Tick-Tock Sick Lyrics

[Sidebottom]

I just downloaded Jim Henson's early experimental jazz piece, "Tick-Tock Sick," and I'm completely in love with it. It's so cool.

Does anybody have the lyrics for it?

Thanks,
-Sidebottom

 

[scarecroe]

This is my own transcript. I put a question mark next to the line that I'm not 100% sure about. The rest I think I got right.


Tick-tock, tick-tock
grandfather's clock goes tick tock.
That clock's got rhythm with a beat that swings.
Dig that clock, swing it clock.

Dug that clock
yeah, all the way
with a one and a two and a tick-tock
tick-tock

It's a beat that sticks
with the tocks and the ticks.
Need more clocks to go with the tocks
cuz the ticks a- what?..
bug me. (?)

Went to the store where they sell the clocks
with the ticks and the tocks and the rhythm that rocks.
Here's what I bought:
tick tock
a wind-up clock,
a wrist watch clock,
a stop watch clock,
and a.. alarm clock.

All night long
a tickin' and a tockin'
crazy clocks
a swingin' and a rockin'
in the wee small hours I fell in the sack to the lullaby of the [sfx].

All night long cozily sleepin'
never suspectin' of the end that was comin'
only listenin' to the syncopated moments of the calculated
clickings of the clocks on the shelf.

Not a shadow of suspicion of the underhanded scheming
of the evil-minded genius who invented the contraption
that confounded my affection for the sound of pleasant ticking
with the wicked interjection of the gadget's scrambled version
with the singleness of purpose to alarm!

Out the window with this object of the devil!
Into the garbage can with the stop watch!
Grind the wrist watch into the floor boards,
then push over the grandfather's clock.

No ticks, no tocks, no clicks, no clocks
no alarm clock disturbs any sleep of mine.
Now I wake in the morning
all rejuvinated and I use the sun dial to tell the time.

 

[scarecroe]

Also, here's a little info about the song from a "Sam and Friends" fan site as written in an e-mail from Karen Falk, Archivist for The Jim Henson Company...

The 45RPM record was recorded under the Signature label ('A product of Hanover-Signature Record Corp.'). The main song was called 'Tick-Tock Sick" and the flip side had a song called 'The Countryside'.

Both were written by Jim, and we have his typed lyrics for 'Tick-Tock Sick' in the archives. At the time Jim made the recording, he was living in Washington, DC and performing Sam and Friends on local television as well as making appearances on variety shows and making commercials for various products. It is not clear that 'Tick-Tock Sick' was used for anything in particular, but it sounds like it may have accompanied puppet performances on Sam and Friends or a variety show.

The theme of the song, the relentlessness of time, was later explored by Jim in his 1964 short film, TimePiece, and touched on again with the thirteen hour clock in Labyrinth.

Jim Henson accomplished an amazing amount in his life, but given the large number of files on unrealized projects that are in the archives, he clearly didn't have enough time to do all that he wanted to do. And 'Tick-Tock Sick' tells us that he was already feeling the crunch just six years into his career.

 

[Sidebottom]

Thanks, man!

That song rocks.

The "bug me" line is one that I'm not really sure about, either. But "bug me" was the closest approximation I could think of, too.

-Sidebottom

"Kermit, does this film have socially redeeming value?"
"Oh, I certainly hope so, Sam. Sorry about that."

 

[scarecroe]

Well, it would make sense. He's talking about his obsession with ticks and tocks, but apparently the ticks just by themselves annoy, or bug, him.