h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

After exhaustive research, it seems that the original line that was written was misunderstood and wrongly copied down a number of times before it was made available to the public.

What was intended seems to have been: "La, a note to follow: so."

"La", at the beginning of the line, indicates any generic note that is sung without lyrics (we all sing la la la laaaaa, etc.).

"so", at the end of the line, should be translated as 'thus', and is the actual note that is sung (and held) to demonstrate this specific instance of the "note to follow...".

It is thus a lyric which reflects the music accompanying it. It's actually quite neat, and only needs recifying, not replacing.

It strikes me that it's actually a pun as well (just like the other lines in the song). A good contender for the shortest pun in the English language - just two letters!

"La" is the sixth not in the sol-fa scale. Not sure why, but there it is. "La", as explained above, is also the chosen sounding for a generic note. Ask anyone in the Western world to sing a note, and they will use "La". This is not the same as the first "La", though. There's no reason why people would automatically sing the sixth note of a scale when they have no words, and thus call it "La" for that reason. If that were the case, all tunes would have only one note!

The song starts off each line with a word that sounds the same (but is spelled differently) as the notes of the scale. The melody moves up this scale as well - it's a clever song, and cleverer still because not only do the lyrics describe the music, but every line is a pun on the musical notation as well. The double meaning of "La" is unfortunate in the song because it is spelled the same in both uses, causing the obvious confusion. All the others appear differently: Do (Doe), Re (Ray), Mi (Me), Fa (Far), So (Sew), Te (Tea), so there is no confusion - it's clear we're talking about the (bracketed) version in the rhyme. Therefore, he's really saying "La, it's a generic note." (which is the intended pun), and not "La - it's the sixth note of the sol-fa scale", which is silly and dull (hence DNA's annoyance!).

So, there can't be an improvement, because there is no word that sounds the same a "La", but is spelled differently. Not a single homonym in the whole of the English Language! That's the real bummer, not Oscar's lack of imagination.

And there's another pun in the line: the word 'so' at the end, to be translated as 'thus' (to demostrate the 'la' note being sung), is also a pun on the 'so' (fifth note of the sol-fa scale) and 'sew' used in the previous line, so it does "follow so" literally as well.

In retrospect, this seems to be the cleverest line in the song, and I move that all the other lines be re-written!

I move that the whole thing be burnt and buried at midnight beneath a crossroads. The song starts out badly enough; knowing that the screechy voice will be a whole octave higher by the end does nothing to improve one's perception of the quality of the lyrics. Didn't "La, sir, your hand seems to be beneath my petticoats!" used to be a popular saying? God knows why. Mayhap "lawks" became truncated. Anyway, "La, what it means, I don't know…" could work as the line. "La, your eardrums soon will blow…", "La, all meaning does now go…". Maybe a little restructuring could yield
"Sow, some barley in a field,
La! It's eaten by the crows;
Tea forgotten will congeal…
that will bring etc."
The meaningless of "la" as a syllable is thus countered by using the meaning to be an exclamation (possibly based upon "lawks, whatever it means and whatever the derivation [possibly it was an alternative to the blasphemy of "Lord!"] but ignoring the fact that "la" is the most common catch-all spare syllable in the language) and by the relevance of the line to that immediately prior to it.

Actually, its the answer to a great chemical mystery.
Man has looked for the perfect chemical for immortality, a chemical when taken will give man the ability to live forever. Given that the lyric writer had solved this, he needed to get the information to the world in a way that would be around forever and never be held back by the makers of coffins and doctors.
So he comprised a song to give the drug to the world, this drugs name was 'DOREMISOLATE'. The exlair of youth.
Sadly this was never realised by mankind, however its youthfull effects managed to effect the song and this is why we still hear it at least one a year.

Isn't that the Italian version of Taramasolata? as eaten (sorry sung) by the big Italian Guy?