Schoolhouse Rock generally had little to do with rock music, but it had its charm. At this point it's kind of a window into a bygone media world. That kind of loose animation would only be seen at a film festival now, or at least would be unable to make it to TV.
Bob Dorough and Blossom Dearie, two hip jazz icons from the midcentury period, both got exposure to very young listeners this way. Above are a Dearie song from Schoolhouse Rock and one from an early album of hers. I don't know how many of us 70s kids became fans of hers, but she was still recording and touring into the 2000s. Must have been doing something right.
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I recalled having seen various Schoolhouse Rock cartoons but not a traditional half hour program called that. Well, it's no surprise now I know it was a series of three minute educational musical cartoons - and quite brilliant at that with the understanding that the best ones were the earliest ones.
Its origin was a series of happy coincidences as noted by wikipedia: The series was the idea of David McCall, an advertising executive of McCaffrey and McCall, who noticed his young son was struggling with learning multiplication tables, despite being able to memorize the lyrics of many Rolling Stones songs. McCall hired musician Bob Dorough to write a song that would teach multiplication, which became "Three Is a Magic Number." Tom Yohe, an illustrator at McCaffrey and McCall, heard the song and created visuals to accompany it.
The multiplication tables, like Figure Eight, were excellent and Grammar Rock was equally good with titles like Verb: That's What's Happening and Conjunction Junction. Okay, America Rock covered the rules of US government as it should be practiced. I understand No More Kings is one of the signs being waved by those under the influence of an advanced case of DTS. Maybe the government series was a sign of people oversimplifying history but it was for kids, after all, and there's no harm in that. I have no complaints about the following three seasons Science Rock, the brief Computer Rock, and Money Rock Understand I haven't watched more than a few but the titles and desciptions sound benign enough.
The series I did object to was the premise of Earth Rock because it presumes that ordinary people can and should prevent climate change by changing their habits - without mentioning the fact of business and government supplying the plastics and poisons that make the pollution in the first place.. never mind the sheer unnecessary waste of lavish lifestyles. Offering episodes that promote solar and wind power with cant about carbon footprints sounds like propaganda to me.
Blossom Dearie was entirely cool. Did you know she founded a vocal ensemble in Paris in 1955 called the Blue Stars - they eventually morphed into the Swingle Singers (without Blossom):
Lullaby of Birdland - (the first minute is a bit screechy)
https://youtu.be/-lWqOq1gn34?si=9uLanFc4yCKFplFn
Yeah, it was all interstitial, in the gaps between other shows. I don't know if a half-hour show dedicated to them would have worked at the time. You could have probably sold such a show to young adults in the early 90s. That's Gen X for you.
Yohe's artwork had a lot to do with the appeal of these spots. These weren't slick cartoons. They were good illustrations, but they made no bones about the fact that they had been drawn in ink on paper, and looked just a bit rough. Needless to say, the music was delightful as well.
Some of these tunes were so catchy that I can still hum them without having heard them in years (although I could probably track them down and listen to them right now, but you understand what I'm saying.) What they did for the kids is up for debate. TV can't replace a good teacher. But Schoolhouse Rock might well have helped enthusiasm by making learning look fun. I think the anti-Trump rallies just used the slogan "No Kings" rather than "No More Kings." And it was a somewhat empty slogan. These people don't give a lot of thought to what's a dictatorship and what isn't.
Earth Rock came out a lot later than the others in the series. A generation later, in fact, in 2009. There's a good chance it had different writers, and definitely had a different mandate from the network. From the Schoolhouse Rock fandom page I see that there was one called "Don't Be a Carbon Sasquatch", which achieves previously undreamt-of levels of cringe.
Blossom Dearie I (re)discovered during late night radio listening. Probably when I was still in school, so radio could still be good sometimes. Anyway, I'm definitely among the converted for her.
That's a beautiful version of "Lullaby of Birdland." I had to look around because the exact video you linked doesn't work in the US, but it was more than worth the small effort.
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