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about

When Europeans first encountered the platypus, they thought it was two animals sewn together, so I sewed 2 time signatures together. 7/8 - 4/4.
Then the challenge was to write a melody that was still catchy.
Again there was no chorus, so I turned one verse into a bridge, added some instrumentals and an improvisation.

lyrics

Old man platypus

Far from the trouble and toil of town,
Where the reed beds sweep and shiver,
Look at a fragment of velvet brown -
Old Man Platypus drifting down,
Drifting along the river.

And he plays and dives in the river bends
In a style that is most elusive;
With few relations and fewer friends,
For Old Man Platypus descends
From a family most exclusive.

He shares his burrow beneath the bank
With his wife and his son and daughter
At the roots of the reeds and the grasses rank;
And the bubbles show where our hero sank
To its entrance under water.

Safe in their burrow below the falls
They live in a world of wonder,
Where no one visits and no one calls,
They sleep like little brown billiard balls
With their beaks tucked neatly under.

And he talks in a deep unfriendly growl
As he goes on his journey lonely;
For he's no relation to fish nor fowl,
Nor to bird nor beast, nor horned owl;
In fact, he's the one and only!

credits

from Aussie Art Song - Banjo Paterson Edition, released February 13, 2020

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about

Niq Reefman Sydney, Australia

Niq trumpets like a singer, keyboards like a bass player, sings like a narrator and ukuleles like an electric guitar - his musical performance is best described by picturing “Tim Minchin, flying a trumpet through a thunderstorm”.
He spreads songs of beauty, mirth, camaraderie, inspiration and action to a world that craves the social zest of an Irish pub and the hopeful melodies of nature.
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