Boundless Gratitude: Songs of the month

• MP3 play whole song, hi-fi (broadband)
• MP3 play whole song, lo-fi (modem)

I originally wrote this song 8 years ago, based on the Zulu story "Unana and the Elephant." The story is so powerful and so amusing that the song is often requested, even though the original music was a sing-song melody based on constant repetion of the same four chords in the same order. The original song was called "Unanana". "Unana Blues" has the same lyrics, but I've tried to introduce some music that would be worthy of the story.

Unana left her babies at home
While she was gathering wood
Beast came by while she was gone
And swallowed babies whole,
Like only a Beast could.
Unana, nanana, nananana, na,
Unana, nananana, nanananana,
nananana nanananana na

Unana returned, found her babies gone,
But she found the Beast track.
Unana cooked pot of beans and
Took a cooking knife to get her babies back
Unana, nanana, nananana, na,
Unana, nananana, nanananana,
nananana nanananana na

Chorus:
You say, you stuck in the belly of the beast
And you don’t know what to do
‘Cause the beast done swallow you?
Well listen carefully to what I say
Or the beast gonna digest you.
Unana nananana, nanananana, nanana
Unana, nananana nananana nanana

Unana found Beast and she started to argue.
Beast open mouth to argue back,
And Unana jumped down there too.
Unana, nanana, nananana, na,
Unana, nananana, nanananana,
nananana nanananana na.

Unana found her babies and
Fed them the whole pot of beans.
The other people in the belly cried,
We hungry too but the pot is clean.
Unana, nanana, nananana, na,
Unana, nananana, nanananana,
nananana nanananana na.

Chorus

Unana said, shame, shame on
Grown, helpless people like you.
Then Mama Unana showed the
Hungry people what to do.
She use her knife to cut meat
From the belly of the beast
She start a fire, cook the meat
And the people had a feast.
Unana nananana, nanananana, nanana
Unana, nananana nananana nanana

Beast started to suffer from
A massive stomachache
Beast fell dead and people cried,
Earthquake, earthquake
Oh Mama Unana, we are afraid,
What shall we do?
Unana said, shame again, then
Showed the people what to do
Unana nananana, nanananana, nanana
Unana, nananana nananana nanana

Chorus

Unana cut hole in Beast so
The people could pass through
Then they cook the rest of Beast
And had an even bigger feast

So if you find yourself in
The belly of the beast
Cut and cook the belly meat,
And have yourself a feast.
Unana nananana, nanananana, nanana
Unana, nananana nananana nanana

Beast got you down? Call 1-800-Unana.
That’s 1-800-Unana
Act today, don’t delay, or that
Nasty old Beast might digest you away.
Unana nananana, nanananana, nanana
Unana, nananana nananana na