Long Live The King!

A look at the songs that have shaped
my life and ended up on my devices.

If you ask me what's on my music players, I will tell you, "About one-third classic and mainstream rock and pop, one-third classic soul and R&B, and one-third wildcard, which can be anything I like." That includes things like TV show themes... and songs from ABC's "Schoolhouse Rock" like this one.



I put this song in my iPad Nano at least a couple of years before the re-enacting bug bit me. It has an addictive melody written by Lynne Ahrens (who would later go on to compose Broadway shows like "Ragtime"), and even though the lyrics oversimplify the facts, they do plug into the patriot paradigm of the colonists saying it was time to break from the mother country -- something my college American History teacher taught without the earworm melodies.

I have the challenge of explaining to young people why they should care about their heritage, and sadly, "Schoolhouse Rock" isn't on the air anymore in a supporting role. I learned the preamble to the U.S. Constitution from another of its history songs, which came in handy when I had to put it down on paper for a test.



To this day, I hear that people are still learning this and singing it to themselves if they have to pass a preamble test.