THE STORY OF "A SONG FOR MY SCHOOL"

Once upon a time in a rural community a small elementary school struggled to live, as the forces of time and nature worked it steadily into a gradual state of disrepair. A small group of concerned citizens saw the need to raise the cash for improvements to their school building, but the community just wasn’t that into it. I learned about this dilemma on my way home from an out-of-town gig when I stopped to see of a friend of mine, in this very town. When I arrived I could tell that everyone was disappointed about something, so as we shared a meal I asked what was wrong, “why all the long faces”?

As my friend, Pappa looked on, his wife, Mama told me that their sons and daughters were attending a school that had not been renovated since World War II. Besides blackboards that were no longer black and desks with so many sweethearts names carved in them there were almost no smooth writing surfaces, they also had no air conditioning. She and some of the other parents had formed a committee to raise awareness and tried to raise funds for advertising, but the town was so uninterested that they were only able to raise $800 for their campaign. Like any self-respecting songwriter who would rather have their recording played on radio than struggle to reach their audience on the road as a traveling musician, the small group of dedicated parents decided they wanted to reach their community through the magic of the airwaves via the town’s local radio.

My friend asked if I could write a jingle for the campaign to promote the upcoming bond issue, with the hope that others might contribute to the campaign. Doing the math I quickly realized that the jingle would need to be pretty incredible because their cash would only buy about 4 minutes of airtime, ...once. That challenge was appealing since I’d never written a jingle, but I was dubious about how much difference it would really make. I agreed to think about it on the way home and said I would get back to her. As she and her little family waved goodbye she said, “Well don’t take too long, the bond issue comes up for election in just two weeks!” And, it’s been offered twice already, so if it doesn’t pass this time it must wait for five more years.” So, on the 3hr. drive home I thought it over. After all, I’d always been interested in how children could have a better education. I’m convinced that a safe place for a child to begin their education, good teachers and a personally nourishing environment is what makes a great nation great.

As for me, I was one of the lucky ones who had the good fortune to grow up in a school district with what I thought were great schools. It always troubled me to see how poorly managed so many school districts were and in the end see the school buildings crumble, as I traveled from state to state. I couldn’t help but wonder why? I decided to give it try.

So, I sat down at the piano and wrote the first line as soon as I arrived home, which went like this; “I was listening to a friend of mine the other day, while she told me about a little town not far away. Where their gonna vote in about a week on whether or not to build a better school for the children of their town.” Once again I returned to the great memories of my own school days and how much a great school had meant to me, so it was easy to write the rest of this song. I sang it for my business/music partner and when he became interested in moving it along, I decided we had something that might work.

So, we went to the recording studio and recorded it, drove the little cassette tape back to our friends and after playing it for the boys father, who immediately took it out into the street yelling, “You got to hear this!” literally stopping anyone who would listen, we then took it to the radio station. Much to our surprise and delight, the radio disc jockey said “This isn’t a political add, this is a radio quality ballad, I can play this as often as I want.” And, so he did.

He played it repeatedly for two weeks. On Election Day, the town turned out for a walk-a-thon while a truck with portable a sound system played the song over and over and as they say the rest is history. The bond issue passed! So, we had a radio hit without a record deal. The school district got their much-needed cash; the children got air conditioning, as well as new desks, new books and fresh paint in the old lunchroom.