Off The Charts: The Song-Poem Story

Did you ever see that ad in the back of certain magazines that advertises: Write a hit song! Send us your poem and we'll put it to music!  I sure did and I was always fascinated and curious about what it was all about. I was pretty sure that it was just some sort of scam.

In the 1990's my friends and I actually wrote a nonsense song and sent it into one of those companies - lo and behold, we got back a letter stating that they really enjoyed the lyrics and would like to put it to music. All I had to do was pony up some money. Now I can't remember exactly how much they were asking for, but I do know that I wasn't about to send anyone money to record the lyrics I sent to them - afterall, it was a tune we wrote in just a few minutes that had made up words, and if I remember correctly, idolized Ava Gabor! After seeing "Off the Charts: The Song-Poem Story" I've come to regret that decision.

"Off the Charts: The Song-Poem Story" is a wonderful PBS produced documentary about the people that send in song poems and the musicians who record and send back the recorded music.  Director, Jamie Meltzer, dug deep and his research paid off. The film profiles several unique characters - some behind the pen and others behind the microphone.  All parties involved seem to have their heart in the process and everyone appears to get something out of it.

I watched the movie on my streaming Netflix account, but I was happy to discover that PBS uploaded the film to YouTube - so set aside an hour and get lost in some pretty unique "outsider" tunes. I look forward to hearing what you thought of the film. Leave a note in the comments area below.





Off The Charts Companion CD Soundtrack

The Day CRAP Came To Town

A glowing beacon of American ingenuity!



Thanks to FrownsUpsideDown for the upload to YouTube.

Eklips "History of Hip Hop"

From France, beatbox wizard EKLIPS lays down a four minute History of Hip Hop in a single take! See how many tunes you can identify.



This reminds me of an entry I made awhile back of Jeffrey Lewis' "History of Punk rock Pre-1975" - Watch it Here.

A nice selection of old school rap tunes on Amazon.

Sleigh Bells "Rill Rill"

It's always a red letter day when your new favorite band puts out their latest video! And "Red" is probably the best color to describe Sleigh Bells video for "Rill Rill" - not so much because of a cinematographer's palette, but more for an overall attitude. Red colored anger, vengeance and violence brews just underneath the Sleigh Bells' sepia and icy blue worlds. Alexis plays the role of scorned teenager and femme fatale to Derek's doomed boyfriend. Can rock and roll ultimately save him? Will it destroy her? I guess you'll just have to tune in to find out.

Wonder what your boyfriend thinks about your braces...



Also check out my entries for Sleigh Bells' "Infinity Guitars":  Official and Live

If you don't own this album you better get it now!

Bright Eyes "Haile Selasie"

I love anytime a great band gives you a free taste of a new album!  Here are two tracks, "Haile Selassie" and "Shell Games," from Bright Eyes' new album "The People's Key."

You have to enter your email address to get the free link to the song, but it's definitely worth it.

Applegirl "Poker Face"

What's not to love about Apple fan-girl Applegirl (Kim Yeo Hee) and her iPhone-rific version of Lady Gaga's "Poker Face"? She's truly a performer for our smartphone times!



Thanks to applegirl002 for the upload to YouTube.

Jackie Wilson "Lonely Teardrops"

Jackie Wilson's life ended on this day in 1984 after lying in a comatose state for eight years. A sad and terrible ending for a beautiful singer with the nickname of "Mr. Excitement."

Wilson's solo career produced nine hit singles including "Lonely Teardrops" - the song he is mostly known for. Reading up on Jackie's life on Wikipedia I was surprised by how tragedy followed him.  He had been shot twice, three of his children died at a young age, two by violent crime and finally, the onstage heart attack while performing his signature song that he managed to survive only to end up in a coma, and living in a vegetative state for the final years of his life.

My heart is fine, fine, lonely teardrops.
Why, they'll never dry up? Lonely teardrops.





Bonus video:  In 1985, The Commodores released "Nightshift" their tribute song to Jackie Wilson and Marvin Gaye - two legends who had died the year before.



          

Thanks to Tavikitty for the upload to YouTube

Ty Segall "It #1"

I can't seem to get enough of Ty Segall this month!  Here is a great performance of "It #1" from the "Lemons" album.   His wild one-man-band approach puts me in mind of Appalachian Mountain's rocker, Hasil Adkins.

Ty Segall:  MySpace and Tour Dates






Bonus Video:  Hasil Adkins performs his hit song "She Said."



          


Thanks to theamericanopry and soFeinVideo for the uploads to YouTube.

Ty Segall "I Wear Black"

Ty Segall puts sanity and logic aside and rocks this record store appearance version of "I Wear Black" out from the gut. The magic resides in that disturbing little tingle you sometimes feel climbing the back of your neck. Just because the venue supplies a microphone doesn't mean that you actually have to use it!

Once upon a time The Standells recorded "Sometimes Good Guys Don't Wear White" and today it's pretty clear who they were singing about!



Find Ty Segall on MySpace. And you can check out tour dates, Here.

Bonus video:  A seemingly "official" video for the tune:

Ty Segall & Mikal Cronin "I Wear Black" from Claire Marie Vogel on Vimeo.

Thanks to BillRoebot and Claire Marie Vogel for their uploads to YouTube and Vimeo.

Sage Francis "The Best of Times"

Spoken word artist and rapper, Sage Francis, takes us through a beautiful coming of age story highlighting the trials and tribulations, the highs and lows and the truths and lies of life.

It was beautiful, it was brutal, it was cruel,
It was business as usual,
Heaven, it was Hell,
I used to wonder if I'd live to see twelve. 


When I did I figured out I was immortal,
Loved to dance but couldn't make it to the formal,
Couldn't bare watching my imaginary girlfriend bust a move with any other dudes,
Tone Loc was talking about a wild thing,
I was still caught up in some child things,
Scared of a God who couldn't spare the rod,
It was clearly a brim-stone and fire thing,
Pyromaniac, kleptomaniac,
Couldn't explain my desire to steal that fire,
Now I add it to my rider,
Like "please don't please don't throw me in that patch of brier!"


It was the best of times, it was the end of times.
-Sage Francis


Sage Francis: Website, MySpace, Twitter, Facebook