Kari Maaren

Grinch
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This is a song I have never yet performed in public.  I wrote it in 2011 and made a recording of it in 2012, but I didn't put it on Beowulf Pulled My Arm Off because there was already one Christmas song on there, and I thought I might save it for a Christmas album.  However, I've got it up at ReverbNation now, so I've decided to include it here as well.

Basically, this is a song about being alone and different and bullied and not quite able to own that, all filtered through a commentary on a Dr. Seuss book.  'Cause that is how I roll.

Recording

Lyrics
Grinch
Dear Grinch:
I’ve been wondering how you’ve been.
I think of you sometimes
In December.
Maybe only I remember
When you were mean.

Dear Grinch:
I’ve been wishing things could go
Back to what they were before.
You’ve gained a lot.
I guess you forgot
The benefits of being odd and green:

You were the Grinch.
I loved the way
You were alone upon your mountain.
You were a jerk.
That was okay.
You had a right to feel outside.
And you were free,
Free to be bad.
There was a lot there to admire.
You were the Grinch.
Was that so wrong?
Why would you hide
That?

It was
An amazing wicked time;
You and Max were on a roll.
Out you would sally,
Hurtling down into the valley
Through the snow.

The Whos
Were so happy all the time,
And they didn’t see you there.
You didn’t fit,
And that was it,
‘Cause what they didn’t see they didn’t know.

You were the Grinch.
You had to choose
To stand alone or just stand lonely.
You took revenge
Against the Whos,
Who didn’t notice you at all.
You were the kid
Picked last for sports
Or shoved head-first into a toilet.
You were the Grinch.
You knew how to
Take pride in fall-
Ing.

And when you crept into the village,
I could do the same.
From house to house, from tree to tree,
Without a jot of shame.
And as we floated through the night
From Who to sleeping Who,
Goodbye to cleaving to the norm,
Farewell to Cindy-Lou...

When they
Said your small heart grew in size,
I was never one to cheer,
And I can say all
Of the fuss felt like betrayal
Of what you meant.

Roast beast
Is all very well, I guess,
But when you gained that, you lost
The lonely cave,
And now you must behave,
Do what they tell you, go where you are sent.

You were the Grinch.
You ruled the night.
You were alone but never lonely.
I always knew
You were all right,
For you had found a way to be
Safe from the words,
Safe from the sneers,
From the contempt and the indifference.
You were the Grinch.
Now it’s all changed,
But you don’t see
It.

You were the Grinch.
They never knew
That you won just before they beat you.
You had control.
Cindy-Lou Who
Was just the icing on the cake.
I won’t forget
Even though now
Somehow they’ve trapped you and they’ve tamed you.
You were the Grinch.
You are the Grinch,
And I can take
That.


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Content copyright Kari Maaren 2013
Images copyright Kari Maaren, Phil Mills, Erik Mohr, and Karl Stahl 2013