Your Cheerios®

Cheerios is a registered trademark of General Mills.

You can download a PDF of the guitar tab or musical score.
You can hear an mp3 of the song in its present form here.

A bowl of CheeriosBackground

Some time between 1990 and 1998, I jotted a pair of lyrical musings in a book.  One fragment had been intended as a poem for a love letter, and it read something like "Are you a bridge and I a trestle?  Are you a mortar and I your pestle?  It kind of seemed that way, as we wrestled, nestled in your room that day."  The second fragment was simply the flirtation of "I want to be the milk in your Cheerios."  

In early November of 2007, as I was making a concerted effort to write music, all such thoughts from the past were being pressed into service, and these two came together.  The song took form rapidly, with the first demo being recorded on Garageband on  November 4th.  The basic structure was that I added two more rhymes with "trestle" to make a second verse, and the Cheerios portion was bolted on as an evolving chorus at the end of each.  This produced a song that was short and catchy.  

As a side note, I'd already decided to use the word "Texel" as one of the added rhymes before Wikipedia informed me, quite fortuitously, that the name of this island was pronounced in English as "Tessel", whereas I'd assumed I'd have to finesse it from "Tecksel".  I'd also thought it was a river, which is why I'd visited Wikipedia in the first place.  Clearly, this lyric was meant to be.

In completing the words, I extended the humor and playful innuendo underlying the constituent pieces.  The second demo, done on November 5th, added a wry pair of "footnotes" in a backup vocal for the unusual rhymes in the second verse, lending a snarky They Might Be Giants vibe to the affair.  However, the melodic statement was still incomplete, as the phrase featuring the rhythmic bounce of "be the milk" was not being repeated as it truly wanted to be. A few listens through suggested that this should be done and -- hey -- I had another pun on hand, so the third demo on November 6th added the "spoon all day" phrase and also polished the last bit to include the "skim to whole to crème brûlée."  

Lyrics

The lyrics wound up as

Are you a bridge and I your trestle?
Are you a dock and I your vessel?

It kind of seemed that way,
as we wrestled, nestled in your room that day.
I was trying to find the words to say
I wish I could be the milk in your Cheerios
so that we could spoon all day as I sow your oats.
If we could share a bowl,
I'd churn from skim to whole to crème brûlée.

Are you a mortar, I your pestle? (if I can be apothecary)
Are you the windmill on my Texel? (which is in the Netherlands)

It kind of seemed that way,
as we wrestled, nestled in your room that day.
I was trying to find the nerve to say
I wish I could be the milk in your Cheerios
so that we could spoon all day as I sow your oats.
If we could share a bowl,
I'd moisten all your holes the creamy way.

Performance and Finishing

The first public performance of the song was on November 5th at the Lizard Lounge Open Mike Challenge.  It shows lyrical differences from the final form, but the structure of the November 6th demo has been decided, as the phrase "so that we can spoon all day as I curl your toes" has staked its claim.  

One thing I quickly noticed is that the raunchier versions I offered were the most popular.  I decided to alter the relatively demure line about crème brûlée so in the second repetition it talked of moistening holes "the creamy way", although I still hold back on using the phrase "with creamy spray", as the line must be drawn SOMEWHERE, right?

I have yet to make a studio recording of this song.  I might want to try it with another vocalist.  However, you can hear a home studio demo of it I completed on January 29, 2008 here.

Here is a video showing a performance on March 23, 2013.