Sign Before You Swing
Why a 1970s funk arrangement, with its horn stabs and traded vocal lines, was the right fit for a song about two departments negotiating.
The stories behind Sign Before You Swing
- The Call-and-Response Funk Built Into Sign Before You Swing — Why a 1970s funk arrangement, with its horn stabs and traded vocal lines, was the right fit for a song about two departments negotiating.
- Sign Before You Swing Puts Two Departments in One Chorus — A funk call-and-response between the construction crew ready to work and the infection-control team that has to sign off before a single hammer swings.
Lyrics
Sign before you swing, not
so fast, mind the dust on the wing I'll
Every patient down the hall's got nowhere to hide.
Sign before you swing.
Sign before you swing.
Crew and control doing the same thing.
Sign before you swing.
Sign before you swing.
Nobody's hammer starts till both sides agree.
Plastic sheeting up, negative air on, filter
running till the last brick's gone, 30 years of
lessons in one little form.
Keeps the dust from turning into a stone.
Signed before you swing.
Signed before you swing.
Cruel and controlled.
Doing the same thing.
Signed before you swing.
Signed before you swing.
Nobody's amistar. Still both sides agree.
I just wanna build a room I just want to clear the air
Two different jobs one afternoon
Nobody wins if we don't share.
Sign, sign, sign before you swing.
Sign before you swing.
Crew and control,
you win the same.
Sign before you swing.
Sign before you swing.
Nobody's hammer starts till both sides agree.
Sign before you swing.
Now swing Now swing
Now swing
