@neilhimself Brilliant Neil. Hat tip to Traffic too

@neilhimself
...Rev. Canobite can't bite as hard
Leaving deep wounds on the Con,
And pipe-smoking "Bob" can't grin as bright
Without a little Mas-to-donnnn...

@neilhimself

"And little Sir John and the nut-brown bowl
And his brandy in the glass;
And little Sir John and the nut-brown bowl
Proved the strongest man at last.

The huntsman, he can't hunt the fox
Nor so loudly to blow his horn
And the tinker he can't mend kettle nor pot
Without a little Mastodon."

@neilhimself I am earwormed with the Imagined Village version of the original song now, only with these words. :-D

@neilhimself nice #filk !

@neilhimself

There's an old German song just like this.

Auf einem Baum ein Kuckuck, –
Sim sa la bim, bam ba, sa la du, sa la dim
Auf einem Baum ein Kuckuck saß.

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auf_einem_Baum_ein_Kuckuck

@neilhimself
I don't drink, and I instantly descended three sheets deep to sing this as deserved. Well done.

@neilhimself Brilliant! 😁👍

@neilhimself

🎶Soon may the Wellerman come
To bring us sugar and tea and rum
One day, when the tonguing is done
We'll take our leave and go🎶

I'll let myself out

@neilhimself glorious introduction. Now do a #JohnMastodon swamp thing special!!

Oh wow.. this.. is fantastic!

@neilhimself

The King of Birds took up his sword
And cast his solemn vow.
No mortal men shall say his name,
Else he be stricken down.

And all his jesters clapped and cheered
For speech was freed that day
Except for all the speech
They didn't want someone to say.

But John Mastodon, his eyes afire
Grinned his tusky grin, elated
"I am no mortal man," said he.
"I am... federated."

@neilhimself having left the bird years ago as an utterly useless place to read, or engage, finding this as the very first post to read has made me feel that perhaps this can be a new home. And what a wonderful post it is. Thank you for showing me that intelligence and wit still exist somewhere on this planet! 🙏

@neilhimself and here's the album cover
#JohnMastodon https://mastodon.social/@1moremin/109534866496963710

@neilhimself John Mastodon is to Twitter killers as John Wick is to dog killers. Their nemesis... or as that character Bricktop from "Snatch" put it "righteous retribution by an appropriate agent" (and I'll spare you the rest).

@neilhimself Nice parody on the old British drinking song, one of my favorite folk songs actually.

@neilhimself just when. I thought my day. Couldn't get better. 🤩

@neilhimself

https://youtu.be/cBj92DsTwYk

@neilhimself for anyone who doesn’t recognise the lyrics:

https://music.apple.com/au/album/john-barleycorn-2009-remaster/1629108910?i=1629108921

@neilhimself Neileleh! I'm in this mastodonish place, and too techno-kack-handed to work it. But I get to give you a wave in passing!

@neilhimself this is brilliant. Thank you!

Here, a 21st century cyber-medium combined with a great human legacy - humankind's age-old gift of story and allegory to teach, illustrate and illuminate life's most important lessons.

Surprise them we shall.

@neilhimself okay I'll admit your version was better than mine
https://todon.nl/@schratze/109531299296411917

@neilhimself Is Little Stevie still around to record this for us?

@neilhimself

@neilhimself

hahaha I posted a verse of this yesterday, LOVE it 💕

@neilhimself I read that in your voice of course.
So glad to be following you here as well.

@neilhimself I think I can sing that to the tune of Traffic’s John Barelycorn. I assume that is not an accident.

@neilhimself amazing.

@neilhimself “Big Bad John”- Jimmy Dean, 1961. 😅 https://youtu.be/KnnHprUGKF0

@neilhimself great now it’s stuck in my head

@neilhimself @Captain_Bionic, in case you missed this.

@neilhimself
Ahhh this made me LOL so hard!!

@neilhimself This is beautiful!!

@neilhimself Wonderful poetry from my absolute favorite author of all time!

@neilhimself Good to see this #folk / #johnmastodon crossover gaining traction!

@neilhimself 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

@neilhimself And a legend was born.

@neilhimself John Mastodon is do popular that the creator of Sandman is writing poetry about him. It’s like he is the world’s most interesting man.

@neilhimself sounds like John barleycorn

@neilhimself #Spectacular #Timely #Relevant #ArtPop #Poetry

@neilhimself hey! I'm one of those kings, and it was a Tesla, I swear!

@neilhimself I owe the fact that I got this reference entirely to my brother, Doug Fieger. Love you and miss you, Doug.

@neilhimself

Sounds like a Chuck Norris theory, jajajaja 🤣

@neilhimself

This song has been in my head for the last few days, too!

@neilhimself You beat me to it. I thought about doing this. Great job!

@neilhimself
Bears a striking resemblance to John Barleycorn. Perennial, is he? ;>)

@neilhimself bring it

@neilhimself

I'll drink to that.

@neilhimself Neil Gaiman will soon supercede the bible. Either him, or John Wick.

@neilhimself

I saw him kill 3 men in a bar... with a pencil
A trio of murders with a writing utensil
So now I pass down the Mastodon saga
The man, the myth, the Baba Yaga

@neilhimself

I'd listen to Steve Winwood sing that.

@neilhimself

I know that song!

@neilhimself you are a very silly man—this is one of the reasons you are so much fun as a creator.

@neilhimself sounds like the story of Victor Jara as Arlo tells it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4BdVB5t_Vg

@neilhimself Neil Gaiman #johnmastodon is the BEST John Mastodon! 😁👍

@neilhimself

All we need now is Brynn Terfel to sing this backed by a Welsh choir.

#JohnMastadon #OdeToJohnMastodon

@neilhimself Oh good, I'm not the only one committing such crimes against the British folkloric canon 🙂

Here's mine, for posterity:
https://cloudisland.nz/@DrCuriosity/109532806045325526

@neilhimself
...From dawn till dusk was Elon Musk
a-dancing on the grave,
believing he had slain his foe,
John Mastodon the brave.

Musk knew not of the Fediverse,
with servers far and wide.
From there sprung a new Mastodon,
and there Musk's dream hath died.

@neilhimself And then there is this version. https://twitter.com/GaryM03062/status/1604523375224840192

@neilhimself :ma_animals_owl:

@neilhimself
The Ballad of John Barleycorn. A great rewrite!

@neilhimself A #JohnMastodon meme poem by #NeilGaiman My #Christmas mood just got brighter. 🎄😏

@neilhimself So it is with the kin to John Barleycorn and all the strangers, cousins, and #GoodFolk See “British Fairy Tales” for inspiration, one of our current reads ;)

@neilhimself ah yes the Ballad of John Mastodon

@neilhimself Absolutely calls for a Traffic reunion. Please someone call Steve Winwood!

@neilhimself 👋 good to see you here!

You have a *huge* following, so please don’t forget to donate $ to the instance you’re on as it adds a lot to the load on the server itself.

It may also be a good call to get your own instance set up on your own domain 🤘

@neilhimself Poetic

@neilhimself

@neilhimself I am so glad social media exists so when creatives like Neil Gaiman come up with little gems like this they share it with the world directly and immediately for us to enjoy. (Captain Obvious checking in)

@neilhimself Nice, bravo!

@neilhimself
Wonderful. It seems the tradition of John Henry and Paul Bunyan has come back to life. The tall tale lives on!

@neilhimself John became Joan. Oh, and how did she rise and proceed to pwn.

@neilhimself
Consider Joan Mastodon

Sister Joan found him in the ice
Carried the frozen body to her home
In the nights by the fire
Healed his heart

Meanwhile, Joan prepared weapons
In the first rain of spring
the heroes stood side by side
against the wild kings

Go on
Joan and John Mastodon

@neilhimself 👍🎖💪

@neilhimself

@neilhimself

Glad you made the switch here Neil, and looking forward to more Sandman, always wondered what happened with that Mister E, Constantine, Sandman crossover back in the 90's, I sort of got older and real life dramas took over, unfinished mystery I guess.

@neilhimself
It wasn't much of a surprise to those of us who have known him since the #bigbang.

@neilhimself Lo! Resurrection!

@neilhimself Brilliant. Just brilliant.

@neilhimself very enjoyable!

@neilhimself https://youtu.be/a_23BqtCDGo

LB: Neil Gaiman fazendo um poema sobre John Mastodon... the web is healing 🙏

@neilhimself

The North is full of tangled things and texts and aching eyes
And dead is all the innocence of anger and surprise,
And Christian hateth Mary that God kissed in Galilee,
But John Mastodon of Austria is riding to the sea.
John Mastodon calling through the blast and the eclipse
Crying with the trumpet, with the trumpet of his lips,
Trumpet that sayeth ha!
Domino gloria!
John Mastodon of Austria
Is shouting to the ships.

@neilhimself
...Rev. Canobite can't bite as hard
Leaving deep wounds on the Con,
And pipe-smoking "Bob" can't beam as bright
Without a little Masto-
** CORRECTION **
without a little mass .. to... donnnn...

@neilhimself 👏 👏👏

@neilhimself @mastomememakers @Gargron #wanted #JohnMastodon #Toot #Tootoralive

@neilhimself

Trafficking in great lyrics, you are. ;)

@neilhimself Brilliant!

@neilhimself brilliant, and thanks for the ear worm. The rest of you lot: #johnmastodon > no hash tag

@neilhimself Great poem! Have you considered a career in writing?

@neilhimself I was hit by a toyota corolla in the parking lot of a target once but that's as close as it gets

@neilhimself

@neilhimself Sad seeing you on Mastodon with all the rejects.

@neilhimself ahhh, a traffic fan maybe?

@neilhimself Now would be an opportune time to re-up Pynchon’s take on that great American Icon: “The Badass”
#johnmastodon #JohnMastodonForever

https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/97/05/18/reviews/pynchon-luddite.html?

@neilhimself https://at.tumblr.com/doctorloup/704102296203771904/co8tz3h9cd3q

Another #JohnMastodon song! And already complete with music.

@neilhimself So much love for this!

When a meme gets so serious that @neilhimself joins the fun with a Traffic filk, you know shit's getting real.