Fall Back

Perhaps some of you recall a little-known tune called "Spring Forward" (Music K-8 Vol. 14, No. 4). In that song we extolled the virtue of not being late by setting our clocks ahead an hour. In "Fall Back," we extol the virtue of being late, er, setting our clocks back an hour when daylight savings comes to an end. As you'll hear in the song, this has the effect of giving us an extra hour of sleep, which we can all appreciate. To recap: Where it is practiced in the U.S., daylight savings begins at 2 a.m. on the first Sunday in April and ends at 2 a.m. on the last Sunday in October.

In keeping with the theme of falling back, we've given this piece a laid-back island feel, complete with Jamaican accents. (You don't have to have your kids use the Jamaican accents, but it's fun.) Some of the rhythms might be a bit challenging for some, so you might want to go over each line slowly a few times before attempting performance. The CD has great tracks complete with steel drum melody line to help in this endeavor.

If you have one particularly good and goofy actor in your ranks, you might choose him/her to be the soloist with spoken lines (see the lyrics on page 37 for these lines). Our very own actor/singer Kevin Colvin did a remarkable job of being laid back on this song. (Yea, Kev!) Good props would be a bed, pillows, night stand, and an alarm clock. Have your actor yawn and fluff the pillows during the rests beginning at measure 40, where we've overdubbed pillow fluffs. Snoring is optional. Dress code for this piece includes sunglasses, floral print shirts, shorts, and sandals. Anything to give it that sleepy island feel. A long night cap for your actor might be a humorous addition as well.

Side note: John Riggio is hiring himself out to record "island man laugh" overdubs on a first come first serve basis. While his rates are a bit pricey, we think he's worth every penny. Operators are standing by...