Get Up Offa That Thing

Lyrics:

Get Up Offa That Thing
By Deanna Brown, Deidra Yvonne Jenkins and Yamma Brown
Dynatone Publishing Company (BMI)/ Administered by Unichappell Music Inc.

Get up offa that thing, dance ‘til you feel better
Get up offa that thing, dance
Get up offa that dance ‘til you feel better
Get up offa that thing. try to release the pressure

Get up offa that thing, shake
Get up offa that thing and shake ‘til you feel better
Get up offa that thing, shake ‘til you feel better
Get up offa that thing, try to release the pressure

Get up off, good God y’all
Good God, God good y’all

Get up offa that thing, dance ‘til you feel better
Get up offa that thing , say it now
Get up offa that thing , shake ‘til you feel better
Get up offa that thing, and, try to release the pressure

Get up, get up offa that thing and twist
Get up off, twist, ‘til you feel better
Get up offa that thing, twist now
Good God y’all, good God y’all, God good y’all

Hey now all you Culchie hillbilly beboppers
Redneck Chawbacon clod hoppers
Grab your country crossroads gal
Swing it left and swing it now
Show the rich boys in this town
Swing it on up and sing it on down
Listen up now you Anoraks
Listen up, don’t talk back
Play my old time banjo now
I’m about to show you how now

Get up offa that thing, dance ‘til you feel better
Get up offa that thing, swing
Twist and shout, shake, jam
Get up offa that thing, double thumb

(take it to the bridge)

Get up offa that thing, dance ‘til you feel better
Get up offa that thing, twist and shout, shake
Get up offa that dance ‘til you feel better
Get up offa that thing, try to release the pressure

Get up, get up off, of that thing, get up
Giddy up off that thing

Credits:

Recorded March 27, 2013 at the Butcher Shoppe, Nashville
Engineer David Ferguson
Gerry Paul – guitar
Trevor Hutchinson – bass
Kai Welch – Hammond organ

Song Notes:

I met New Zealand guitarist Gerry Paul at the Tønder festival in Denmark. We jammed onstage under a big top, and then continued backstage until they made us leave because they were taking the tent down. I produced Natural Angle for his fine band Grada in 2010. and in 2009 and 2011 Gerry and I toured New Zealand and Australia with Irish bassist Trevor Hutchison. Our recording together, Two Oceans Trio, is available on iTunes, and this recording comes from what was meant as a follow-up release. The trouble is we’re all so busy with other projects, we can’t find a time to tour, so I’m going to release some of the tracks as singles over the next year. We are joined here by Nashville’s Kai Welch on Hammond organ.

James Brown, the Godfather of Soul, changed everything. His influence saturates modern music, and songs like Get Up Offa That Thing bring me straight back to my teen age. Sometimes I try to run a recording session the way I heard Soul Brother Number One did it: get the mics up, find a groove and go. Plus the banjo might be the original funk instrument.

I added a few of my own words to this version. “Culchie” is Irish slang for a hick, and “Chawbacon” is British slang for “an unsophisticated rustic”. “Anorack” another bit of British slang, refers to someone with an intense interest in an obscure subject. Stamp collectors would almost qualify, but Trainspotters would be real Anoraks, as would some guys I once met in California who collected old refrigerators and washing machines. Of course those guys were also cartoonists…