Bodies in Motion and Andrew McCrew

I gotta tell you that I am thoroughly disgusted with the "Bodies in Motion" exhibit currently at Union Station, featuring dead bodies (real dead bodies) plasticized into athletic positions. I really don't care to know much of the details about this. Just the idea makes my skin (real skin) crawl. As a recent letter to the editor to the KC Star said it..each of these bodies was somebody's mother or father, sister, brother, son or daughter. At least, however, I like Barb Shelly of the Star, thought that this exhibit was produced by some scientific organization, and these bodies had been given for scientific research. But as she wrote today (I see by internet--I am in Columbia for cabinet) she has found out that it is a for-profit organization that has put this thing on, and now there are suspicions about where these bodies have come from--maybe China, and maybe these were unclaimed bodies not willingly donated ones. It all feels fairly sick to me. It reminds me of the Don McLean song The Legend of Andrew McCrew from his Homeless Brother album...I am getting back to Don McLean after two decades of neglect on my part. Here are the lyrics, with no more comment from me. Try to find a copy of the song, because it is much more effective to hear wonderful Don sing this.

The lyrics site where I got these had this annotation:

The song is based on an authentic case. Andrew McCrew toured with the carnival, posthumously, for about 35 years. He was buried in 1973.That was when Don McLean read an article about him and wrote the song. When the song came out, someone stepped forward and donated a headstone on McCrew's previously unmarked grave. The fourth verse of the song is carved on the headstone. (Anyway, that's what Don McLean tells on the live album.)

The Legend of Andrew McCrew
There was a mummy at the fair,all crumpled in a folding chair.
The people passed, but didn't care

that the mummy was a man,
So tell me if you can

Chorus:
Who are you?
Who are you?
Where have you
been, where are you going to?
Well, Andrew McCrew must have lost his way
'Cause though he died long ago he was buried today.

Verse 1:
Down on nightmare alley,where the shady people sway
a hobo came a-hikin' on a salty summer day
Well he hopped a freight in Dallas,
and he rode out of sight
But on a turn he slipped, and he lost his grip
and he fell into the night.

Repeat Chorus
Verse 2:
Well, Andrew had one leg of wood, the other leg was small.
And when he fell off the train that night he found he had no legs at all.
Well they found him in the thicket, and the undertaker came.
And they mummified his body for a relative to claim.
Repeat Chorus
Verse 3:
But no one came to claim him, until the carnival passed through.
The carnies took him to their tent and they decided what to do.
Well they dressed him in a worn-out rags and they put him on a stand.
And millions saw the legend called the `famous mummy man'.
Repeat Chorus
Verse 4:
Well, what a way to live a life and what a way to die.
Left to live a living death with no one left to cry.
Petrified amazement, and wonder beyond words,
A man who found more life in death than life gave him at birth.
Repeat Chorus
Verse 5:
But what about the ones who live and wish that they could go.
Whose lives are lost to living and performing for the show.
Well at least you got the best of life until it got the best of you,
So from all of us to what's left of you
Farewell, Andrew McCrew.