Song Poems: Money + Music = Weird

The life of a song poem is generally short. While major pop songs enter chart listings and affect the consciousness of the culture, sometimes for decades, a song poem is more like a brief firefly of a song existing only for the time it takes the songwriter to pay the composer. Then the song poem is shipped off to the songwriter and fades into relative obscurity.

Song Poems begin as an add in the back of a magazine, this add is placed by a composer and recording studio, who is looking to lure in a "poet" who might be willing to pay between $200-$400 to have their song produced. The add above is one of many which have sunk into the back of magazines and comics since the mid 1960s. The main target for such an advertisement is a person who fancies them-self to be a song writer, but may not have the access, money, or (lets face it) talent to achieve a career as a songwriter. The American Song-Poem Music Archive has a number of great articles about the history of the song poems, although their archive of the poems seems to be somewhat unreliable (ie: broken links). Another valuable resource is the recent documentary funded by PBS, Off The Charts: The Song-Poem Story However, I am going to provide you with a little taste of a few of my favorite song poems.

One of the earliest and most successful recording artists for song poems was Rodd Keith, a very prolific artist, who made his living and his legacy off the lyrics of nameless Americans. One of the early and great Keith recordings is The Hump Dance It has some very risque intonations for a 1960s non pop ballad. I wonder what exactly the songwriter meant by hump? Was this song a very early precursor to the Humpty Hump?

Maybe all the song poems are simple directions of our nation's consciousness, working like little CV radios which pick up the broadcasts from larger stations. A later song I am particularly fond of is Jimmy Carter Says Yes recorded by Gene Marshal. This song has a patriotic country feel, but it is decidedly left wing and outdated. I love it for all those reasons. I am particularly fond of the first-person speech uttered by Gene Marshall speaking as Jimmy Carter. He promises to run the government "without sin or any corruption" and "stand tall like old glory, faithful to the Republic." I listened to this song on election day, dreaming of the year before my birth, 1979, the last year of Jimmy's rein in office.

Finally, I am moving into the present moment of song poems. I have to admit, that the songs being written by Caglar Juan Singletary are my favorite hands down. Calgar is a featured writer on the PBS documentary, who listed his song influences as: Jesus, Martial Arts, Ladies, and Science Fiction. His song, Non-Violent Taekwondo Troopers may seem a bit incomprehensible at first, but after about five listenings you may discern a very intricate science fiction plot involving Pricilla Presley, Kung-Fu, Jesus Christ, and a animatronic bicicle named Angelaria. I can not fully describe what is happening in this masterful piece of music, but please listen with care, it might blow your mind.