The Stupendium - These Hallowed Wings lyrics

Hoo! Doing a song, are we? Jolly good
Here we go!

Get home from an expedition
And the phone on my desk is ringing
Sounds like a friend with a special mission
Found an astounding exhibition
Packed my things and I flapped my wings
Excited to find what the campsite brings
There’s a brand-new island for analysing
And this chap’s flying in to track findings
Natural history is my domain
Extinct little trinkets and giant remains
I don’t know though, might think again
I think that’s a Dodo flying the plane!
Now I’ve had a jolly holiday in Zanzibar
But this sabbatical is
Practically spectacular
From above, it is honestly a bit bizarre
How the island is improbably rectangular
Pioneering new frontiers! But what
Should I expect?
Exploring tropic flora? Newfound
Fauna to inspect? To ply my palaeontology
To prospect and erect
A repository for fossils for each
Fish and each inse- eugh! No, no!


You got a village that needs assistance
Expertise and seasoned wisdom
Want to learn? Take a seat and listen
This bird is the word on the ecosystem
Squeal with glee at each acquisition
Who says you can’t teach facts with fiction?
This museum has a speaker system
Pumping out beats ‘bout your ecosystem

On briny waters, I’m quite astute
And dinosaurs I’m a fine who’s hoo!
But when we all live with tigers too
It might be awkward to try a zoo
Head down the stairs and you’ll see scores
Of dunkleosteus and plesiosaurs!
The fish are all down the right hand hall
And on the left are the creepy crawl-
Uh no, never mind! You can quiz me with
Your queries on aquariums
You’ll nary see so vibrant
Or varied a vivarium
There’s no greater a curator or librarian
Just beware of all the horrors
Housed in the solarium
So if you’ve been a-digging or
A-fishing in the sea
Then pluck up your discoveries and
Shuttle them to me but if you want to know
About the birds and bees
This bird prefers that the bees would leave!
Look, I understand all the important work
They do for the planet
I just wish they’d do it somewhere else!


You got a village that needs assistance
Expertise and seasoned wisdom
Want to learn? Take a seat and listen
This bird is the word on the ecosystem
Squeal with glee at each acquisition
Who says you can’t teach facts with fiction?
This museum has a speaker system
Pumping out beats ‘bout your ecosystem

Yes, all things bright and beautiful
All creatures great and small
Are collated and notated
And displayed within our halls
From mighty titan ancestors
To wretched scuttling things
Invited, if reluctantly
Inside these hallowed wings
And though bugs may be repulsive
I will put up with the fainting
If heinous abominations
Pave the way to taking paintings
The masterworks of artists
Throughout all history
Inexplicably displayed
Upon an island out at sea


You got a village that needs assistance
Expertise and seasoned wisdom
Want to learn? Take a seat and listen
This bird is the word on the ecosystem
Squeal with glee at each acquisition
Who says you can’t teach facts with fiction?
This museum has a speaker system
Pumping out beats ‘bout your ecosystem
You got a village that needs assistance
Expertise and seasoned wisdom
Want to learn? Take a seat and listen
This bird is the word on the ecosystem
Sworn by noblest tradition
Organising organisms
This museum has a speaker system
Pumping out beats ‘bout your ecosystem