Everything is Tickety-Boo

It was about 1974 when I happened to see a Danny Kaye movie called Merry Andrew (1958) on TV. It was set in England and had this madcap little song called "Everything is Tickety-Boo" in it. I sorta fell in love with the song and it was kind of a personal theme song for me for many years thereafter. I could never find a recording of the song and didn't get a chance to see the movie again for over 30 years, but it must have made a big impression on me, because when I did hear it again on TCM, I found that I had remembered the words almost perfectly after hearing it once over 30 years ago.

Here it is, in all it's technicolor splendor:

Wings Like Icarus

The boy Icarus (you remember the tale)
Whose father made wings to escape from a jail,
Wings of wax and feathers and string,
Over the dark prison walls they took wing,
Over the sea and into the cloud.
Icarus waxed exceedingly proud,
And, forgetting the nature of the wings he wore,
Flew higher and farther, yearning for more,
Till finally, no longer able to bear,
The heat of the sun in that rarified air,
The wings collapsed and left him adrift,
In an ocean of air, with no means of lift.
Thus was the tale of Icarus ended,
His red blood with the blue water blended.

I, like Icarus, ascend to the skies,
On wings of my good father's device,
And like him, I soar, through no worth of my own,
Through skies of spirit, beating hard for home.
I, like Icarus, enjoying my wings,
Feeling the rapture that loftiness brings,
Am often tempted to think that I,
Powerful, virile, in charge of the sky,
Can conquer, alone, the clouds and the sea,
But I, like Icarus, must mindfully be,
Aware of the nature of the wings I wear,
The force that supports my life in the air,
I mustn't forget who has given me all,
Or I too, like Icarus, surely will fall.

-- Mark A. Clark