Henry Pants

This is a song that I sing to my cat. Because he has a lot on his plate and a short attention span besides, this song is less than a minute long. It features autoharp, glockenspiel, and the "Min-O-Matic" rhythm box.

Fun Facts:

1) The "choked" autoharp in the beginning is achieved by holding down two chord buttons at once, so that the only undampened note (F, in this case) is the one common to both chords (F and Bb). Mechanics!

2) I slowed the song down a little bit in order to sing the harmony part. (I sped it back up again afterward.)

3) Everything in this song is hard-panned, inspired by this AskMe question. The lead vocals are up the center, autoharp all the way to the left, and everything else to the right. (There's a little bit of autoharp on the right, too, because I forgot to unplug the monitor speakers when I recorded the harmony vocals.)

4) This is a fun song to sing. You can sing it to your cat (or dog! or...hamster?) if they have a name that rhymes with "Pants." If you are not so fortunate, I guess you can sing it to this picture of Henry Pants, himself. Here are the words:

You gotta keep your ears clean
Gotta keep your teeth bright
Gotta keep your tail neat
Gotta keep your paws white
Gotta keep your stripes straight
Gotta learn a new dance
There’s so much to do when your name is Henry Pants!

You only got one sister
So you gotta do your half
Gotta make your house safe
Gotta make your mom laugh
Gotta make your naps last
Gotta eat snacks every chance
There’s so much to do when your name is Henry Pants!

(I thought about claiming that this is the theme song to his TV show, thus scoring another challenge, but it just isn't true.)

(Get Flash to see the track player.)
posted by Karlos the Jackal (8 comments total)

I've got a friend who's nickname in high school was Andy Pants, but I don't think the song would fit, and also I don't think he ever liked that nickname. I will find something to sing this song to, though, because this is great.
posted by buriednexttoyou at 5:17 AM on November 12, 2008

That's fun. I love the glockenspiel in particular. I sing to my cats, too, of course, although it's usually songs like "Wake Me Up Before You Meow-Meow."
posted by uncleozzy at 6:03 AM on November 12, 2008

So, you are another one to often leave the bass out. I never miss it in your songs, and only now I realize it that your songs often don't have a bass. Funny that.

Changing the subject, if I haven't mentioned it before, now is as good a time as any: you have a knack for making very listenable little ditties. All your songs are very distinguishable but not in a tiring way (they don't all sound like the same song, like Manu Chao does, for instance).

I saw that you joined the requests thing. I'm trying to decide exactly which song I'm gonna ask from you (rubbing hands in glee). Hopefully you'll have enough free time.
posted by micayetoca at 1:32 PM on November 12, 2008

Man, I wish I was your cat. Is that weird?
posted by ageispolis at 2:32 PM on November 12, 2008

Cat's are so fucking awesome, and so is this song. I think that choked autoharp at the beginning sounds great, and should be utilized more often.
posted by Corduroy at 3:19 PM on November 12, 2008

This is a very catchy melody, the kind that seems like it's always existed. Like they played this "up in the mountains" back in the 20's. Fun lyrics, and the cymbal crash at the end makes me laugh.
posted by edlundart at 10:22 PM on November 12, 2008

I've got a friend who's nickname in high school was Andy Pants [...] I don't think he ever liked that nickname.

I'm pretty sure that that makes it EVEN BETTER.

So, you are another one to often leave the bass out.

Sometimes I just figure that the bass strings on the autoharp are bassy enough. In general, actually, I find bass difficult to deal with -- just in that I'm never sure what the bass should do or how low it should be or what.

Man, I wish I was your cat. Is that weird?

Pretty sure, yeah.

I think that choked autoharp at the beginning sounds great, and should be utilized more often.

Yeah, it probably should. Another cool thing you can do is hold down the major and minor keys for the same chord, which allows only the root and the fifth to ring -- a power chord! It's awkward fingering and I've never really done anything with it, but the knowledge that I can is nice.

the cymbal crash at the end makes me laugh.

That's the worst cymbal I own -- seriously, it's a really bad cymbal. But it's crappy enough to sound like it fits with the rhythm box.
posted by Karlos the Jackal at 12:06 AM on November 13, 2008

Short songs about cats? Sign me up.
posted by ORthey at 4:53 PM on November 19, 2008