Bumper Music- Let's Work Together!

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Bill in Santa Fe
This listener is in the

This listener is in the minority, I guess. I'm the same age (actually about three months older) than Elvis Presley [would be if he were still with us], so I was a teen-ager when the "rock n roll" fad began. I never liked it. Thudding overbearing mechanical rhythm (borrowed at the time from country-western) and a thin and colorless melodic pallette, coupled with apparently intenetional incomprehensibility, make it sound like just noise to my ears. It was that way when I first heard it 60 years ago, and my opinion hasn't changed. 

Now I like jazz, good jazz, and always have. This, to me, is musical, not raucous. I admit to liking the swingers (Miller, Goodman, Shaw, Waller, Armstrong and a host of similar stars of a past generation) more than, say, Monk and some of the far-out bopsters. However, I appreciate the esoterica of Keneton and Gillespie, and quite a few of the lesser lights of their ilk. Les Paul's electric guitar work is a joy to hear, but the so-called "rock bands" perverted the instrument, in my opinion. 

In the same way, folk music has always held a special place in my mussical pantheon. Woody Guthrie, Leadbelly and even slicker groups like The Kingston Trio and The Limelighters stayed true to the musical standards. 

Maybe it was the fact that the performers surrendered so completely to drugs -- and drugs became so much more powerful than what some (not all) of the pop muicisns of the 30s, 40s and 50s used. Most important, I suspect, was the move by record and concert promoters to position this kind of entertainment as the "new norm" of popular music -- and the kids (my own contemporaries!) to go along with this idea. 

It's only fair of me to say that I grew up with "classical" music as a part of my sonic education. Not an ivory-tower sort of thing, but in those days it was part of everyday life. Radio then was far more homogenized than it is today: almost every station did a little of everything, from news to drama to pop to classical music. Early television began with the same broad vision. This is where I got my standards for music -- standards that apply to popular as well as "serious" music, and that are crubling every day, it seems.

Today, as most of us in the trade are aware, broadcasters have specialized and partitioned the programming. The result is that the bad get worse and the good starve on the vine and die. You can't help thinking of H.L. Menken's famous observation that "nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American people." 

So, to address the question of bumper music on the Thom Hartmann Program (or any program, whether talk or whatever), I would simply ask and suggest, don't play ugly music. Don't scream and yell from the turntable or tape  deck any more than you would yell and scream at us through the live mnicrophone. It's bad manners, to be basic about it. In a broadcasting career myself, over some half a century from which I am financially retired now (though I still dabble), I've tried to live by the vision that a radio (or television) station is a guest invioted into the listener's home or car. As a guest, one should behave properly, be courteous, show respect. 

Let me hasten to say, and truthfully as well, that I have never heard you, Thom, behave on the air as anything less than a gentleman. Now and then a very irritated one, but never boorish or bad-tempered. It's just not a thing that a thoughtful progressive individual would do. And you don't. Once in a while, when a caller exhibits bad manners, you have to cut him off peremptorily -- but you have never been crude about it that I have heard (unlike a certain Faux News star whose first name, alas, I share). Sometimes, let's face it, you have rather abruptly chopped a caller who disagrees with your reasoned positions and spouts the current talking points of the regressive right; but that happened, as often as not, when a break intruded on your time. We all live by the clock in radio, and it's a tyrant that even the most liberal cannot defeat. 

In summary, at last, I may be part of that dying breed, the truly conservative type who believes in the liberal ideas that made our society what it is today. I respect, as I believe you do, too, the thinking of nominally Republican figures like Theodore Roosevelt, who took after the robber barons like charging up San Juan Hill (if we only had him here today!) and Abraham Lincoln, who turned the Southern Democrats into regressives to the right of just about everybody for almost a century by using the power of big government to take their black chattel property from them in a most precipitous manner.  As you have noted, the current regressive crop are destroying their own edifice of capitalism by perverting it into Randian selishness. A capitalist, you might suggest, is Andrew Carnegie giving people libraries -- not a Gingrich/Grinch or Ryan closing their schools so they become ignorant peons.

.........................................................................Bill in Santa Fe

\

 

 

 

 

jameskeelo
jameskeelo's picture
Hey there. You just used some

Hey there. You just used some of my music as the in bump for the programme! How very cool. Thanks for putting it to work.

cheers

James Keelaghan, House of Cards

lipwak
lipwak's picture
Please, please! The

Please, please! The relatively new Crazy Alert noise (It is not music by any stretch of the imagination and I love all kinds of sounds) is awful. Truly awful. Painful. Please change it. I have to have the mute on for just about ALL of your music beds cuz they're too jarring or we've heard them a million times but the Crazy Alert is 100 times worse. Crazy? Yes. But you want us to listen to the show, right? Thanks.

miksilvr
In honor of the Grouchy Old

In honor of the Grouchy Old Party convention happening this week in Tampa :

SEND IN THE CLOWNS - Judy Collins

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGekq3Jt5Go 

... what a pair of flippers, Willard and Eddie ...

Two possible starting points of many : Either the opening lyrics; or around the 2:30 mark of this recording :

"But where are the clowns ... quick, send in the clowns ... don't bother, they're here !"

(careful, though, i've heard of minor league baseball organ or piano players being ejected by umpires for playing this when the umps came on the field or blew a call)

-----------------------------------------------------------------

The opening of "The Twilight Zone" theme (with Rod Serling speaking) :

Twilight Zone intro.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzlG28B-R8Y 

...

a palatable modern instrumental remix of the theme :

"The TWILIGHT ZONE" THEME

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZwfk2OYBnA 

-----------------------------------------------------------------

if you have access to someone who can make one of those song parody things on short notice, how about turning Paul Simon's "Slip Slidin' Away" into "Flip Flopping Away" for Mitt and Ryan ?  This could be used anywhere from this week til election day.

Paul Simon - Slip Slidin' Away + lyrics 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_H-LY4Jb2M

or you can just use this verse beginning at the 2:50 mark as is, which describes how our situation would end up under the R and R and Koch brothers administration : 

God only knows
God makes his plan
The information's unavailable
To the mortal man
We're working our jobs
Collect our pay
Believe we're gliding down the highway
When in fact we're slip slidin' away

Slip slidin' away
Slip slidin' away
You know the nearer your destination
The more you're slip slidin' away

-----------------------------------------------------------------

maybe more later, my breakfast is getting cold.

Pythagorian
Pythagorian's picture
I have been listening to

I have been listening to Odetta's cover of Dylan's Master of War. It is haunting.

miksilvr
Talk about hypnotic ... check

Talk about hypnotic ... check out the bass in this song, a present from "Silent No More" in the TH chat room earlier this spring :

William Orbit - Water From A Vine Leaf 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H59G6GFTahI 

many parts of the song work, from the opening on ... take your pick, although i am most partial to the opening (love that bass track ... crank it up ! ) and the vocals where Beth Orton is singing the "release me, let me go" part ... ooohhhh, what a sexy voice ! ; and that background sound, too.  The electric piano has some of the best sounds i've heard in this type of music.

other songs from William Orbit can be found on youtube, which also might be nice bumpers.

David Dornbusch
David Dornbusch's picture
Last week several artists got

Last week several artists got together to record a song that hits Mitt Romney’s 180 degree shift from liberal to Tea Party lines, and his unreliability to hold those or any views. We are not looking for any financial or promotional benefit. We only want to get this song out there and heard by as many people as possible. Please take a listen and if you like it, play it as often as you like. We are releasing all rights to this song/video so as many people as possible can enjoy it. If you do decide to play it or distribute it in any way, all that we ask is to let us know so we can follow its reach. Here are links to the song and a video we made to the song.  If you'd like the lyrics, email me at ddornbusch@msn.com and I'll send them. Song: https://www.box.com/s/13f8f712a05d762f6b08Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SipSfIpf23I 

David Dornbusch
David Dornbusch's picture
Last week several artists got

Last week several artists got together to record a song that hits Mitt Romney’s 180 degree shift from liberal to Tea Party lines, and his unreliability to hold those or any views. We are not looking for any financial or promotional benefit. We only want to get this song out there and heard by as many people as possible. Please take a listen and if you like it, play it, and distribute it as widely as possible. We are releasing all rights to this song/video so as many people as possible can enjoy it. If you do decide to distribute it in any way, all that we ask is to let us know so we can follow its reach. Here are links to watch the video and download the song (lyrics are below). Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SipSfIpf23ISong: https://www.box.com/s/13f8f712a05d762f6b08

pgoodma57
pgoodma57's picture
I don't know how much of the

I don't know how much of the contuseable useable but Ry Cooder has a new election year oriented album called "Election Special". A couple of the songs are Mutt Romney and Going to Tampa!

bamboo
bamboo's picture
When Bradley Manning's lawyer

When Bradley Manning's lawyer said he didn't know who the US Government was going to put on trial because his clients mind was almost gone Grahm Nash picked up his pen and composed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywFTvC3JUKY


Locked up in a white room, underneath a glaring light
Every 5 minutes, they’re asking me if I’m alright
Locked up in a white room naked as the day I was born
24 bright light, 24 all alone

What I did was show some truth to the working man
What I did was blow the whistle and the games began

Tell the truth and it will set you free
That’s what they taught me as a child
But I can’t be silent after all I’ve seen and done
24 bright light I’m almost gone, almost gone

Locked up in a white room, dying to communicate
Trying to hang in there underneath a crushing wait
Locked up in a white room I’m always facing time
24 bright light, 24 down the line

What I did was show some truth to the working man
What I did was blow the whistle and the games began

But I did my duty to my country first
That’s what they taught me as a man
But I can’t be silent after all I’ve seen and done
24 bright light I’m almost gone, almost gone
(Treat me like a human, Treat me like a man )

http://stopwar.org.uk/index.php/media/anti-war-songs/1011-graham-nash-a-james-raymond-almost-gone

miksilvr
From a guy named "Rocky

From a guy named "Rocky Mountain Mike", here is a link for his tune called "Right Wing Troll Boy" ... sung to the tune of Glenn Campbells "Like a Rhinestone Cowboy". I heard this on today's Stephanie Miller Show.  They liked it so much they played it again later in the show.  I think it will be a hit with the people on Thom's radio show, the message board, and especially in the chat room.

http://soundcloud.com/mike-in-raleigh/right-wing-troll-boy 

...

here is the tweet from Rocky Mountain Mike himself :


For the trolls, who really are pathetic. New and improved. "Right Wing Troll Boy" (audio) 

bar1char
bar1char's picture
Here are two of my songs that

Here are two of my songs that I hope you'll consider:

"What Do They Want In Return? (These Millionaires)": http://soundcloud.com/bar1char/what-do-they-want-in-return

"(I'm Voting Democratic Because) I Have A Memory": http://soundcloud.com/bar1char/im-voting-democratic-because-i

Barry Davis

818-300-1295

 

MITTallica
MITTallica's picture
SCHMUCK IN A PICKUP TRUCK

SCHMUCK IN A PICKUP TRUCK --my new song parody of Sen. Scott Brown (R- Wall St.)

hey, our new song is up:

'SCHMUCK IN A PICKUP TRUCK' --a parody of Sen. Scott Brown (R- Wall St.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPoQHXDquEk&feature=plcp)

Scott Brown drove a truck around Massachusetts, and got himself elected senator, aka 'Wall St.'s Senator.' He's Mitt Romney's main fellow Massachusetts Republican ...and a top Mitt supporter.

--After our MITTallica 'Enter Sandman' version w/ Mitt-based lyrics and metal singing (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSh3ryMu6RM&feature=relmfu), here's our  Unplugged C&W song. Please share it with people in MA, where he's running for reelection this year.
[twitter: @mittallica1;facebook.com/mittallica ...for other parodies]
LYRICS:
Well, Scott Brown snuck a win
just by acting in
an old ride. Said he's moderate,
voting conglomerate
-the banks' side.

CHORUS: He's just a schmuck,
in a pickup truck...
Fresh outta luck,
but boy, I like that truck. --Senator from Wall St.,
rest of us ain't got a thing to eat.
Let's get unstuck from this dang schmuck.

Centerfolds flip with ease,
says he's fresh but he's--
a corporate tool. Offered his daughters
while his bank marauders,
break all the rules.

CHORUS: He's just a schmuck,
filling rich men's cups...
When he's just
the 1% chump. --You know he's just a politician,
carrying their gold, bet he's itching. ...The work he ducked,
I'm gonna miss that truck.

-----About 'Offered his daughters': the night he won, he said his two daughters were 'available,' single.
-----About 'centerfolds': he posed nude in Cosmopolitan decades ago. 

iannick
iannick's picture
Have I got tracks for you!!

Have I got tracks for you!!  My latest is very topical to the current election (or rather, what's been missing from this election - climate change, liberty and government accountability).  It's the first track off my first and forthcoming album, being produced in Nashville with some serious A-list talent.  http://www.ianrhett.com/saygoodbye/

Two other tracks you might like: "(Didn't Know I Was) Unamerican" which is the first song I ever recorded. http://www.sharedvoice.org/unamerican/

And "(What Kind of) Amazing Grace" - http://www.sharedvoice.org/grace/

I can send high quality MP3 or other format. Please let me know if you use any of these! It would be an honor!

./ian 

delbridge
delbridge's picture
I have a suggestion for

I have a suggestion for bumper music.   You can view the video on youtube by going to "Black Man Livin in the White House"

video by bentamanda.   If you like the music, contact me and I will send just the music by email.   Thank you for your newsletter

and your commentary.   Keep up the good work.

Bruce Delbridge

thesnideone
thesnideone's picture
"Number One In America" by

"Number One In America" by David Massengill.  "In some far off, distant dawn....when a black is President and not a pawn......will they burn crosses on the White House lawn.....and talk of all those days bygone?

burkelm1
burkelm1's picture
This is a nice little tribute

This is a nice little tribute to Romney & Ryans flip flopping and lying we recorded. Hopefully it will only be relevant till the elections but in the mean time we would love for some people to hear it. http://www.thepresidentoftheunitedstatesisablackmanfromchicago.com/music...

Treydot
Treydot's picture
How about using Midnight

How about using Midnight Oil's "Beds are Burning" for environmental segments?

Prune Picker
Prune Picker's picture
A great song to play between

A great song to play between segments is "Long Time A-Comin'" by Jody Stecher, from his "Wonders and Signs" album (2012).  It's simple but it covers taking away the new deal, taxes that the rich used to pay, living wage, jury trial, and also mentions raising the CEOs' pay.  This is a perfect song for Thom!

Lisa Mann
Lisa Mann's picture
I am a blues/ blues-rock

I am a blues/ blues-rock artist based in Portland, OR, and a former Peak Oil activist.  Currently we hold the Cascade Blues Association's Contemporary Blues Act of the Year award, as well as Female Vocalist of the Year and Bass Player of the Year.  We also won the Portland Music Award for Outstanding Achievement in Blues.

I have a song called "Kings of Black Gold" with the chorus, "We sold our soul to the Kings of Black Gold." and lyrics about our dwindling oil supply and our collectively delusional national attitude about it.

I'd be happy to send a copy of this song via the web, or mail a hard copy of the disc if you would like to use it for bumper music when discussing peak oil or other energy issues.

Thanks, Thom, and we miss you here in Portland!!  Save KPOJ!!

 

Lisa

cworld646
cworld646's picture
I noticed that you have Five

I noticed that you have Five O'Clock World by the Vogues.  I'd like to request You're the One by the Vogues as It was my husband's  and my song when we were dating (married 45 years).   Thanks!

LisB
LisB's picture
Best song I ever heard about

Best song I ever heard about America's violence and gun control. Smart, moving. I hope it makes it on the show. Cheryl Wheeler's "If It Were Up To Me"  http://cherylwheeler.com/songs/iiwutm.html

Ira Liss
Ira Liss's picture
For music on Thom Hartmann's

For music on Thom Hartmann's show, may I suggest a song called, Wall Street Banker written and performed by myself. I realize this suggestion would perhaps be taken more seriously if someone other than the singer/songwriter (yes, that's me) proposed the song. But I think it's better that I raise my hand and say, "hey, I have something worthwhile to offer," than to sit silently and wait for a friendly, like-minded, supportive soul to speak on my behalf.

Here's the link – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uT3rmycnecw – I welcome your comments.

(Perhaps someone seeing this posting will be curious to see my musical comedy performance on youtube and recommend my satirical, political, original song commentary to the Thom Hartmann show themselves. Or maybe someone seeing this posting will be curious to see some of my other performing art pieces.)

Does my mentioning my performing arts (the link above is to a political, socio-economic, musical comedy piece) make this posting spam? Am I being too self-promotional? I certainly hope you don't feel that way.

Look, I am an artist who listens practically daily to Thom's broadcast on FreeSpeech TV through the Web. I contribute a modest sum monthly in support of FreeSpeech TV. Out of respect and gratitude for Thom's eloquent, insightful work, during his recent holiday appeal, I contributed a modest sum to the school in the northeast that he founded and supports. I consider myself a loyal and grateful student of Thom Hartmann University. I joined a Colorado state-employee union because of the historical, societal and economic perspective Thom has given about unions in the USA. And I do volunteer work for my union.

I do hope nobody here considers me an interloper or trespasser. I mention the link to this song I've written out of a sincere desire to create an artwork that might change hearts & minds or wake up hearts & minds. And, of course, as a human being, I can't help but have my ego involved. I hope you like the piece. And I hope you might like my work enough to help me gain new audiences and create a performing arts career as I gently approach my sixth decade on earth.

Here's my song, Wall Street Banker by Ira G. Liss –– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uT3rmycnecw ––  enjoy! If it were played on Thom's show, that would be a dream come true for me.

 

 

ThomE
Some may or may not know of

Some may or may not know of archive.org many historic obscure audio clips, old radio etc

William Taft

http://archive.org/details/RepublicanAndDemocraticTreatmentOfTrusts1908

Woodrow Wilson

http://archive.org/details/AddressToAmericanIndians1913

Billy Cowan
Billy Cowan's picture
Hi Thom & Staff-      Here's

Hi Thom & Staff-

     Here's a song I wrote and recorded in 1988 ( The Human Race Is Blind) about global warming.

                           THE ALIENS ARE FROM THE PLANET ZENUE

The animation was done last month. I hope you like it and you are welcome to use it.

                                    Thanks for all you do,

                                                    Billy Cowan      billyzoe2@gmail.com

http://youtu.be/HbmmqsKnDJI

Billy Cowan
Billy Cowan's picture
http://youtu.be/HbmmqsKnDJI H

http://youtu.be/HbmmqsKnDJI

Human Race Is Blind

A song written in 1988 and animated in 2013, about Aliens from the planet ZENUE

warning humans of global warming.

                         Your welcome to use,and thanks for all you do!

                                               Bill Cowan

billyzoe2@gmail.com

billymackmusic.net

                                          

stonecupid
stonecupid's picture
Hi,  I love your program and

Hi, 

I love your program and love that you play Leonard Cohen's "Democracy" on it all the time. I sang back up on that version, I'm proud to say. I've been in touch with you before about using some of my music for bumper music, and would be proud to send some to you for consideration, if I haven't already. Just let me know where to send. I don't want to send links to free music here for obvious reasons, but will be glad to let Thom use some things for bumper music. 

Thanks! 

Julie Christensen, former backup singer with Leonard Cohen. 

Here is a link to my music on bandcamp:

 http://juliechristensen.bandcamp.com

Check out specific tracks on these albums:

Weeds Like Us:

Ten People, Broken

Where the Fireworks Are:

Well Enough, Something Pretty, Where the Fireworks Are, Have a Pretty Dream, Boy in Pain, Rapture Index=0

Love Is Driving:

Maybe Something, Bright Spot