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Mother Necessity is a song from America Rock!. It is a song about the great inventors and their inventions.
America Rock[]
This song teaches about the great American inventions, all depicted as being created as a result of a need for the inventors' mothers.
Lyrics[]
CHORUS: Mother Necessity with her good intentions,
Where would this country be without her inventions?
JACK: Oh, things were rotten in the land of cotton Until Whitney made the cotton gin. Now old times there will soon be forgotten For it did the work of a hundred men.
CHORUS: Mother Necessity, where would we be?
BLOSSOM: Mother Edison worked late each night. It went well until the fading light.
BOB: Little Thomas Alva Edison said, "I'll grow up to be A great inventor and I'll make a lamp to help my mama see, Wowee! What an excellent application of electricity!"
BLOSSOM: He worked hard and pulled the switch. He was smart and very rich.
CHORUS: Mother Necessity, help us to see.
BOB: Now, the mother of Samuel Morse Always sent the lad out on a horse.
BLOSSOM: "Take a message to Ms. Peavy on the far side of the pike; Spread the word about the quilting bee next Saturday night!"
BOB: Little Samuel started thinking of a way to send a message, Though he never met a horse he didn't like. Uh!
CHORUS: Mother Necessity!
BLOSSOM: Elias, can you help me with my sewing?
BOB: Mother dear, I'll fulfill your fondest wishes.
BLOSSOM: Elias, how?
BOB: This machine I've made will keep your sewing really flowing. In fact, we'll keep the whole nation in stitches. Ah!
CHORUS: Mother Necessity, where would we be?
JACK: Ring me on the Alexander Graham Bell. Thank you Alexander for the phone. I'd never get a date, I'd never get a job Unless I had a telephone.
CHORUS: Mother Necessity!
ESSRA: "Orville and Wilbur, go outside this minute, And there continue with your silly playing! Take these plans and take those blueprints. Take that funny looking thing, Take that wheel, take that wing, I can't hear a thing that Mrs. Johnson's saying. Orville! Wilbur! Come back, boys! Orville! Wilbur!"
CHORUS: Mother Necessity, where would we be?
BLOSSOM: When Robert Fulton made the steamboat go,
JACK: When Marconi gave us wireless radio,
ESSRA: When Henry Ford cranked up his first automoe,
BOB: When Samuel Slater showed us how factories go,
WOMAN: And all the iron and oil and coal and steel and Yankee don't you know,
ALL: They made this country really grow, grow, grow, grow,
With Mother Necessity and where would we be without the inventions of your progeny?
Trivia[]
- This is the only song in the entire franchise to feature four of the chief vocalists for Schoolhouse Rock: Bob Dorough, Blossom Dearie, Essra Mohawk, and Jack Sheldon (and possibly Lynn Ahrens).
- On Disney+, the lightbulb and scene near the end with the domestic building are slowed down to prevent seizures.
- Though this song largely highlights inventions in general, its presence in the America Rock implies its inventors are American: in reality, Guglielmo Marconi was from Italy and based there at the time he invented the wireless radio.
Schoolhouse Rock: Math Rock (constellation cameo appearance)[]
- Mother Necessity appears as a constellation cameo appearance.
