He wasn't singing, mind you. He was snapping his tongue on the roof of his mouth, 100% percussion and 0% melody. I listened closely to the beat so that I could make my best guess.
"I can tell it's a song I know, but I'm not sure...What do you call that sound you're making?"
"It's sort of a click. Or a cluck," he said and started up again and I joined in for a few bars of his syncopated rhythm.
Cluck, cluck, Cluck, cluck...cluck, cluck, cluck.
Cluck, cluck, cluck.
Cluck, cluck, cluck.
Cluck, cluck, Cluck, cluck...cluck, cluck, cluck.
Cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck.
"Well, do you know it?"
I clucked a line back to him, thinking that might help. Not Jingle Bells. Not Hot Cross Buns. No luck. At a red light, I turned to see his face, midsong in the glow of the early evening, an unconventional serenade that allowed time to stand still just for the moment.
The song, of course, was "Mary Had a Little Lamb."
I can totally cluck along with this post! All percussion and no melody is a great line.
ReplyDeleteI love this story! And your descriptions were perfect.... would you believe that I named the tune from the way that you wrote the rhythm of the clucks? :-) ~JudyK
ReplyDeleteAn unconventional serenade... love that!
ReplyDeleteI was clucking along with this post, too! My son’s like, “What song is that?” Thanks for sharing this happy post.
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