From the Big Bang to the World Wide Web

Music and lyrics © 2009, Nicholas Toth and Kathy Schick

1.
Thirteen point seven billion years ago
The universe decided to start up the show
The Big Bang happened, all matter was created
And all antimatter was annihilated
From asymmetries in space that now we can measure
The gases collapsed under gravity and pressure
The heat built up ‘til the gas balls ignited
And the Universe’s candles finally lighted

(Chorus):
From the Big Bang, to the World Wide Web
From the Big Bang, to the World Wide Web

2.
Four and a half billion years ago
A disc of gas and dust began to glow
With the sun in the center, our solar system formed
From collisions of asteroids, our planet was born
In the organic soup of molecular chains
Life slowly emerged in reproducing strains
Cyanobacteria made oxygen from light
And built up the structures we call stromatolites

(Chorus):
From the Big Bang, to the World Wide Web
From the Big Bang, to the World Wide Web

3.
Five hundred and thirty million years ago
The pace of evolution was no longer slow
The Cambrian explosion brought groups we see today
An arms race of animals, of predator and prey
From chordates emerged the vertebrate fish
Roaming vast oceans, to eat what they wished
The early amphibians crawled out of the seas
Those pioneering witnesses of landscapes and trees

(Chorus):
From the Big Bang, to the World Wide Web
From the Big Bang, to the World Wide Web

4.
The reptiles evolved and they conquered the land,
Terrestrial creatures laying eggs in the sand
The dinosaurs ruled on the land and the sea
A hundred and fifty million year legacy
Sixty-five million years in the past
An asteroid came down and hit with a blast
The dinosaurs decided to curl up and die
With nothing to eat, acid rain from the sky

(Chorus):
From the Big Bang, to the World Wide Web
From the Big Bang, to the World Wide Web

5.
The meekest of mammals inherit the earth
And crawled out of their tunnels to prove what they’re worth
The Primates radiated into many new things
Including the apes, the sultans of swing
In the last 10 million years, early bipeds emerged
They dropped from the trees, to savannahs they surged
They populated Africa, the Cradle of Man
With opposable thumbs, and dexterous hands

(Chorus):
From the Big Bang, to the World Wide Web
From the Big Bang, to the World Wide Web

6.
Two point six million years ago
They picked up two cobbles, and blow by blow
They created sharp edges to cut up their prey
Competing with carnivores and holding their sway
Their brains got bigger, their jaws got smaller
Their legs got longer, their shadows got taller
They walked out of Africa into new lands
These hunting and gathering ancestral bands

(Chorus):
From the Big Bang, to the World Wide Web
From the Big Bang, to the World Wide Web

Music and lyrics by Nicholas Toth and Kathy Schick
Vocals: Carrie Newcomer
Lead guitar: Seymour Duncan
Guitar: Sage Benado
Guitar: Nicholas Toth
Bass guitar: Henry Corning
Drums: Tom Schoenemann
Hammond organ: August Pacetti
Percussion (tambourine, flint-basalt, antlers, djembe): Kathy Schick
Kebero (Ethiopian drum): Sileshi Semaw
Engineer: Kevin Loyal
Recorded at Echo Park Studios, Bloomington, Indiana
© 2009 Nicholas Toth and Kathy Schick&
THE STONE AGE INSTITUTE® All rights reserved.

Dedicated to Professor Margaret Barrier

Carrie Newcomer, Vocals

Seymour Duncan, Lead Guitar

Sage Benado, Guitar

Nick Toth, Guitar

Henry Corning, Bass Guitar

Tom Schoenemann, Drums

August Pacetti, Hammond Organ

Kathy Schick, Percussion

Sileshi Semaw, Ethiopian Drum