Here's a short posting, less weighty I suppose than the usual ones I have been engaged with of late. Lyrics. Have you ever wondered about song lyrics? You know the websites.... someone has faithfully and dutifully recorded the words to every song imaginable and created a website repository, in hopes of selling you ringtones. Who says the lyrics are actually correct?
Here's my point. Check into the lyrics for "Babylon Fading" by the Doors, and you'll see the phrase "bison's pipe" given. Wow. How impossibly ignorant [let alone, imaginative!]. Now, Jim Morrison certainly knew that bison's do not play pipes. Bison being an alternative name for the buffalo, they would have horns but not pipes. Said horns are affixed firmly to their heads. They do not play them. Where does that piping come from? Anybody remember that Jim Morrison is the son of a Navy man? Sure was, and Jim would know of Boatswain's Mates, guys who do all sorts of traditional sailor stuff [boats and anchors and mooring lines and such]. In Standard Navy Speak, Boatswain in pronounced Bosun. Long o, and the 'sun' is jammed together. The uninitiated might hear "Bison", but I assure you it is "Bosun".]
By the way, Jim spent time on the bridge of Navy ships while visiting his dad. Jim might have hated the fact that his dad made him get a haircut, but he was an observant fellow and would certainly have known that the whistle in question is correctly called a "Bosun call". "Bosun's pipe" is how he describes it so the masses would understand. As a Navy guy myself, when I hear the words "Bosun's pipe", I immediately think of the article clenched between Popeye's teeth.
So, Bison's Pipe? Thanks for the laughs.
