So long and thanks for all the fishing...

SPOILER ALERT: lyrics provided at bottom of post.

I'm just about finished with the production of the song about the Coelacanth, on the backing track and subject provided by Mike Weber. I'm glad for the extra week. It was only on the 13th that I realized the deadline had been extended. I'd been scrambling. I'll use the remaining few days to pick at and fuss over the mix at my leisure, but we're really getting out the super fine grade sand paper at this point. I haven't yet decided on the title, but here are the lyrics. Please ignore if you don't want spoilers.

I am the living fossil discovered in a lump of rock the year the bicycle was born.

And I am the Lazarus taxon. You thought that I'd expired 80 million years ago,

but you were wrong.

A hundred years later I was hauled up from my underwater home.

The Paleozoic's been good to me,

and every age from then to now has let me be.

Oh, you don't know what you're missing.

I've got a hinged skull and a hollow spine.

Before you came along I was doing fine.

Well this may be your last chance to see...

So long and thanks for all the fishing.

I am an eco-warrior. Sleeping in the cold caves helps to conserve energy.

And I use my lobed fins to drift the currents when I need to feed.

You could learn a thing or two from me.

Well the Paleozoic was good to me,

and the late Cretaceous failed to put an end to my tree.

Oh, there's been some hard times it's true.

But now the sun is setting on the Chalumnae line.

If you fish us from existence will it weigh on your mind?

These pre-historic creatures are one helluva find.

So long and thank you.

Just think, I was the missing link

between the fishes and the creatures who emerged from the drink,

until a young museum curator discovered me

among the catch of the day of the trawler Nerine.

I'm not pretty to look at, not good to eat.

I can sometimes reach the mighty length of five or six feet.

The fishing boats snag me accidentally.

They used to throw me right back, but that's before they knew me.

You see, every damned collector wants to put me in glass,

tour me round the world - yeah, make some good cash.

The thing that made me such a curiosity

will result in my extinction eventually.

It makes me wonder how many others are just like me -

assumed to be extinct but really just out of reach.

Now this really is your last chance to see.

So long and thanks for all the fishing.