Take Me To The Liver

This parody (written by Greg Crowther) is sung to the tune of "Take Me To The River" (written by Al Green and Mabon "Teenie" Hodges and performed by Talking Heads).

This song, written for HuBio 514 at the University of Washington, is a duet between two biological structures.

I know why I need you like I do:
All the lymph and plasma you'll bring me through.
I'm a fat hitch-hiker who's afraid to get wet;
If I could catch a ride with you, I'd be in your debt.

I wanna go ... to the organ ... that will be my next host --

CHORUS:
Take me to the liver; keep me out of water.
Take me to the liver; keep me out of water.

I don't know why this guy's diet's so bad;
Think of all the healthy food he could have had.
But it's my cheesecake he's been ingestin',
And the next thing I know, well, I'm in the intestine.

I wanna go ... to a gland: ... the one that weighs the most --

CHORUS

Bind me, squeeze me, transport me, then release me.
But I can't. Yes you can.
No I can't. Yes you can.
Yes you can, yes you can, yes you can.... (Yes I can!)

I'll take you to the liver,
And I'll keep you out of water.
Yes, I'll take you to the liver,
And I'll keep you out of water.

Don't let me out yet, or I'll form a plaque;
The last thing we need right now is a heart attack.
Twenty-seven carbons there in my frame;
Am I the biggest lipid you can name?

I wanna go ... to some cells ... where I'll be endocytosed --

CHORUS

REPEAT  CHORUS

• MP3 (with Do Peterson)

Songs like this one can be used during class meetings and/or in homework assignments. Either way, the song will be most impactful if students DO something with it, as opposed to just listening.

An initial, simple follow-up activity could be to answer the study questions below. A more extensive interaction with the song might entail (A) learning to sing it, using an audio file and/or sheet music as a guide, and/or (B) illustrating it with pictures, bodily poses, and/or bodily movements. The latter activity could begin with students identifying the most important or most challenging content of the song, and deciding how to illustrate that particular content.

(1) This song is a duet between two biological structures. Who are they, and how can you tell?