As promised this time last year, after ingloriously delivering ‘I Am the Very Model of a Modern Product Manager’ at last years ALN lightening rounds, I’m adding to my repertoire yet another adaptation of a popular show tune on behalf of my product management peeps everywhere.
This year’s victim is yet another (mis)appropriated Gilbert & Sullivan baritone aria “Better far to Live and Die,” again from their popular 1879 comic opera ‘The Pirates of Penzance.’
Commonly known as “I Am the Pirate King,” I, of course, have refactored it to with words that align with the song’s new title ‘I Am the Product King.’
Below are the lyrics, followed by a link to a video performance of it at this year’s Agile Leadership Network Lightening Rounds held on November 13, 2018 as I presented a ‘speed-round’ topic titled ‘Product Manager — CEO or Pirate Captain?’
Your job? As my adoring public I only ask 2 things:
- Add suggestions to the lyrics
- Give it a clap or two if you like it
The Lyrics
Verse 1
Oh better far to live and die under the feature flag I fly
than play a hypocritical part with a product head and an agile heart
Away to the waterfall world go you
If you up-front plan everything that we do
But I’ll be true, and to my teams I’ll sing [But I’ll be true to my tribes and teams]
I’ll serve them as their product king [and serve them as their product queen]
Chorus 1
For I am their product king [for I am their product queen]
and it ’tis it ’tis an agile thing to be their product king [and it is, it is so wonderfully keen to be their product queen]
For I am the product king [for I am the product queen]
and it ‘tis it ‘tis a glorious thing to be their product king [and it is, it is so agile and lean to be the product queen]
Verse 2
When I venture out to seek my pay
I hypothesize in an epic way
I sink more feat-ure-quests it’s true
Than account execs are want me to do
But any who deal with the unknown unknown
If they want to call their backlog their own
Must manage somehow to power through
More data-work than Sales would ever do
Chorus 2
For I am the product king [for I am the product queen]
and it ’tis it ’tis an agile thing to be the product king [and it is, it is so wonderfully keen to be the product queen]
For I am the product king [for I am the product queen]
and it ’tis it ’tis a glorious thing to be the product king [and it is, it is so agile and lean to be the product queen]
15Nov18 Update
As promised below a link to my performance as recorded by Art Pittman (thanks!). P.S. don’t forget to come back here and clap if you liked my rendition of this soon-to-be popular product management sea shanty.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1A0QnmIrWq20ZWEWPPh2-0UmFAxz40dsm/preview
10Nov18 update
[While rehearsing this song for an upcoming Agile Leadership Network lightening rounds Meetup this coming Tuesday, the 13th, I got to thinking, what if Melissa Perri or perhaps Janna Bastow wanted to entertain their audiences some of my (mis)appropriated song tunes? So with that, I’ve updated the lyrics in places where I either refer to king, or need to rhyme with queen. I’ve placed them in italics and bracket, not to diminish them, but rather I have limited formatting options here on Medium.]
The Study Materials
Some links to some media materials so you can re-familiarize yourself with this awesomely fun, nearly sea shanty bass-baritone arietta.
- Youtube Video of a stellar, Jack Sparrow-like performance of ‘I am a Pirate King’ by Anthony Warlow.
- MIDI File & original lyrics via the good folks over at the Gilbert & Sullivan Archives.
- MP3 rehearsal file for soloist & chorus courtesy of Alan Riley Jones.
What’s next?
First, thanks for reading this far. As a reward, I’m going to let you in on my top secret road map which includes taking a very different direction as I wordsmith the lyrics to ‘The Song of the Retrospective’ to the tune of the ‘The Song of the Volga Boatmen.’