Lifetime Achievement Award

Lifetime Acheivement Award
Song
Artist	Lemon Demon
Released	2016
Written by	Neil Cicierega
Appears on	Spirit Phone
Sung by	Neil Cicierega
Duration	6:07
Tempo	154
Genre	Pop
Language	English
Links:	Bandcamp Needlejuice Bandcamp YouTube Spotify

Lifetime Acheivement Award is the first track on Spirit Phone. The album opens with white noise that Neil, in the Spirit Phone Commentary, explains is a ghost that returns throughout the album at times. Early versions of the song were titled "Experiments in the Revival" before Neil settled on the title, which is a reference to a 1940's Soviet film called Experiments in the Revival of Organisms. Also within the commentary, Neil explains the meaning of the lyrics:

"...I got this whole song about creepy scientists reviving dead musicians, reviving them straight into new contracts like performing animals. This song idea goes back to 2012, when there was that whole, I guess scandal about the hologram version of Tupac... remember that? I barely remember that, but, anyway, the early 2010's is where this song was born. And the references to Michael Jackson's death and to Katy Perry sort of date it, but not too badly, 'cause Katy Perry's still doing her thing and Michael Jackson's still dead."

Lyrics

Die-hard fans adored your hands
They loved your throat and, quote-unquote, "you"
Hey, remember Michael Jackson?
Michael Jackson really happened
Delta Echo Alpha Delta
Walking on the moon forever

You are dead and buried, you are dead (Oh no)
That's being revised!
Even as we speak we're synthesizing blood and organs
Synthesizing heart and soul
Even Katy Perry knows you're dead (Oh no)
Won't she be surprised!
When we get your heart to start tomorrow
When you see the chart tomorrow you'll be number one

Bro, you look amazing!
Really put together
It's like you haven't aged a day
It's like we know what we're doing or something
You've been gone for way too long
Like half a year - an entire career for some
Good luck getting into Heaven
If you live past twenty-seven
Listen to the radiation
Put you back in circulation, oh no!

You are dead and buried, you are dead (Oh no)
Oh, but you never died!
Even as we speak we're synthesizing blood and organs
Synthesizing heart and soul
Ain't no cemetery you can't shed (Oh no)
Ain't nowhere you can hide!
Don't be frightened of us
Soon enough you're gonna love us, just remember

This is your last ride ever, forever
Fill up your lungs - feel better?
Look - it's you, good as new
New hands, new throat, new living tissue
You earned this new purpose
Lifetime achievement award

Don't be nervous, baby
We put a billion eyes back on you
From the grave to the stage
You're unnatural, babe!

You are dead and buried, you are dead (Oh no)
That's being revised!
Even as we speak we're synthesizing blood and organs
Synthesizing heart and soul
Even Katy Perry knows you're dead (Oh no)
Won't she be surprised!
When we get your heart to start tomorrow
When you see the chart tomorrow you'll be number one
(Oh no, oh no)

Due to my strong personal convictions
(Due to my strong personal convictions)
I wish to stress (I wish to stress)
That this record (That this record)
In no way endorses (In no way endorses)
A belief in the occult (A belief in the occult)
Due to my strong personal convictions
(Due to my strong personal convictions)
I wish to stress (I wish to stress)
That this record (That this record)
In no way endorses (In no way endorses)
A belief in the occult (A belief in the occult)
Due to my strong personal convictions
(Due to my strong personal convictions)
I wish to stress (I wish to stress)
That this record (That this record)
In no way endorses (In no way endorses)
A belief (A belief)
In the occult

Trivia

• The lyric "You're unnatural, babe!" is a pun/wordplay on "You're a natural, babe!"
• The robot-sounding voice within the song is an Atari speech synthesis program outputting vocals that Neil broke up into different syllables to form words.
• However, the voice at the end of the song, although robot-like, is Neil reciting a Michael Jackson quote from the beginning of the "Thriller" Music Video, changing "Film" to "Record." This same quote can be found on the inside of the CD versions produced by Needlejuice Records.
• Two early versions were released as a part of the 2024 rarities dump. First version, second version.