They're advertising books on television. Have you ever seen those commercials that talk about a story, trick you into thinking it's all about your life, and then spring it on you that it's a classic novel or play? They're great. Recently I also read about a new PBS TV show advertised which will put a dog character, "Wishbone," running through all the great books to introduce them to children. Whitney Houston is starring in a film version of Waiting To Exhale, a literate, realistic, down-to-earth novel by Terry McMillan, which Houston bought the rights to and is currently filming.
So literacy is becoming hip. Whoda thunk it? Well, for one, Nik Venet has been known to predict the future (especially in the careers of the artists he broke as a producer--Ronstadt, Beach Boys, Jim Croce, John Stewart, Lou Rawls, Dory Previn, Fred Neil, to name a few) so when he predicted a new wave of literacy, we listened. In fact, Waiting To Exhale was on his reading list over two years ago. Four years ago, he predicted the coffee house upsurge and the new "folk" scene, although his definition of folk is a little wider than some people's. When he started handing out reading lists and telling people if they don't read, they can't write, people left the seminar by the droves. But more came to take their places. And a dozen of the ones who stayed, 3 years later, became what's known as "The Campfire Conspiracy." These songwriter/singers have been working diligently on the craft of songwriting, never settling for an okay line when a great one was possible, never allowing a mere serviceable melody to slip in when a killer melody was just around the corner.
With only one instrument and voice, each of these songwriters has been standing in front of huge auditoriums of high school students, some of whom look like they're at the assembly against their wills, that they're much too hip to sit there and listen. So these particular students talk non-stop during the setting up and the introduction of the Campfire Conspiracy as an official Grammy-In-The-Schools Outreach Program, put on by NARAS (National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences). But a funny thing happens once the songs begin. You can see this strange thing take shape in the faces of the high school students. It's called interest.
They poke each other when Sara Kim Wilde sings "Sitting at the Kmart Counter...wishing I had more mustard...and more money...and more time." When Steve Wagner sings, "It's just something you do when only one of the two is in love," there's a look of recognition on the faces of kids who look too young to have had a relationship at all, much less a failed one. But of course, it's high school, and we all remember how intense it felt. We remind them of things, and they remind us. All the performers sit on stage looking out at the audience as everyone sings, one at a time. So we're actually both getting a show. Who's to say the one the students are seeing is any better than the one they're being?
Corwyn Travers introduces her song by saying her husband is the one man who wouldn't let her push him away, and Michelle Fox sings of that first encounter between you, the man you loved, and his new girlfriend. At a high school in Manhattan Beach, two girls on the second row start crying when Marc Corwin Bruce sings his song called "Fathers in the Park" about single father weekends. I've heard a lot of songs on this subject, but this is not just another one. This is decidedly different from singing at an open mic, in front of fifty other songwriters. These are the record buyers -- they aren't trained to applaud for their friends in order to get applause when they get up to sing. This is a tough, unforgiving crowd with a short attention span.
Steve Jackson Wilde and Jim Dean are recognizable actors, as well as being excellent songwriters, so there's usually a whisper around the room when their credits are mentioned. Someone has either seen Steve in a movie or recognized Jim as the Wendy's hamburger or Eggo guy. After all, when you're in the living room of a high school student via the almighty television, you have arrived. Luckily their songs are mesmerizing, or there would be some very disappointed teenagers out there. Can't allow their heroes to let them down.
Leslie Claussen sings, "A child wanders next to me, then backs away mistrustfully, 'cause I'm the stranger, I could be the danger lurking in the dark, it breaks my heart....And it's strange the way this city holds so many people......so far apart." Combined with the darkness of the melody and guitar, the lyric reminds them of a truth they know too well. Oddly, we feel less isolated when we hear isolation described so truthfully and with so much insight.
The press has been amazing and each picture always contains Bill Berry. His song, "The Brick" invariably draws tremendous attention. "A brick can start a riot, throw it from an angry mob / I've seen people use it for a pillow, simply 'cause they lost their job / Build a Cellar Full of Noise or a cellar for your wine / Wrap it in a pretty package, Sell a Pet Brick you can buy / Drop one off a building, Play a game of brick roulette / Or try doing something useful, Maybe build a laundromat / If you're hiding from the IRS, Use a brick to jam the door...Yeah, you can tell a lot about a man by what he uses his brick for." Bill lists a litany of uses for a brick until the metaphor is driven home--in a Mercedes. Even the most jaded, insistently uninterested of high school students cannot resist this one.
Each performer is introduced by Nik Venet, who gives a pearl of songwriting/literary/artistic wisdom which the song illustrates. The show ends with my singing "Rosebud," the title song of the album I'm currently recording, which Venet is producing. Even though Citizen Kane is not "literature," it's part of our literary frame of reference. Great films, great books and great songs all comprise the new literacy. And when you've looked into the faces of the new generation day after day, you begin to believe Venet was right. Triple A format is not just for baby boomers. Substance is in demand at every age group.
"How in the world do you get them to listen like that?" asks one of the teachers at Van Nuys High School. I think to myself, "We just give them something to listen to."
All quoted songs used by permission. c 1995 Snowgoose Music/More Future Schock Songs--ASCAP
© 1995 Harriet Schock
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