---
title: "Flip Flop Phil"

meaning: "Open-mic portrait: staff accountant, Jethro Tull fan, silver flute at Aztec Brewing: gather the children round, then actual recording and keep on practicing."

year: 2020
release: "Masks and Monsters"
releaseType: "album"

artist: "Scoobert Doobert"
artistId: "#scoobert"

credits: "Written, performed, mixed, and mastered by Luke Francis Walton. Album art by Gentle Giant Illustrations."

spotify: "https://open.spotify.com/album/13zzM1QEnrvJ7kRwUGNIFw"
officialVideo: "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIYgvw62xUI"
apple: "https://music.apple.com/us/album/flip-flop-phil/1526427944?i=1526428029"

themes: ["Masks and Monsters", "character study", "open mic", "San Diego", "Jethro Tull"]

isrc: QZK6P2060453
isrcSource: soundexchange
lyrics: |
  A staff accountant
  King of the break room
  Know that he Excels
  Midlife crisis
  Looking at the prices
  Fan of Jethro Tull
  Picks a good one
  Silver rootin' toot one
  Pricy Yamaha
  Open mic night
  Gonna hit the bright lights
  Look at that man blow

  Flip flop Phil
  Don't be scared
  Play your music now
  Flip flop Phil
  Gather all the little children round
  We've all come to hear you play
  So let us dance and sing today
  With flip flop Phil
  Don't be scared
  Play your music, my friend

  Lets his hair down
  Picking out a tie dye
  Tucking in his jeans
  Finds a mirror
  Looking at a picture
  Ian Anderson
  Signs his name up
  Shaking as he writes it
  Pat him on the back
  Takes his flute out
  Lets a little toot out
  Look at that man blow

  Flip flop Phil
  Don't be scared
  Play your music now
  Flip flop Phil
  Gather all the little children round
  We've all come to hear you play
  So let us dance and sing today
  With flip flop Phil
  Don't be scared
  Play your music, my friend

  Actual recording
  Of
  Flip flop Phil playing his flute

  Flip flop Phil
  You probably should
  Keep on practicing

draft: false

---

Track eight on [*Masks and Monsters*](/albums/masks-and-monsters/): Luke solo, August 2020. Based on a man Luke met at an open mic night at Aztec Brewing in North County San Diego. Not pandemic-documentary like tracks one through seven, but the LP's appetite for local character comedy: a real person observed, then mythologized.

The portrait builds the flute purchase into a hero's journey. Phil is a *staff accountant, king of the break room*, who *Excels* (spreadsheet pun as identity), and whose midlife crisis runs on prog-rock longing and a pricy Yamaha. The chorus frames the open-mic crowd as a supportive fantasy, gathering *all the little children round* to hear him play, and verse two finds him backstage in tie-dye, studying a picture of Jethro Tull flautist Ian Anderson like a mirror idol, *shaking as he writes* his name on the signup sheet.

The outro breaks the bit with a meta tag (*actual recording of flip flop Phil playing his flute*) and then the honest coda: *you probably should keep on practicing*. Love and roast in one breath, the same grin-under-pressure as [*A Good Life*](/songs/a-good-life/) but aimed at a stranger at the bar. After [*Wash Your Fucking Hands*](/songs/wash-your-fucking-hands/), this is San Diego open-mic folklore on the pandemic record, North County outside North Park lockdown.

---