Good morning John. Earlier this week I was listening to some oldies and I was like ‘These
are oldies, but how old is the oldest song?’ On the scale of things, really, oldies are
newies. They’re very new. Of course, this is an impossible question to answer. The oldest
song was probably sung by a bird, maybe a dinosaur, you don’t know! But I don’t
think anybody else has got, like, the music in their soul.
(Singing) ‘Music gonna make you wanna move it all night long, all night long!’
It’s just us, and it is innate, like there are no cultures on Earth that do not sing.
All humans sing that, well… all cultures sing. There are some humans, particularly
ones named John Green, who probably should maybe just not.
Definitely the first human songs are well and truly lost. They were probably improvised,
so the first melody was probably lost immediately after it was created. But the oldest song
that we can still play today is called Hurrian Hymn #6. It’s incomplete but it was pressed
into cuneiform tablets 3500 years ago and you can still listen to it. There’s clips
of it on YouTube. That’s amazing! Archaeologists can let us get a glimpse at what the past
looked like: the buildings and the tools people used and their pots and their weapons, but
being able to hear back in time... For some reason that makes these people who existed
distantly in the past much more real to me and, like, much more human to me.
However, the oldest song that we have in its entirety is a brief composition. The coolest
thing about it is not only is it music, it also the lyrics, which is really unusual.
It’s on a burial cylinder, probably placed into the grave of a man’s wife by the man.
It was not originally played with an acoustic guitar accompaniment, but that is how I’m
gonna play it because I don’t have a lyre nor do I nor how to play one.
Hoson zēs phainou Mēden holōs sy lypou
Pros oligon esti to zēn To telos ho chronos apaitei
Hoson zēs phainou Mēden holōs sy lypou
Pros oligon esti to zēn To telos ho chronos apaitei
While you live, shine on Be joyous and dance
And seize the day We’re only here until we’re gone
And time, time demands to be paid
Hoson zēs phainou Mēden holōs sy lypou
Pros oligon esti to zēn To telos ho chronos apaitei
That’s the oldest song we have, and the theme is basically YOLO. The more things change!
I have some news. In the scope of musical history, the first album of Hank Green and
The Perfect Strangers, which is called Incongruent, is not going to be significant. It is, however,
going to come out at the end of April or beginning of May, and I’m very excited about it, it
rocks. I feel weird talking about how great my album is but you will hear more of it.
There’s already some of it on my Tumblr. If you want to check that out there’s a
song called ‘I F$*%king Love Science’ and it is available to pre-order at dftba.com.
John, I will see you on Tuesday.
(Song at end)
T-shirt and jeans that’s right It doesn’t mean anything
People who don’t know that I Try not to say too much just with my clothes
If you wanna get to know me, man We’re gonna have to talk about…