You Make Me Drop My Papers

Last month I performed with The Bushwick Book Club Seattle. I wrote and played an original song inspired by Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH.  It is the 46th song I’ve written for The Bushwick Book Club Seattle.

Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH is a beloved children’s book by Robert C. O’Brien first published 1971. It’s about a widowed field mouse named Mrs. Frisby who enlists the help of some super-intelligent super rats to move her house before it gets crushed by the farmer’s plow.

I read a lot as a kid. I think I remember reading this book when I was in elementary school.  When I was reading the book for the show, a lot of it seemed vaguely familiar.

I thought Rats of NIMH was an easy, yet good read. I enjoyed it. I liked how short it was. Book length is a big factor for me when selecting which books to read for Bushwick shows. The shorter the better.

In the book there’s an adorable young girl rat named Isabella. She only has two small scenes in the book. Isabella has a mad crush on Justin, the hunkiest rat of them all. Isabella is in the library preparing to study. She is holding a stack of papers in her arms. In walks Justin. Isabella immediately loses her shit and drops her paper on the ground. Justin helps her pick them up, and she immediately almost drops them again. Then she runs away in a panic.

That scene struck a chord with me. The feeling of having a crush on someone is very familiar to me.  It’s a feeling that most of  us can relate to.

I did my best to caputre that feeling in my song. It’s called “You Make Me Drop My Papers”.

Here is my performance from the show.

I’m really happy with both the song and how well I played. I think I did an awesome job. What do you think? Feel free to judge me as you see fit.

Here are the lyrics:

You make me drop my papers
you make me drop my
Kindly help me pick them off the floor
somehow that’s all that matters
you leave me scattered

you make me drop my papers
you make me drop my
hands no longer function can’t hold on
as long as this feeling lingers
you slip through my fingers

Oh my God
I think I’m in love and I feel like throwing up
I hope it’s not on you
that wouldn’t be a pleasant thing for me to do

you make me drop my papers
you make me drop my
these big round eyes intensify
looking in your direction
so hard to function like a normal rat
you leave me scattered