In the summer of 1990, an all-star array of musical artists were asked to contribute original recordings for an upcoming benefit CD. Entitled Every Child Deserves a Lifetime, profits from the album sales benefited the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation.
The line-up was pretty amazing: the Disney-released CD (which you can still find available for sale today) includes contributions from Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, Elton John, Barbara Streisand, Sting, Jackson Browne, Ann and Nancy Wilson, James Taylor, and more.
And of course, it includes a track from Bruce Springsteen.
When Bruce was asked to contribute in the summer of 1990, he had just become a brand-new parent. Evan was only an infant, and Bruce had already been singing “Pony Boy” to him since before he was born.
Bruce was seriously tempted to contribute “Pony Boy” to the Disney collection, but as we now know, he decided to save that one for his next album. Instead, he chose another song in heavy rotation in the Springsteen house: Nancy Cassidy’s “Chicken Lips and Lizard Hips.”
“Chicken Lips and Lizard Hips” is a playful song, a tale of good-natured, childish rebellion mollified by a sly parental trick. For a rock star who spent his youth writing about rebellion only to now find himself responsible for raising another human being, the attraction of this song must have been undeniable.
Here’s Bruce’s solo contribution to Every Child Deserves a Lifetime–his never-performed-live version of “Chicken Lips and Lizard Hips.”
Chicken Lips and Lizard Hips
Recorded: Summer 1990
Released: Every Child Deserves a Lifetime (1991)
Never performed
Or did he chose it because it (somewhat) rhymes with “Wizard imps and sweat sock pimps, interstellar mongrel nymphs”
Ha! Now I can’t stop singing “bus stop” to the tune of “chicken lips.” Thanks for that! 😂