beautiful Day)”
1:09 – This chord progression and melody come from “Don’t Bring Me Down (Beautiful Day)”
1:37 – This chord progression and melody come from an unreleased A Talking Fish song called “The Moon”
1:42 – This chord progression and melody come from “Thick Jacket”
1:47 – The banjo backup here is a reference to the chorus of “Cheesy Pop Song”
1:57 – This chord progression and melody come from “Thick Jacket”
2:26 – This chord progression and melody come from “Mailman”
2:42 – This chord progression comes from “Corn Dogs”
2:55 – This chord progression and melody come from “(I Want to Go to) Space”
3:14 – This chord progression and melody come from “Cheesy Pop Song”
3:38 – The chord progression, melody, and lyrics “Roger I’m not dead; can’t you get that through your head?” come from a song in “The Generator Video” (it uses the same chords as this part of “Cheesy Pop Song”, so the backing oboe continues that melody in tandem)
3:52 – The words "my friend" maintain the long-running tradition of ensuring that every instance of the word "friend" in A Talking Fish song lyrics is accompanied with at least 3 layers of harmonies.
4:44 – They lyrics “corn dogs with extra cheese” is a reference to the songs “Corn Dogs” and “Extra Cheese”
5:10 – The lyrics and melody of “Say goodbye to the world” references the lyrics and melody of the line “we could buy the world” from “We Are So Rich”
5:15 – The lyrics “I wanna go to space” reference the song “(I Want to Go to) Space”
5:18 – The lyrics and melody of “Singing makes all our problems go away” references the lyrics and melody of the line “Swinging makes all our problems go away” from “The Generator Video”. It also references the lyrics “The problems of the world cannot be solved just by singing!” from “Cheesy Pop Song”
5:22 – The lyrics “Are you sure we should be eating these corn dogs” references the lyrics “Are you sure we should be eating pudding” from “The Pudding Video”
5:25 – The lyrics “Everything good comes with a price” references the video “Corn Dogs”
lyrics
Good morning, good morning!
Today is a beautiful day!
I’m feeling very happy and that feeling’s gonna stay!
Good morning, this morning
Will begin the rest of my life!
I’m feeling very happy and that feeling’s very nice!
Max, pick up your phone
There is something that I—
Oh, hi Max
Max, you’ll never guess the news I just read
Have you heard it?
The world’s gonna end and I—I don’t think we’ll live.
We’re gonna die and I swear that this news is reliable
This is the end, this is the end!
Panic! Fear!
You know the this will kill us all!
(It’s the end of the world, it’s the end of the world)
Roger, there’s no need to fear
This website’s scaring you
Do any one of these headlines seem true?
The world will end, and our lives will too!
Roger just stop with all of this racket!
—Oh no…
You’re finally starting to comprehend
That the world is gonna end!
Don’t lose control; don’t go into a panic!
I just can’t believe it’s true
After all that we’ve been through
I have no idea what we should do
Do you?
Come take a look at this!
Come take a look at this!
It’s something I made back when I was six
It is my bucket list!
It is my bucket list!
My bucket list!
Let’s take a shot at #325
I know for a fact that Jade is alive
He’s alive
…Right?
…Roger?
No, Maxwell, you’re wrong!
Jade’s been dead all along!
And he’s gone!
Roger I’m not dead
Can’t you get it through your head?
I am so happy you’re here, Jade, my friend
Surely you’ve heard that the world’s gonna end.
Matter of fact, I heard it a while back
And they say it’s gonna happen pretty soon
Time’s ticking away and we're growing quite afraid
And we have no idea what to do
Just throw away that clock
And smash it with a rock
We’ll sit down at the lake and we’ll talk
We went there and we each brought something with us to the beach
That we thought that we would want or we would need
I brought a TV set!
And I brought my clarinet!
And I brought a box of corn dogs with extra cheese!
Let’s forget about our debts, doubts, remorses, and regrets
We’ll sit down and we’ll watch the sun set!
We know and we will not try to pretend
We’ll live our last moments here with our friends
Settle our differences make our amends
Comfort while knowing that this is the end—
The end of the world!
credits
from A Talking Fish,
released October 27, 2015
Music by Roger Pollard
Lyrics by Roger Pollard, Max Cannon, and Jade Richman
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