[Dean's World] Dean: Since I'm On A Schoolhouse Rock Kick...

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Posted by Dean:
Since I'm On A Schoolhouse Rock Kick...
http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1152348864.shtml


   I know the preamble to the Constitution by heart entirely because I
   had this song memorized by the age of 8:

   [EMBED]

   It gets my vote as the most beautiful of all the Schoolhouse Rock
   songs (although "3 is a Magic Number" is a very close second). Who'd
   have thought you could actually put those majestic words to song and
   have it sound so wonderful?

   By the way, that does bring up one big bone I have to pick with the
   producers of [1]this otherwise wonderful DVD package. They have a
   well-done documentary on there about the making of these great kid's
   cartoons, and give a lot of well-deserved credit to [2]Bob Dorough and
   to [3]Dave Frishberg, two stellar composers and occasionally great
   singers, and to irrepressable jazz singer [4]Jack Sheldon ("I'm Just A
   Bill" and "Conjunction Junction"). Yet somehow in all that extra
   material they managed to neither interview nor even say much about
   [5]Lynn Ahrens?!? I don't suggest it was sexism that caused that--if
   they were so sexist they never would have given her so much freedom to
   create and perform those songs in the first place--but how could you
   overlook someone who's been nominated for twelve Tony awards for her
   work on Broadway (and won one), and who composed, and often sang, such
   great ditties as "The Preamble," "Interjections!" (show excitement, or
   emotions, hallelujah yeah! Darn that's the end!"), "A Noun Is A Person
   Place Or Thing," "Interplanet Janet," "No More Kings," "Elbow Room,"
   and "The Great American Melting Pot?" Come on guys, you were totally
   lame not to say one word about her.

   I suppose most of my readers over the age of about 45 have no idea why
   I love this stuff, and ditto for those under about 30. But man, if
   you're an American in my demographic, I know you remember these songs
   as one of the best things about Saturday morning.

References

   1. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00005JKTY/qid=1152348756/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/102-3015544-1969702?s=dvd&v=glance&n=130/deansworld01-20
   2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Dorough
   3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Frishberg
   4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Sheldon
   5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynn_Ahrens