Duck vs. Decorated Shed

Gather round all you humans, I’ve a tale to pass on down

About two architects: Rob Venturi and Denise Scott Brown

In Las Vegas, in the 60s, they took an extended trip

They were looking at the buildings all flashy on the strip

 

Casinos with their Eiffel towers and tacky Parthenons

Each one a basic structure with rhinestones added on

Versus the duck egg store shaped like an actual duck back in New York

In which everything is subservient to this one symbolic form

 

Well I’d rather be a duck than a decorated shed

Form and function integrated in my heart and in my head

Every person must decide before they get too old and dead

To be a duck or a decorated shed

 

Now I am well aware that this particular metaphor

Is meant for architecture and really nothing more

But I am a songwriter and not an architect

So this is undeniably beguiling, if not entirely correct

 

Most folks are office buildings, made of concrete, steel and glass

You see a thousand of them but never notice as you pass

Others show their colours in a way you don’t forget

What you get is what you see and what you see is what you get

 

That’s why I’d rather be a duck than a decorated shed

Form and function integrated in my heart and in my head

Every person must decide before they get too old and dead

To be a duck or a decorated shed

You can bet the piano-key window building sells pianos

And a man who’s like a frozen banana stand might be bananas

I’ve got a friend who’s a hot dog cart shaped like a giant wiener

You feel as if you know her just as soon as you have seen her

 

But it’s not about your hairstyle or the novelty glasses on your nose

It’s about how to wear your heart on the outside of your clothes

So if you’re sweet, don’t be a afraid to be an ice-cream-cone-shaped truck

Tell the world: “I am a duck, I am a duck, I am a duck!”

 

I’d rather be a duck than a decorated shed

Form and function integrated in my heart and in my head

Every person must decide before they get too old and dead

To be a duck or a decorated shed

         

Yes, every person must decide before they get too old and dead

To be a duck or a decorated shed