Friday Funny: A Maintenance Aria? (I don't make this stuff up)

To spread the message to the world to work against the Maintenance Crisis, Joel Leonard enlisted David Holley, Director of Opera at the famed University of North Carolina Greensboro’s Music School to record an operatic version.

Leonard, also known as the Maintenance Evangelist, wrote the original version in October of 2002 after attending an Engineering Conference in Nashville, TN. After hearing hundreds of facilities engineering executives from major corporations complain the lack of interest by future generations to enter this career and witnessing first hand thousands of candidates braving 30˚F weather conditions to stand in line to earn a slot on American Idol, Leonard wrote the lyrics for “The Maintenance Crisis Song.”

Leonard says, “With the pending retirements of the baby boomer generation, the lack of interest by future generations, the aging of the current equipment which requires more maintenance, and the increasing sophistication of new technology, there is truly a perfect maintenance storm brewing.”

Leonard has recruited bands to re-record the song in various musical genres in order to attract more awareness to this issue. Current versions include the original garage band version, a blues, funk, hip hop and now an Operatic version entitled, “It’s a Serious Crisis: The Fat Lady is Warming Up!”

David Holley, who has sung in numerous opera companies in the US and Canada, lent his vocal cords to the project because he believes that many in our society do not appreciate the importance of maintenance. To make sure more attention is generated on this issue, Leonard plans to pursue a Grammy award with the release of a collection of maintenance crisis songs in various genres on the album entitled “Pipe Dreaming: Fix it or they will leave” early next year.

For free downloads of the operatic and other versions click here.