Audio-Visuals
OFF THE CHARTS: THE SONG-POEM STORY
Directed by Jamie Meltzer
(Shout!)
If you've read a comic book or magazine in the last 40 years, you've seen the ads, trumpeting a variation on the following: "We need YOUR poems to turn into hit songs! Co-write with established musicians and earn lots of royalties! Start a career in the music business!" All for a fee, of course. You'd think anyone with half a brain would immediately see this as a scam, yet hundreds of thousands of people have sent in their lyrics and their checks. And, god help us, had their words put to music and issued as records.
Interviewing key players, lyricists and fans, Jamie Meltzer documents this phenomenon in his film Off the Charts: The Song-Poem Story. Writers like Gary Forney, Nilson V. Ortiz and Caglar Juan Singletary talk about the inspirations behind their music. (Forney: "I write about things that concern me: my wife, my son, my daughter, my care, my dog—I might say 'Aliens stole my dog' to make it interesting.") Musicians Art Kaufman, Ramsey Kearney and Gene Merlino (the so-called "King of the Demo Singers") relate how they got into the business and what a steady paycheck it can be. Kaufman even demonstrates the process of turning a set of lyrics into a song, as he reads Ortiz's poem "The Thing," writes the music produces a recording in the space of 48 minutes. The sardonic Merlino is a particular treasure in this regard; not only do we see him recording several strange tunes (including "Be My Shark:" "This gall fell in love with a shark—how kinky can you get?"), but he reminisces freely, from the oddball songs he's record over the years to his days as a backup singer for Elvis, Sinatra and the Grammy-winning Anita Kerr Singers. Possessed of a fine baritone, he does his best to make these sometimes quirky, often outright demented, sets of words sound musical. He's been doing it for decades, and it shows.
Of course, no documentary on song-poems would be complete with looks at two famous names: John Trubee and Rodd Keith. Trubee is, of course, the scribe behind the infamous "Blind Man's Penis" ("A blind man's penis is erect because he's blind"), which was, unsurprisingly, written in an attempt to provoke a reaction from organizations he saw as scam artists. Imagine his surprise when his entry was accepted and recorded by Kearney, who admits embarrassment about it now. The late Keith was one of the most prolific of the demo artists, using his Chamberlin keyboard and mellifluous singing to turn himself into a one-man-band that enabled him to record hundreds of these daffy ditties. His son, jazz saxist and song poem collector Ellery Eskelin, matter-of-factly explains his fascination with Keith's music: "I never met my father. It's all I've got."
As the stories and experiences of performers and writers unfolds, you might think the point is to smirk at these idiots who paid good money for a quickie song by a hack composer, but a very different picture emerges. Sure, some of the writers are a bit deluded. Middle-aged Iowan Forney thinks so highly of his own lyrics he decides to become a performer, regardless of his utter lack of singing ability, and Singletary is obviously mentally impaired in some way. (When asked what he writes about, Singletary calmly replies, "Martial arts, the ladies, and religion"—his composition "Non-Violent Taekwondo Troopers" incorporates all three.) But other lyricists have no illusions. Senior citizens Jo Comberiate (who has an entire album dedicated to her material) and Van Garner (whose country songs "Lonely Town" and "Nighttime Whispers" aren't half bad) know perfectly well they're not going to become rich and famous—both make it clear they do it purely to express themselves. NRBQ drummer Tom Ardolino, probably the most infamous proponent of the song-poem, points out that "Most of 'em are writin' it from their hearts, somethin' that's gotta come out of 'em." Even Singletary and Forney, whatever they may think of their actual chances of a career, write what they write because they have something to say, even if no one else understands it. The song-poem may not be particularly listenable, but it could be argued that it is an American art form. The companies may be in the business of taking naïe folks' money, but those folks take advantage of the opportunity for genuine self-expression. Not everybody gets that chance. That gives this documentary an aura of hope. If "I am a Ginseng Digger" can be recorded, anything is possible.
The DVD is particularly rich with extras, including the full 10 minute performance by Iowa Mountain Tour (the duo Forney formed with his son), several full-length studio performances by Merlino and his musicians, some deleted scenes, a look at the premier party (featuring performances by Art Kaufman and John Trubee) and a great ad gallery with commentary. Plus there's Columbine Records Presents: America Sings!, a garish, mindbogglingly awful song-poem variety show from the very early 80s that will cause your cerebral cortex to implode. Off the Charts: The Song-Poem Story is one of the best documentaries you'll have the pleasure to see, and a guaranteed good time. Michael Toland [buy it]
