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Leeches

The wonderful world of leeches includes bloodletting, leech collectors, the tempest prognosticator, hirudotherapy, how to properly remove a leech, plus news and pop culture.

Music: “Leeches” by Toren Atkinson

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Lyrics

I heard you scream
I tried to ask about it
you had a dream
You wouldn’t talk about it
I’m guessing you were down in the bog
you’re coming out
to find its covered you with leeches

back in the day
of all the barber-surgeons
not feeling great
a sickness is emergin’
well there was only one thing to do
sit in the chair
they’re gonna cover you with leeches

oh what a day
can you even imagine
you lost a thumb
were gonna reattach it
the clotting blood it gums up the works
we’ll get it out
we’re gonna cover you with leeches

Images

 

15 Responses

      1. Question, the tuned used right at the beginning in your telly a friend campaign, what’s it called?

      2. just listened to the “soda” for the first time… Toren, your voice is eerily similar to Robertson Dean..narrator of I Am Legend audiobook among other things..

  3. I was only mildly phobic of leaches. I think the photo of the eye leach may have pushed me over into moderately phobic. If I allow myself to think about leaches on dry land, reaching out for me from the foliage, I slide into ‘what the fuck is wrong with this universe’ psychotically phobic.

  4. Great! New nightmare: choking on a leech halfway down my gullet. Thanks a million! ;P

    I had one if those Masters of the Universe! Woohoo!

  5. I went to Mount Royal (Now Mount Royal University)… I stayed far away from that swampland. Leeches might have been the least of my worries.

  6. I’m reminded of the throat leech in classic D&D – a peril to be found in carelessly filled canteens. 🙂

    Personal anecdote time – was on a fungal foray on the New South Wales central coast, and the convoy had pulled over to check the map. After a few minutes the shoulder of the road was alive with terrestrial leechs attracted by the vibration of the car engines 🙂

  7. I remember hiking in India and Nepal in the Himalayas and the ground was crawling with leeches, although I was not aware of it at first. Despite wearing heavy socks and ankle high hiking boots, the leeches would always get into my boot and down my sock, onto my foot. I would end the day with a blood soaked sock. At first I didn’t know what was going on, until a local told me it was probably leeches.

  8. Hey Toren, where can I download your solo work? Give me an avenue down which I can throw my money at you!
    P.S. Everyone at work hates me now because Leeches has been stuck in my head since monday.

    1. Thanks Andrew, I’m still putting together my first album which will be called “Comments Disabled” – hopefully within a few months! If I can figure out how, I’ll put it on iTunes.

  9. when I worked at Fort William historical park (the year 1815), our apothecary had a mechanical leech, a small metal box with tiny spring loaded blades on the bottom. wind up the mechanism and the blades shoot out when you hit the lever. apparently, it was used in places that could get “medical leeches” at the time.