Back in 2005, Michelle sent me a link to the JCB song and its lovely video, and the single has been popping up on my itunes since then, often with me singing along enthusiastically.
One of my very favourite bits (not having had the most fun at school myself) is the part of the video where the narrator counts on his fingers as he sings
“I wanna transform into a tyrannosaurus rex
and eat up all the bullies, and the teachers and their pets”
So it was a surprise to me on Christmas Day when my brother Joe was strumming his guitar (“Does that sound like JCB?”) and mentioned the ribbing he’d got from his wife for not realising that when the song says “eat up all the bullies and the teachers and their pets” that it meant teachers’ pets.
The look on my face gave me away: Joe and I had both spent the last 4 years labouring under the misapprehension that narrator-as-T-rex was so pissed off at the education system as a whole, that he was willing to eat not only his tormentors – the actual bullies and teachers – but, if the teacher so happened to have a hamster or a golden retriever or something, he would EAT THEM TOO.
So. That sucks. I liked our version better.
