Man It Feels Good 2 B A Lichen

Recently I was thinking about the plight of the sterile crustose lichens, specifically those in Eastern North America.  One could feel sorry for them, being so taxonomically neglected and underrepresented in all major surveys of biodiversity.  But in a certain kind of way, I think that they must be very proud.  It's certainly amazing how they've been able to get by on so little (so little sex, so little attention from humans).  Inspired by the story of the sterile crusts, I decided to write some lyrics, which I entitled "Man, It Feels Good 2 B A Lichen," and set the words to the music of the similarly-titled song (made famous by the movie Office Space) by the Geto Boys, about being a gangsta, not a lichen. Some people have said that it's groundbreaking... that it's a whole new genre (known as "Lichen Rap" or, more commonly, "Lich-Hop")... I just like to think of it as one of the products resulting from the inspiration that I get from the amazing organisms that I study!

Please press play above (or download here)

Man, It Feels Good 2 B A Lichen (a sterile crust’s song)

Man, it feels good to be a lichen

Live sterile crust lichens ain’t indoors

Real sterile crust lichens are hard to identify

‘cause sterile crust lichens don’t make spores

Man, it feels good to be a lichen

I mean one that you don’t really know

Livin’ as a sterile crust, drivin’ people crazy

‘cause I can’t be identified for sho’

Now sterile crust lichens come in all shapes and colors

Some got killed in the past

But if NSF could just get their back with some fundin’

We could study them and hopefully they’ll last

Now all I gotta say to you

Sexually-reproducin’ lichen-formin’ fungi recombinin’

When your spore can’t find no algae what you think you gonna do?

Man, it feels good to be a lichen

Man, it feels good to be a lichen

Flying round on the currents all day

‘cause when a sterile crust lichen goes and tries to reproduce

It bundles up the partners and it blows away

Now when a lichen like this one is livin’ in your ‘hood

It’s most likely that you ain’t gonna know

‘cause lots of sterile crust lichens are small and inconspicuous

But under UV they might glow

Now all I gotta say to you

Sexually-reproducin’ lichen-formin’ fungi recombinin’

When your spore can’t find no algae what you think you gonna do?

Man, it feels good to be a lichen

Stay tuned for news about the record release party in the Bronx, to take place later this year! 

- Brendan