The well-known, soothing guitar and vocal harmonies of Simon and Garfunkle’s “Sounds of Silence” took on a more fowl tone in a recent rendition sung by Garrison Keeler. Domestic fowl, that is. A Prairie Home Companion went musical with a spoof of the popular ’60s song, opining in harmony about why the chicken crossed the road.
Garrison Keeler songfully joked about poultry street crossings in Sounds of Chickens. Challenging the skills of Weird Al Yankovic’s vocal parodies, the lyrics to the song cover the moral implications of vegan Norwegians and (chicken) breast-obsessed perverts.
The harmonized rhymes and smooth guitar strums are punctuated by comical sound effects. When Keeler warns that chickens crossing the street without crossing guards get hit by cars, it results in the “sounds of violence” — screeching car tires and squawking hens.
The song comes without a resolution to the age-old debate over why the chicken crossed the road. Perhaps it was to escape Colonel Sanders, or chickens just have an internal code driving them to cross the road. Either way, there’s no debate on what comes from a chicken flattened by a Chev: Chicken Kiev.
Jennifer Kongsis the Managing Editor at MOTHER EARTH NEWS magazine. When she’s not working at the magazine, she’s likely working in her garden, on the local running trails or in her kitchen instead. You can find Jennifer on Twitteror Google+.
Photo from Flickr.com/FLEECIRCUS
