The beauty of Schoolhouse Rock in its original Saturday morning run (1973-85) was that kids watching couldn’t tell whether the catchy three-minute cartoon jingles were meant to be commercials, shows, or something else entirely. That enabled overexposed TV youth to learn without realizing it between episodes of Scooby Doo and Fat Albert. Then the Brady Bunch generation became the alternative nation, and the innocence with which they took in these grammar, history, and math lesson [Read More...]
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Unlike those who have been shocked by the high reviews for this album, I’m shocked by the low reviews. They come almost exclusively from people expecting a collection of the original SHR songs. THIS IS A TRIBUTE ALBUM! If you don’t understand what that means, you shouldn’t buy this record.
Among the things you do get are:
-One of the last tracks put out by Blind Melon before the death of Shannon Hoon.
-A track by Moby about three years before he was shot into the stratosphere of fame.
-Arguably the best track that one-hit-wonder Skee-Lo ever laid.
-A very timely reworking of “No More Kings” done in classic Pavement style.
-A “hip” Biz Markie without his usual “hop”.
-A chance to reflect on how the world as a whole and the world of music have changed since those simple days of the early seventies.
I question whether anyone who uses a music review to insult a whole generation deserves to be an editor at Amazon.
And lastly, I don’t really think that Bob Dorough and company see this as a “mangling” of their classic songs. After, their permission was needed to make the album. The original SHR brought, along with education, messages of tolerance and open-mindedness. Bring the same when you listen to this. If anything, this record is a testament to how many different kinds of people in my generation were touched by these Saturday morning snippets.
I was a HUGE SHR fan growing up and still love watching some of the old clips on my SHR America Rock VHS tape. But while I feel a little silly and juvenille watching the original shows, I feel cool and hip when I listen to my SHR Rocks! album! This CD takes some of the best SHR songs from the 70s and puts them in the hands of trendy 90s rock bands; the resulting songs are frequently very different from the originals yet still a lot of fun. I especially like “Mr. Morton,” a song that I only vaguely recollect from my younger years that’s turned into a cool, sort of rap-style melody here. Overall, this is a great modern compilation that’s likely to be enjoyed by both those who grew up with SHR and those who like the bands featured.