By Gurutrang Singh Khalsa
Listen Here: 1-09_get_out_of_bed_you_little_slee.mp3
I wrote this song in the late Seventies at a Winter Solstice. It just flowed out one day. I wanted to wake people up there in a fun way, so I wrote the first verse and chorus and sang it over and over when I was going around the camp in the Amrit Vela. People were laughing out loud from their tents and getting up. I wrote the rest of the verses later, over several years.
One morning, I believe it might have been Christmas at a Winter Solstice Sadhana at the old DeLand, Florida site, the temperature had plummeted to like, 0 degrees. It was freezing and frosty. The sky was very clear. There was no wind. The moon was bright, shining on the frost-laden tents. The camp was quiet, snoring away. I was on wakeup. I managed to get myself up, took a cold shower (heated myself up), got myself dressed, strapped on my guitar all frisky, and went around the camp belting out the song, and screaming at everyone, “Get up!” I think I may have been channeling Guru Gobind Singh or something! I mean, it was drill sargeant “get your butts out of your sleeping bags and your toochases over to morning sadhana.”
And people started stirring. The showers quickly became filled. The camp got moving. Sadhana that morning was held in the mess hall down by the kitchen due to the cold, and I mean everyone in that camp showed up—a record attendance! The place was packed with people squeezing out the doors. The sadhana was amazing. Sometime later that day, someone who had driven in the car with Yogi Bhajan told me that Yogiji had inquired, “Who was that guy who woke up the camp this morning?” He was told, “It was Gurutrang Singh.” Yogiji said, “That was great. I really appreciate that!”
So that was my song, and it happily woke up many people over the years. Everyone laughs when you pass their tent and sing it. Oftentimes, people have told me how they’d play it for their children who loved hearing it in the morning.
An important thing about this song is that I wrote the verses to be funny, but there are very serious, survival messages built within. They stand as a chronicle in song for the ages of the Yogic Technology: waking up in the Amrit Vela, Stretch Pose, the Shabd of Guru Ram Das “Gur Satgur Ka Jo Sikh Akhaye,” brushing with alum and sea salt, gagging the monkey glands, urine therapy (that sweet lemonade), cold shower and Ishnan therapy, etc. No, I don’t drink my pee regularly. I confess, I tried it once, so I am an avowed, one-time piss drinker—eeeeeee! Kiss me baby! But sometime in the future, when survival means no medicine is available, that reminder of ancient healing technology for potentiating the immune system may save someone’s life.
Finally, the song was recorded live at our home during one of the late Sat Nam Kaur’s very first “Sat Nam Fests”! Yup, Sat Nam Fest started in our living room! So many great people were there, so many musicians: Gurudass Singh and Kaur, Livtar Singh, Guruganesha Singh and the Guru Ram Das Ashram of Northern Virginia Sadh Sangat, packed into our little living room and we sang “Get Out of Bed” and the “Yogi Tea Song” together with great glee. They can both be heard on the 3HO Thirtieth Anniversary CD along with two of my other 3HO/Sikh Dharma heritage songs, “Sat Nam, the Grace Within You” and “Oh Guru Ram Das, Thank You for This Beautiful Day.”
I have always said I would like to record high quality studio versions along with other fun songs I’ve written and am still writing that no one knows, along with other beautiful shabds and chants. Yes, my wife, Gurumata Kaur, wants everyone to know that I sing very sweet and beautiful songs of devotion too! Perhaps that will happen by Guru’s Grace. We shall see!
Much love and light to all in Guru Ram Das Ji,
--Gurutrang Singh Khalsa
Get Out of Bed You Little Sleepy Head
By Gurutrang Singh Khalsa © 1980, 1999
- Get out of bed you little sleepy head
And go to sadhana like the Guru said
Don’t just keep lying like a piece of lead
Get out of bed you little sleepy head
Wake yourself up you little buttercup
And get your legs six inches up
Do breath of fire ‘til you’re turning blue
You’ve got a mission with the True Guru
Gur satgur kaa
Jo sikh akhaa-aa-aa-ay-yay
So bhalkay uth
Har naam Dhi-aavai
You call yourself a Gursikh
Then you should get up very quick
You call yourself a Gursikh
Then you should get up very quick
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- Hop off the sack you little cracker jack
And brush your teeth with salt & alum way back
Clean out your monkey glands and gag like a yak
Hop off the sack you little cracker jack
Get to the sink you little winkydink
It’s time to pour your favorite morning drink
Now don’t forget your home brewed sweet lemonade
‘Cause that’s the best drink that God ever made
I don’t want to get right out of bed
(You’d better get up, Or a else you will be fed up)
I just want to be a sleepy head
(Your life gets boring when you’re lying, sleeping, snoring)
Leave me here with little teddy bear
(I know your story but you’re missing all the glory)
I just want to nod out right into La-La Land
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- Fall out of bed you little loaf of bread
Take a cold shower wake yourself from the dead
Rub your whole body ‘til it turns hot and red
Fall out of bed you little loaf of bread
Conquer the chill you little whippoorwill
Forget hot water it’ll make you ill
Blood fills your organs like a beautiful rain
Take a cold shower so you don’t go insane
You can’t get em’ up, You can’t get em’ up
You can’t get em’ up in the morning
You can’t get em’ up, You can’t get em’ up
You can’t get em’ up today
Oh you lazy yogi, Put on your little togi
Oh you lazy yogi, You can’ get em’ up today
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- Jump off the bunk you little lazy monk
And do your yoga with some sparkle and spunk
Electrify your soul, and conquer the funk
Jump off the bunk you little lazy monk
Get out of bed you little sleepy head
And go to sadhana like the Guru said
Don’t just keep lying like a piece of lead
Get out of bed you little sleepy head
Wake yourself up you little buttercup
And get your legs six inches up
Do breath of fire ‘til you’re turning blue
You’ve got a mission with
You’ve got a mission with
You’ve got a mission with the True Guru!!!
(Fade out on…)
Get out of bed you little sleepy head,
Wake yourself up you little buttercup,
Hop off the sack you little cracker jack,
Get to the sink you little winkydinkk,
Fall out of bed you little loaf of bread,
Conquer the chill you little whippoorwill,
Jump off the bunk you little lazy monk,
Turn off your dream you little snoozin’ machine,
Do breath of fire ‘til you’re turning blue,
You’ve got a mission with the True Guru