A remarkable album written, performed and produced entirely by Jeff Cooper (1982 – 2007), a professional musician and massage therapy student, as a study aid and musical experience for his fellow students.
Born in Columbus, Ohio, Jeff joined his brothers David and Matthew in a relationship that would become so close he would call it "a unit." He soon exhibited a love for music as well as a gentle spirit. He assembled his first band, Yak, at the tender age of 11, and while the band was not an overnight success, he quickly became skillful and acquired a taste for performing. Soon he was playing with his older brother Matt and several of Matt's friends, who welcomed Jeff into their band although he was more than three years younger.
It soon became clear that Jeff was serious about his music, not because he dreamed of fame and fortune, but because he simply loved being part of a musical experience and sharing that joy with others. While a student at Thomas Worthington High School he learned of a music program at the Fort Hayes Career Center in Columbus. Studying at both schools during his last two years of high school, Jeff developed his skills and increased his musical knowledge in a more concentrated way.
Before long, his very first guitar teacher invited him to join The Patrick McLaughlin Band, a blues group that went on to place in the top five at the International Blues Festival in Memphis, Tennessee. While he loved blues, Jeff's musical tastes were eclectic; he and several friends, along with a veteran saxophonist, formed a band called Elephants Gerald, which was dedicated to combining old-style jazz with on-the- edge innovative jams. He performed with both bands for a number of years.
Searching for a career that would allow him flexibility to perform a useful service for others while continuing with his musical interests, Jeff decided to pursue a degree in massage therapy. Through high school and beyond, Jeff had worked at a retirement center, where he employed his natural tendency to be patient and understanding, so he was attracted to a career that would help others smile and relax through therapy as well as music.
After obtaining his degree, Jeff would need to pass the Ohio board exam before offering his massage therapy services to the public. Anatomy memorization had proven challenging for him and he knew that many of his classmates would also be stressed preparing for that exam, so Jeff decided to put together a musical memory aid that he could distribute to his entire class. Not content to write a few simple ditties, Jeff decided to produce a collection of more elaborate pieces in a variety of musical styles—a serious study aid that would also be an enjoyable musical experience.
He composed the music, developed the lyrics, and then added each instrumental and vocal track using equipment and instruments he had purchased through the years. Working in the wee hours of the morning following school, work and weekend gigs, Jeff produced 13 songs between January 3 and February 10, 2006. He used his brother's drum set to lay down the percussion track, then added his bass guitar (and sometimes his upright bass), rhythm and lead guitars, keyboards, vocals, and an extra track for harmony. Finally, he mixed the tracks using his own equipment. When he was finished, Jeff had personally created the entire recording.
A week or two before he started this project, Jeff began to have what he called "smell hallucinations" and déjà vu experiences. He chalked them up to stress since he had a very full plate and the unusual symptoms were vague and barely interfered with his hectic schedule. But a few months later, after suffering from headaches for several weeks, he sought medical help. During the Memorial Day weekend, a CAT scan revealed a rather large but operable brain tumor behind his right eye.
His doctors anticipated that Jeff's tumor would be benign, and in June he underwent lengthy surgery to remove it. Repeated lab tests eventually showed that the tumor was a malignant gliosarcoma, a rare and aggressive form of brain cancer. Before and after surgery and throughout a series of follow-up radiation treatments, Jeff maintained a positive attitude and his usual wacky sense of humor.
In October, he received more bad news: the surgery and radiation had not been nearly as successful as the doctors had hoped, and the prognosis was very discouraging. When he heard the grim news, Jeff said, "Well, I think I might have the kind of personality to handle this, and if I can do it well, then maybe I can help other people." He decided to have a second surgery to remove as much of the growing tumor as possible, and although that wouldn't cure him, it might prolong his life. Before surgery, Jeff hosted an all-night "tumor party" for his brothers and some 40 friends, and after the operation, he took chemotherapy to give himself as much time as possible.
Throughout the remaining months of his life, Jeff did exactly what he had promised. He handled every day of his illness with an amazing sense of calm, faith and love, providing an example of good living that is still being shared among those who spent time with him during his illness: the nurses who cared for him, his many friends and all of his extended family.
As Jeff demonstrated time and again, life is all about love and love never dies. We hope that, as you listen to this album, you will hear the love in his music.
Pectoral girdle is shoulder girdle
Look out, it’s the scapula and clavicle
Connect the upper limbs to the axial skeleton
The clavicle sits on anterior side
And the scapula lies just behind
Horizontally the clavicle lies
In the thorax, superior-anterior side
Above the first rib is that S-shaped bone
Stop touching me, go palpate your own
The clavicle only wants to articulate
It’s got its medial half convex and lateral concave
Medial end and sternum’s manubrium
Forming the joint sternoclavicular
But what the lateral end don’t know
Why it needs to articulate with scapula’s acromion
And the clavicle can’t figure out what’s the point
Of making the acromioclavicular joint
Right up close to the vertebral column
Big old (triangle) with two angles and three borders
Scapula extends from second to seventh ribs
Glenoid cavity articulates with humerus
Diagonal spine across scapula’s posterior
Lateral end of spine projects the process acromion
Has supra and infraspinous fossas
These are attachment points of those two muscles
Anterior surface of scapula
Coracoid process, muscles attach
Subscapular fossa of scapula
Attachment point for shoulder muscles
Scapular notch of scapula
Along superior border, for suprascapular nerve
Lateral end of clavicle
Is the conoid tubercle
Interior surface, medial end
Attachment for costoclavicular ligament.
Did you ever learn the concept of a reflex arc?
Spinal and cranial responses to changed environment
Somatic, autonomic are a part of it, too
Simplest type of pathway from your brain to L2
Of course it goes both ways, from the spinal cord to the brain
Any which way the components always stay the same
Receptors gotta come first now to sense the stimulus
Picked up by dendrites of a sensory neuron
Now the neuron tries to reach the threshold
Uses a generator potential to send its impulse
On to the first-order neuron along axon to CNS
To generate an action potential
Now comes integration, it’s the part I like best
All up in the gray matter inside the CNS
Sensory neuron synapses with a motor
But it probably won’t be a monosynaptic reflex arc at all
More likely consist of one or more interneurons
So go on little neurons, go on
Have you figured out what comes next, I’ll only tell you once
Impulses leave the CNS sending a motor neuron
To the effector that responds to the motor impulse
A somatic reflex if effector’s skeletal muscle
If effector muscle’s smooth, cardiac, or a gland
An autonomic reflex is at hand.
Brain stem has midbrain, pons, and medulla oblongata
Cerebrum over all of it, and in the back, the cerebellum
Diencephalon has thalamus and hypothalamus,
Epithalamus, and pineal gland
We’ll just learn what these parts do
Just the basics, the brain’s too complex
The midbrain regulates auditory and visual reflexes
Pons connects all these parts to one, one another
Along with medulla, pons controls your breathing
Medulla says to your body when to hiccup, swallow or cough
Oh hypothalamus, regulate the ANS
Feeding center, thirst center
And endocrine control through pituitary gland
The thalamus feels all the pain, the pressure, and temperature
The thalamus is also responsible for acquisition of knowledge and awareness
Cerebellum is for, well, it’s in control of posture and balance
It also coordinates all skeletal muscle contractions
What about cerebrum and association areas
Integrate information, speech and language
Pre and post-central gyrus, pre is motor, post is sensory
Pre-central is anterior to central sulcus in frontal lobe
Post-central is posterior to central sulcus in parietal lobe.
These are the muscles of the leg, and actions
Start with anterior compartment of the leg, anterior
Dorsiflex my foot at my ankle joint and help me extend my toes
Tibialis anterior, extensor hallucis longus,
Fibularis tertius, extensor digitorum longus
That was anterior compartment of the leg, anterior
Now let’s do the lateral compartment of the leg, lateral
Plantar flex my foot at my ankle joint and help me evert it too
Fibularis or (peroneus) longus, and fibularis brevis
The lateral compartment of the leg, innervated by deep fibular nerve
Anterior compartment by superficial fibular nerve
And in the posterior compartment, the tibial nerve
Posterior compartment of the leg, the superficial
Plantar flex my foot at my ankle joint and help me flex my leg
Gastrocnemius, plantaris, and soleus insert in calcaneus
That was posterior compartment of the leg, superficial
Now we’re gonna do posterior compartment of the leg, deep
Plantar flex my foot at my ankle joint and help me flex my leg
Tibialis posterior, flexor digitorum longus, flexor hallucis longus, and popliteus
These are the muscles of the leg, all the muscles
Don’t forget not to confuse the leg with the thigh.
Muscle tissue in three forms that move us
Generating heat or just to help us stand
Skeletal and smooth, even cardiac
Functional or structural, it all depends
Attaching to our bones mostly through tendons
Cylinders of fibers called skeletal muscle
Voluntary action that produces heat
These striated fibers lie parallel
Cardiac tissue forms the wall of the heart
Pumping blood we need all over
Striated tissue that we can’t control
With two nuclei in the center
The functional muscle, smooth, is spindle-shaped
Nonstriated fibers that we can’t control
Constricting all the blood vessels and airways
With a central nucleus, it’s thickest in the middle.
Well I know you can tell me what cells the epidermis has
Keratinocytes, Merkel, melanocytes, and Langerhans
But do you know just what these cells do?
Well I do and I’ll tell you through and through
Keratinocytes are the first cells I’m gonna tell you about
So just sit there and listen and drink your Guinness Stout
Ninety percent of your epidermal cells are keratinocytes
To get your keratin protein that keeps your skin lookin’ right
That’s right, it helps protects your skin and tissues
From heat and microbes and chemicals too
There’s these long, slender projections extended between the keratinocytes
That make a black-brown pigment that absorbs the mean ultra-violet light
Melanocytes extend between keratinocytes and then they transfer melanin granules to them
The granules cluster and form a protective veil over the nucleus, oh lord I hope you do it well
And now for the third cell that you need to know
They’re called Langerhans and arise from red bone marrow
Where do they go to become a small fraction of the epidermal cells?
Why the epidermis of course, now where the hell else?
They participate in immune responses, mounted against microbes that invade the skin
Way, way down, deep in the epidermis
Live the Merkel cells, well they’re the least numerous
They contact the flattened process
Of a sensory neuron, a structure called a tactile disc
Merkel cells and tactile discs detect different aspects of touch sensations
Now that you’ve heard all that you need to know, listen again, I’ll show you how to play piano.
Hear this with your ear
Transduce sound vibrations to electrical signals
Outer, mid, and inner
These three pars I know, interact together in a row so you can hear me
Outer ear consists of the pinna, external auditory canal, and eardrum
Pinna is elastic cartilage, auditory canal lies in temporal bone, and leads to the ear drum
Ear drum made of fibroblasts, elastic fibers, and collagen
You might hear the ear drum’s other name, tympanic membrane
Ah, hearing
Middle ear is air-filled
Two windows separate it from the inner ear, round and oval
Auditory ossicles contain incus, malleus, and stapes
Internal ear is the labyrinth
It’s all canals, but with two main divisions
Outer bony labyrinth, and labyrinth inner membranous lies within the bony one
With the vestibule just inside, I hope you won’t be inclined to lose your balance
Ah, hearing.
It’s not that I don’t love peaches or candied yams
But these foods mean nothing beyond their tin cans
Spaghetti is different though, I love it
Iliocostalis, longissimus, and spinalis
Iliocostalis group is most lateral and helps extend
The vertebral column or singly laterally flex
Iliocostalis cervicis, thoracis, and lumborum
Lumborum comes from iliac crest, inserts on six ribs inferior
Iliocostalis cervicis comes from superior six ribs
Inserts on transverse processes of C4 through 6
Thoracis comes from inferior six ribs and more
It inserts on six ribs superior
Erector spinae acronym can be your best friend, it goes
I Love Spaghetti
Iliocostalis, longissimus, spinalis lateral to medial
Longissimus group is intermediate and also extends
Capitis extends the head and unilaterally rotates it
Originate extends the head and unilaterally rotates it
Originates at transverse processes of T1 though T4
And articular processes of C4 through C7 insert on mastoid
Longissimus thoracis and cervicis exend the vertebral column
Cervicis originates on fourth or fifth thoracic transverse processes
Inserts on transverse process of C2 through C6
Thoracis from all lumbar vertebrae transverse processes
And inserts into transverse (processes) of all thoracic vertebrae
Also superior lumbar vertebrae and ninth to tenth ribs
Spinalis group is medial and just extends
The vertebral column of each muscle’s respective regions
Capitis arises with capitis semispinalis
Inserting on occipital bone, let me just tell you the rest
Cervicis comes from ligamentum nuchae
And spinous process of C7
Inserts into spinous process of the axis
Thoracis inserts into that of thoracic vertebrae
But we can’t forget the origin of thoracis
Superior lumbar and inferior thoracic vertebrae’s spinous processes.
Have you ever felt this world, all vibrating strings
We can’t live our lives without movement
Microsystems in a macro system
Wo Qi, give rise to Tai Qi
A continuum of energy and movement
Hard to talk about it, only hinting at it
Emptiness and unity, I feel it through love.
If your only approach to anatomy is rote memorization, you may be passing the tests, but missing the beauty, the awe, and all of the fun. And it’s also harder because you are only using half your brain. Jeffrey Cooper challenges the “mind is just a hard-drive to fill with data” approach to learning in this delightful CD entitled Anatomy and Physiology for the Working Student. Don’t let the rather dry title fool you. This musical approach to “what connects to what,” and “what on earth does this thing DO anyway?” is anything but dry, and appeals to any student who suspects there is a life beyond textbooks. Employing a variety of musical styles, this factual yet whimsical tour of the human body will help you learn the body parts - and really remember them, because you’ll know the stuff with both sides of your brain. These tunes will be running around inside your head long after the test is a distant memory. It’s a musical celebration of our inner workings that gives you another handle to help remember the details, and reminds you that the whole point is to enjoy life anyway.
David C. Homans, MD, FACC
Specialty: Cardiology
Chief of Medical Specialties, Park Nicollet Health Services
(Minneapolis, MN)
Clinical Associate Professor – University of Minnesota
I know absolutely nothing about either anatomy or physiology, but that only adds to my bottomless affection for Jeff Cooper’s Anatomy and Physiology for the Working Student, a fantastic and fantastically weird medical-textbook blues-funk jam that makes you wonder how you ever lived without songs called “Pectoral Funk” or “Muscles of the Leg.” He sings the word cerebellum like it’s the most beautiful word in the English language, because now it is. “Blue Epidermis” might be the best blues song of the past 50 years—it’s certainly the oddest, the goofiest, the most passionate and innovative. Anatomy is catchy, hilarious, and, of course, educational, but above all, it’s simply inspiring.
Rob Harvilla
Culture Editor,
Deadspin
(formerly the Music Editor for Village Voice, and Executive Editor
for SPIN magazine)
From a musical standpoint, Jeff Cooper’s Anatomy and Physiology for the Working Student is complex and soulful. The amazing aspect of this album is that from healthcare perspective the content is just as brilliant—I can appreciate Jeff’s genius both as a musician and a nurse practitioner. A & P for the Working Student was especially pertinent and valuable for me in my advanced physical assessment class; serving not just as a technically accurate reference but also as a welcomed break from flashcards, textbooks, and lectures. After just a few times of listening to the CD while following along with Jeff’s lyrics, I found myself subconsciously reviewing the songs while assessing my patients. A & P for the Working Student is an invaluable resource for healthcare professionals, students, and music lovers alike.
Matthew Price MS, RN, CNP, ONP-C, RNFA
Columbus, Ohio
