Off the Charts The SongPoem Story (2003)

Like a warped funhouse mirror the songpoem industry has run parallel to the mainstream music business for close to a century its estimated that over 200000 songpoems have been recorded since 1900 The genres durability can be traced to three of our deepest American desires to be in show business to get rich quick and to share and express our deepest feelings We meet several of the songwriters from an elderly woman to a young AfricanAmerican man to a smalltown Iowan with bigtime dreams each of whom has been in the business for awhile churning out odd compositions that cover the waterfront of American obsessions from Jesus to genitalia from politics to Elvis We also meet the producers often known as songsharks who hold out the tantalizing promise of fame to their eager customers and the hasbeen musicians who sit in studios day after day and year after year