Off the Charts

[ecgiglie]

RIP Tommy.

[BikiniDeathSquad]

every person here shows signs of aspergers

[CartoonsAndGameShows]

Interesting. I love learning about music and have to say I had no idea about this whole "song-poem industry".

[jamesedwardtheobald]

annie oakley was a BABE!

[jamesedwardtheobald]

psychedelic or sock-o-detic? 

[kikaidaboy]

I rented this so many times, then bought a copy... Used to see these albums in the used bins in LA in the 70's... shoulda bought em up!

Wonderful film. The extras are worth the price of admission alone.

[mdefalla]

I'd like to sincerely thank Penn Jilette and the Nerdist podcast for telling me about this documentary. As an independent, unsigned musician this film really spoke to me. The range of emotion here is just plain too amazing---this whole story goes back and forth from comedy to tragedy in the blink of an eye. I'm blown away to the point where I want every musician friend of mine to watch this.

[iiwatcher]

This so weird--I guess it's true--reality is stranger than fiction. The TV song made me lmfao.

[ckurtis]

Just try and watch only 4 minutes of this...I double dog dare ya.

[musiknouvel]

"thank Jehovah for kung fu bicycles and Prescilla Presley."

[existenceisrelative]

When I saw the scene at 39:03 I had a sharp moment of despair. It occurred to me for the first time that musicians are petulant assholes throughout their entire lives! The endless arguments where people pretend to get up and walk out are NEVER going to stop!

[MichaelAuthorAllAges]

I want a whole box of these 45s and LPs. How fascinating! A tribute to the hope, eccentricity, goofiness, and creativity of humanity. Love it, love it, love it! :)

[MichaelAuthorAllAges]

Thank Jehova for kungfu bicycles and Priscilla Presley!!! :)

[zmbabwe]

I am a Ginseng Digger! 9:55

[joshzam]

What a fascinating subject. Thanks for producing and making these videos available.

[IETCHX69]

from a musicians standpoint, this is the absolute bottom-of-the-barrel...ABSOLUT­E

[mysteryperson1976]

I haven't seen all of it, but it's pretty cool.

[barbroxursox]

makes me wanna write a song!

[eddie69696969]

this was amazing! so funny! I cant stop smiling!

[librarianeric]

If this isn't an argument for continued federal support of PBS, I don't know what is!

[durtro30]

seriously, i met gene marshall and got his autograph on my off the charts dvd, thanks travis !! rood keith, absolute genius of himself. too bad he didn't paint. whenever i feel like my life is pointless and i'll never affect anyone else on this planet, i think of him and feel even more hopeless !!!!!

[misscarolinec]

GREAT DOCUMENTARY!!! 7:53 in is just too funny :)

[thatpecinalgirl]

I really enjoyed this film...I should totally write a song!

[remasbolt]

Long Live PBS!

[linz084623]

Gary Forney... Can I get a copy of your CD?

[TaylorConrad8098]

The mellotron is one the greatest instruments ever, I love the sound of them

[jonniedoe21]

wow... that was awkward just watching it on the internet... those guys are weird!!!! my favorite part is when there are six old people at the party in the park and no one is listening to the old guy and his son?

[musicalheat]

@jonniedoe21 Terry Copeland with yet another fake I.D. The guy is a wacko!

[thefogster61]

Elmer, baby. Shake it.

[TheMickives]

this was beyond disturbing

[UniQueLyEviL]

I really like that Human Absurdity song at the beginning 1:12. I would love to hear the entire song.

[DanNinjaMan]

Some of these dudes have to be trolling.

[threestarpr]

It's funny to me how these folks have more heart than most rock stars...

[jeffguitarnelson1]

Great!

[PAULGOREE]

I use to send in lyric/poems when I was in high school (1988), thinking like most, BILLBOARD TOP 100. Not much ever came of it, but this short movie, is great! Primarily because it reminds us (Americans) follow your dreams. Nothing is impossible! When I was going thur this song pinning, it was good to know that companies like Magic Key Production (which I used in 1985) were available to help people like me and all others, make our DREAMS become reality! Only In AMERICA! Great Work Meltzer.

[irishmonkey]

This is the best thing I've ever seen.

[nikgottheblues]

Some of the worst music Ive ever heard. "Annie is one of my historical honeys". 18:53 Really? they made a movie about this

[rylandheights]

Yeah... this video rocks! Loved every second of it! Keep creating art. You never know what will happen!

[musicalheat]

The film I have come to hate! The most telling thing about this film is that Jamie Meltzer never even bothered to keep in touch with any of the song poets to see how they did after his film. He didn't care. He kissed the song sharks asses though.

[UniQueLyEviL]

Tom Ardolino sounds like Rich Fulcher to me, from The Mighty Boosh.

The way he looks kind of reminds me of him as well.

[UniQueLyEviL]

27:34 Lmaaaaaao~!!

[UniQueLyEviL]

21:35 awwkwaaaard.

[IndieWalrus]

he's got mad numchuck skills, sweet kung fu bicycle skills, like napoleon dynamite

[songpoemguy]

this was a cool video i collect song poem records i also had 5 of my song poems set to music they are 1 you silly doggie (a song about my dead dog sandy) 2 naked women on the moon 3 dysfunctional family 4 welfare raisin 5 rocky raccoon the continuing story ( sequel song to the beatles song) david dubowski set music to my songs and he sings them there qall on youtube check them out there on the cd song poem hits of 2009 by david dubowski one man band check out davids posts on youtube

[Maysey1]

Night time whispers, night time whispers. Great documentary on this underworld. I really enjoyed watching it. Don't think I could ever work in that industry though. Special thanks to songpoemguy for sharing this with me. Mark

[songpoemguy]

@Maysey1 hi mark i think you wood do a grate job if you worked in the song poem industy the guy that set music to my song poems david dubowski is not a ripp off artist i was pleased with the out come david dubowski retired from song poems for now he needs a must needed rest the recording of each song took over 15 hours im glad you liked this video i was surprised a one hour video was on youtube i thought that only 10 minutes was the limit on youtube

[beans63]

Chicken Insurrection FTW!

[digitalsidewalk]

Annie Oakley IS an historical honey!

these people make daniel johnston and wesley willis look like leonard cohen and boby dylan.

[jbenettable]

awesome.  the vulnerability is unforgettable.

[latinchicken]

wow!

[philodrummond]

Somehow the Amway advertisement and the Documentary content compliment each other. Good job at product positioning.

[Gold753]

I've misread that as product poisoning

._.

[apchris]

when was this made?

[musicalheat]

I have a love/hate thing for this film. I was BADLY stereotyped by it, yet it made me famous! Way TOO MANY people thought everyone in the film was mental like Caglar. When I performed in Chicago in 2004 the M.C. of the show [ Scott Ligon ] thought it was funny to talk to me like I was retarded. It just goes on and on. There were very few people who understood the creativity of the song poets, and just laughed at the film as "a cheap laugh at the wackos!"..

I DO have a career beyond songpoems..

[Jupwayup]

that caravan song is bad ass!!! good job man

[woodrailking]

Who are you?

[notdotcomful]

@musicalheat Don't worry about it too much. Most of the songwriters came across, to me, as sincere and talented writers, who simply lacked musical training/experience. With a band and time to practice, experiment, rehearse most could be getting a small following.

[copperhead325]

I used to work for David Fox - it was awesome!

[blueworld76]

No I'm not the annie oakley guy.

[DEKMAN99]

I can't believe this really crappy singer,want to get this really crappy song right.

[blueworld76]

I'm in this movie.

[bsartist]

Are you the Annie Oakley guy?

[FriendlyMind]

what?

[3stringovation]

Strangely beautiful. Beautifully strange.  Thanks for this.

[legion3721]

Really enjoyed the doc. Just down home folk having a good time.

[alcoholichealer]

ZAPPA is smiling

[KPizzle1000]

I had a CD with a whole bunch of these. "MMR Recordings" or something like that. Someone has GOT to have "Beat of the Traps". Please post!

[thizzellewhaaa]

hahaha. our writing about film teacher showed me this today and i had to see if for myself.

[vermisciouskanid]

Thanki Jehovah for kung fu bicycles AND Priscilla Presley??

[timlaroche]

that's so sad

[provideweb]

Amazing! One of the greatest (and agreeably unsettling) things I've ever seen!

[mimicry88]

This is awesome.

[AKAGnokia]

The American dream, making it happen in music. he he he