One Trick Pony
He's a one trick pony
One trick is all that horse can do
He does one trick only
It's the principal source of his revenue
And when he steps into the spotlight
You can feel the heat of his heart
Come rising through
See how he dances
See how he loops from side to side
See how he prances
The way his hooves just seem to glide
He's just a one trick pony (that's all he is)
But he turns that trick with pride
He makes it look so easy
He looks so clean
He moves like God's
Immaculate machine
He makes me think about
All of these extra movements I make
And all of this herky-jerky motion
And the bag of tricks it takes
To get me through my working day
One-trick pony
He's a one trick pony
He either fails or he succeeds
He gives his testimony
Then he relaxes in the weeds
He's got one trick to last a lifetime
But that's all a pony needs
Commentary
From the soundtrack to the movie “One Trick Pony”; both soundtrack and
script were written by Paul Simon. Released 1980.
Douglas Adams is dead. Here’s something to remember him by on the Minstrels
- this album was one of the things his epic series “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” was dedicated to. A one-trick pony was something Adams didn’t want to be1, though the Guide is what most of the world will know him by. I really like Paul Simon’s way of expressing his wish for a less complicated life in the third stanza.
Srikant.
http://www.daily.umn.edu/daily/gopher-archives/1992/11/19/The_galactic_persp
ective.txt
Minstrels Links
Poem #119, “A Poem on the Underground Wall”, Paul Simon
Poem #615, “The Philosopher’s Drinking Song”, Monty Python