The Brain
from Levity & Novelty by Brian Woodbury
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Compact Disc (CD) + Digital AlbumComes in a 4-panel full color eco wallet, designed by John Goss.
Includes unlimited streaming of Levity & Novelty via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.ships out within 3 daysedition of 525$20 USD
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Streaming + DownloadIncludes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.Purchasable with gift card
$2 USD or more
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Buy the Full Digital Album
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Anthems & Antithets Volumes 1-4, on 4 CDs, 88 songs, 5 hours of music, in a handsome slipcase. Includes a full-color make-it-yourself insert that turns into a ten-side art object - a pentagonal trapezohedron whatnot! Also includes downloads of all 4 volumes, with pdfs of the lyrics and art for each volume. Digital download codes for each volume will be emailed within 3 days of purchase.
Includes unlimited streaming of Antipathy & Ideology via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.ships out within 3 daysedition of 300$80 USD or more
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lyrics
V E R S E 1
What makes the loathsome psychopath
Hike a path of evil?
Exploring every cruelty and excess?
To spike the punch with ipecac
Or microwave a weevil
The cause has long been anybody's guess
Just how can he achieve
the satisfaction that he wants
From biting chicken’s heads off
With sadistic nonchalance?
What fills him with the savagery
To thrill from causing pain?
We now know that the answer is his brain
C H O R U S 1
A-ha! His brain makes him do it
His brain makes him do it
It makes him vivisect his victims,
then extract their suet
So do not cast aspersions,
He should not endure the stain
The fault lies not with him but with his brain
V E R S E 2
What gives the firm believer
Such a fever for her God?
So certain of a presence she has felt?
Transcendence and epiphanies
that sound a little odd
Unless you’ve walked a mile where she’s knelt
What makes the Muslim face the east
And bow and all that stuff?
What makes the born-again convinced
That once was not enough?
What gives the faithful one the faith
her faith will never wane?
A familiar aberration of the brain
C H O R U S 2
That’s all! Her brain makes her do it
Her brain makes her do it
The God Spot in her cortex
Gets a neural impulse to it
Religious feelings science
heretofore could not explain
But now we’ve found the G-spot in her brain
B R I D G E
Do I really feel and think and mean
what I hope I mean?
Nope, it’s only serotonin, noradrenalin and dopamine
Every notion or mood, passing thought, attitude
That I have, or forget, or repress, or memorize
Can be best understood just by scanning my brain
with a series of MRIs
V E R S E 3
What makes the newly amorous
So clamorous and wild?
To feel they fit each other like a glove?
They grope, mope, or elope
They free their inner feral child
What gives them this delusion they’re in love?
They adulate and fawn and dote
With sighs and coos and chirps
Appreciate each other’s farts,
Complete each other’s burps
What makes them lose all reason,
Just to suffer through such strain?
A condition of the post-pubescent brain
C H O R U S 3
You see? The brain makes them do it
The brain makes them do it
It gets gonads to go, pituitaries to pituit
And everything they feel is magic really is quite plain
The part they call the heart is in the brain
C H O R U S 4
Ho-ho! Your brain makes you do it
Your brain makes you do it
It makes you doubt, associate,
guess, wonder and intuit
And all complex experience
Is nothing so arcane
Just signals and receptors in your brain
E X T E N S I O N
And if you think this explanation sounds a bit inane
Don't fret your pretty head, that’s just your brain
Try not to overthink it, it’s your brain
Just get it through your thick skull
It’s your brain
What makes the loathsome psychopath
Hike a path of evil?
Exploring every cruelty and excess?
To spike the punch with ipecac
Or microwave a weevil
The cause has long been anybody's guess
Just how can he achieve
the satisfaction that he wants
From biting chicken’s heads off
With sadistic nonchalance?
What fills him with the savagery
To thrill from causing pain?
We now know that the answer is his brain
C H O R U S 1
A-ha! His brain makes him do it
His brain makes him do it
It makes him vivisect his victims,
then extract their suet
So do not cast aspersions,
He should not endure the stain
The fault lies not with him but with his brain
V E R S E 2
What gives the firm believer
Such a fever for her God?
So certain of a presence she has felt?
Transcendence and epiphanies
that sound a little odd
Unless you’ve walked a mile where she’s knelt
What makes the Muslim face the east
And bow and all that stuff?
What makes the born-again convinced
That once was not enough?
What gives the faithful one the faith
her faith will never wane?
A familiar aberration of the brain
C H O R U S 2
That’s all! Her brain makes her do it
Her brain makes her do it
The God Spot in her cortex
Gets a neural impulse to it
Religious feelings science
heretofore could not explain
But now we’ve found the G-spot in her brain
B R I D G E
Do I really feel and think and mean
what I hope I mean?
Nope, it’s only serotonin, noradrenalin and dopamine
Every notion or mood, passing thought, attitude
That I have, or forget, or repress, or memorize
Can be best understood just by scanning my brain
with a series of MRIs
V E R S E 3
What makes the newly amorous
So clamorous and wild?
To feel they fit each other like a glove?
They grope, mope, or elope
They free their inner feral child
What gives them this delusion they’re in love?
They adulate and fawn and dote
With sighs and coos and chirps
Appreciate each other’s farts,
Complete each other’s burps
What makes them lose all reason,
Just to suffer through such strain?
A condition of the post-pubescent brain
C H O R U S 3
You see? The brain makes them do it
The brain makes them do it
It gets gonads to go, pituitaries to pituit
And everything they feel is magic really is quite plain
The part they call the heart is in the brain
C H O R U S 4
Ho-ho! Your brain makes you do it
Your brain makes you do it
It makes you doubt, associate,
guess, wonder and intuit
And all complex experience
Is nothing so arcane
Just signals and receptors in your brain
E X T E N S I O N
And if you think this explanation sounds a bit inane
Don't fret your pretty head, that’s just your brain
Try not to overthink it, it’s your brain
Just get it through your thick skull
It’s your brain
credits
from Levity & Novelty,
released February 1, 2020
vocal: Brian Woodbury; piano & arrangement: Peter Lurye
vocal: Brian Woodbury; piano & arrangement: Peter Lurye
license
all rights reserved
tags
about
Brian Woodbury Los Angeles, California
Brian Woodbury is a Los Angeles composer, lyricist and bandleader who writes musicals, post-modern jazz compositions, quirky pop, country songs and music for children's TV.
discography
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Jul 2022 -
Nov 2023 -
Dec 2020 -
Nov 2023
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