Off the Charts: The Song-Poem Story airs as part of Independent Lens on many PBS stations tonight (check local listings). You can enter a contest to have have your poem set to music.
Liner notes and MP3s from the The American Song-Poem Anthology CD (which includes some of the songs heard in the documentary) are online at the extensive American Song-Poem archives site. It calls excellent blogger Kate Sullivan's LA Weekly article "an especially thoughtful feature on song-poem music in general."
Kate writes:
...the dingiest outpost of the record industry: the "song-poem," or "demo" business. "Song-sharking" may be its most accurate label. You know, those outfits that advertise in the backs of tabloids: "Poems Wanted for Recording Consideration," "Earn royalties!" "Poems Wanted for Songs & Records!"
Naive would-be poets sent in their lyrics — and a fee (nowadays around $100 to $400), expecting entrée to the music business, maybe even a hit song. What they got, instead, was a cheap-ass recording of their words set to music — usually recorded in four or five minutes. One take.
If they were very lucky, Rodd Keith, who worked for several song-poem companies in the '60s and '70s, had composed the accompanying melody and arrangement. In his hands, leaden, awkward poetry sometimes achieved a kind of transcendence; he could actually extract the original intent of the writer, it seemed — or else make something far more interesting, at risk of offending the customer. On "I'm Just the Other Woman," Keith sang in a woman's falsetto over a piano recording played backward. The lyricist demanded a new version.
The liner notes for "I Died Today," a CD of Keith's music are oline as well as a transcript and the audio of a seventeen-minute story his son did for This American Life.
Article comments
1 - Bobby Moffitt
She's Worth Fighting For
She's been called Old Glory
Some call Her Stars and Stripes
She's called the Star Spangled Banner
By Her people of many types
She's survived Indian arrows
Cannons from ships of old
Leading the US Cavalry
On horses they fought so bold
She's Worth Fighting For
She's Worth Fighting For
They Call Her Old Glory
And She's Worth Fighting For
She's traveled across the oceans
Survived bombs and enemy tanks
She held Her stripes up proudly
As they bombed Pearl Harbor's banks
She's been to the Moon, Korea, Viet Nam
She has went
With liberty and justice for everyone
That's why she was sent
She's Worth Fighting For
She's Worth Fighting For
They Call Her Old Glory
And She's Worth Fighting For
She's went to the Persian Gulf
The world called Her once more
To help free Kuwait
On the Saudi Arabia Shore
While soldiers fought so bravely
On the battlefield She did fly
They supported Her in combat
For Her many did die
She's Worth Fighting For
She's Worth fighting For
They Call Her Old Glory
And She's Worth fighting For
By jet planes her people were attacked
Through the Nation they did cry
New York's Twin Towers fell to the ground
From dust and ashes She Did Fly!
Today she will fly in Battle
in Iraq she will go
To help free the people
from a very evil foe
She proudly covers Her heroes
presented to families so proud
Though their hearts will be broken
When the rifles salute so loud
She has called all Americans
To fight for Her today!
So ask God to bless our flag
And bless the USA
She's Worth Fighting For
She's Worth Fighting For
They Call Her Old Glory
And She's Worth Fighting For
Author: Bobby J Moffitt Jr.
3025 Stearns
Wichita Falls, Tx 76301
Former US Marine (Viet Nam Vet ) , Former Deputy Sheriff from Forth Worth, TX.
Please pass this poem on to all who love our flag and country!