Schoolhouse Rock: America Rock

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
The horn-backed swing of "Fireworks" will charm the ear of countless Gen-X listeners and their parents, as will most of this historically themed collection of songs from the ingeniously educational Schoolhouse Rock animations. Lyricists Lynn Ahrens and jazz vocal great Bob Dorough make fine yarns out of a (homogenized) overall narrative of the United States, which all seems pretty peachy in this context. This isn't a set to teach the nuances or vagaries of U.S. history, but "I'm Just a Bill" can leave kids in the single digits tracking the progress of legislation and asking what suffering and suffrage have to do with each other ("Sufferin' Till Suffrage") and inquiring about the Bill of Rights. The music is gentle but never silly or unlikable. Like that of the other volumes in the Schoolhouse Rock series, this CD's length is brief, but these themed packages seem to bear their pithy contents well. --Andrew Bartlett --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Schoolhouse Rock: America Rock, Music, Various Artists, Alternative Pop/Rock, Bop, Children's, Childrens, Educational, Novelty, Pop, Television Music, Vocal Jazz

Average customer rating:

I can't believe this guy's not famous

From the heart and soul

Joe Grushecky Continues To Amaze Us

An awesome CD from an awesome performer

Grushecky's "A Good Life" is a great listen!!!

A Good Life
Joe Grushecky
Manufacturer: Schoolhouse Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Rock | Styles | Music
Pop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music
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ASIN: B000GBEWES
Release Date: 2006-09-05

Tracks:

Code Of Silence
Is She The One
Don't Forget Where You're Coming From
A Good Life
Beauty Fades
Nothing Without You
Too Hot To Think
The Other Shoe
Party Tonight
Searching For My Soul
Father And Son
Safe At Home
Lake Pontchartrain

Amazon.com

By now the story is almost a cliché: hardworking Midwestern rocker can't break into the mainstream despite a truckload of critical raves, impassioned live shows, and ties to kindred soul and superstar Bruce Springsteen, who works similar hardscrabble territory. But Grushecky, now a full-time teacher in his home town of Pittsburgh, still considers himself fortunate. "Daddy always told me, money don't mean everything / Consider yourself a lucky man, you got a guitar and you still can sing," he elaborates on the title track. It's one of 13 boldly honest slices of life on this terrific hour-long disc.

Disregard the rather deceptive cover photo of the relaxed singer, gazing out on a tranquil lake with an acoustic guitar by his side. One listen to the blistering opening "Code of Silence"--a co-write with Springsteen, who trades verses with Grushecky and tears into a typically slashing guitar lead--and you'll realize this is no introspective, acoustic folkie strummer. That shouldn't imply he's not reflective, though. Rugged ballads such as "Father and Son" and "The Other Shoe" view life from an honest middle-age perspective that is unflinching and never sappy. Springsteen adds his guitar or vocals to three other tracks, but this is all Grushecky's show, as his flinty voice and rocking songs mix poetry with passion in a volatile explosion of emotional intensity that can't be summoned up by less journeyman artists. He's abandoned the brass-ring grind of the music business and is content to release mature, edgy, quality work--that is what makes A Good Life such an unqualified success. --Hal Horowitz

Customer Reviews:

I can't believe this guy's not famous.......2007-03-31

Classic rock is still big -- even my young nephews are listening to Bob Seger and Queen and Led Zepplin. But the problem with being a classic rock fan is that you're going to be listening to the same music for the next 20 years. Let's face it, there aren't many new artists breaking into classic rock radio playlists. That's a shame because there is great music out there, you just have to find it.

So check out A Good Life. I think there's a big audience for this album, they just doesn't know it exists. It's one of the best rock and roll records I've heard in a long time. Bruce Springsteen plays on a couple of tracks, and you can hear his influence all over the album -- although it has been a long time since Springsteen has played blues-based, blue-collar rock like this.

From the heart and soul.......2007-01-29

This is music that makes you glad to be alive. Pure clear crystal clean.
Sometimes slashing, sometimes soothing, gives hope, gives solace, makes you dance, makes you cry.
Beautiful!

Joe Grushecky Continues To Amaze Us.......2006-12-02

Joe Grushecky's newest CD, A GOOD LIFE, is as good as anything he recorded in the late 70s-late 80s, as well as its predecessor, TRUE COMPANION. Bruce Springsteen and his crew were heavily involved in helping to make this one, but Grushecky's own authenticity still comes shining through, even, especially, on the Springsteen co-write "Code Of Silence", which here, sounds even more desperate for answers than when Springsteen recorded it. In fact, this version is so bitingly realistic that it can exhaust you to the point where you might just oppose shield laws for journalists on the grounds that the truth hurts. The other songs are also great chronicles of life in general, and even though Grushecky was raised working class and works as a schoolteacher, this CD could be just as relevant to the bank executive living in posh Cape Elizabeth, ME, or Lake Oswego, OR, as to the ironworker in Pittsburgh. In other words, these songs are so universal in their relevance that even people who have it made can relate to them, because money can't buy everything. This CD isn't for the teenagers; it's for the adults who've been through the wringer and lived to tell about it.

An awesome CD from an awesome performer .......2006-10-19

This is one of Joe's very best. The lyrics are insightful and Joe's voice just gets better with time. And for those that have not seen Joe perform live, he is an awesome guitarist and it really comes out on this CD. Check out "Safe at Home". It also doesn't hurt that the Springsteen crew produced and mixed this CD.

Grushecky's "A Good Life" is a great listen!!!.......2006-10-18

Veteran rocker Joe Grushecky is back with a new CD, entitled A Good Life. In an age where there's possible instant fame with TV shows and slick videos, Grushecky did it the old fashioned way: grinding it out in clubs and theatres over the years. Starting 25 years ago with his band, The Iron City Houserockers, Grushecky's always been part working class hero & part philosopher. It's a combination that has held up over time and this new CD is full of tunes that will make you think as well as crank up the stereo. Gary Borress, NYC

Average customer rating:

Schoolhouse Rock! sings about U.S. history and government
The Shot Heard around the world
Hey, Do You Know About The USA?
good times
America Rock and Scripture Rock are my favorites

Schoolhouse Rock: America Rock
Various Artists
Manufacturer: Rhino / Wea
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

Bebop General | Bebop | Jazz | Styles | Music

General | Jazz | Styles | Music

Vocal Jazz General | Vocal Jazz | Jazz | Styles | Music

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Television Soundtracks | Soundtracks | Styles | Music

General | Children's Music | Styles | Music

Educational | Children's Music | Styles | Music

Pop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music

General | Vocal Pop | Pop | Styles | Music

Rhino Records | Amazon.com Label Stores | Stores | Music
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ASIN: B0000033XR
Release Date: 1997-04-01

Tracks:

Schoolhouse Rocky
No More Kings
Fireworks
The Shot Heard 'Round The World
The Preamble
Elbow Room
The Great American Melting Pot
Mother Necessity
Sufferin' Till Suffrage
I'm Just A Bill
Three-Ring Government

Amazon.com

The horn-backed swing of "Fireworks" will charm the ear of countless Gen-X listeners and their parents, as will most of this historically themed collection of songs from the ingeniously educational Schoolhouse Rock animations. Lyricists Lynn Ahrens and jazz vocal great Bob Dorough make fine yarns out of a (homogenized) overall narrative of the United States, which all seems pretty peachy in this context. This isn't a set to teach the nuances or vagaries of U.S. history, but "I'm Just a Bill" can leave kids in the single digits tracking the progress of legislation and asking what suffering and suffrage have to do with each other ("Sufferin' Till Suffrage") and inquiring about the Bill of Rights. The music is gentle but never silly or unlikable. Like that of the other volumes in the Schoolhouse Rock series, this CD's length is brief, but these themed packages seem to bear their pithy contents well. --Andrew Bartlett

Customer Reviews:

Schoolhouse Rock! sings about U.S. history and government.......2004-01-30

All right, boys and girls, here is a little ditty that has got to jog your memory if only you are old enough:

I'm just a bill,
Yes, I'm only a bill,
And I'm sitting here on Capitol Hill.
Well, it's a long, long journey
To the capital city,
It's a long, long wait
While I'm sitting in committee,
But I know I'll be a law someday...
At least I hope and pray that I will,
But today I'm still just a bill.

"Schoolhouse Rock! America Rock" collects the soundtracks from the mini-cartoons ABC aired on the television in the mid-1970s and taught a generation of children about government and history (as well as grammar, science, and math in other rock counterparts). The ten America rocks are done in pretty much chronological order, with "No More Kings," "Fireworks" and "The Shot Heard 'Round the World" covering the founding of America, the Declaration of Independence, and the start of the American Revolution. I would be willing to bet that most of the kids in this country who can recite the Preamble to the Constitution learned it from "The Preamble" (or the "Star Trek" episode "The Omega Glory"). "Elbow Room" covers America going West while "The Great American Melting Pot" celebrates American diversity. Great American inventors get their due in "Mother Necessity" and "Sufferin' till Suffrage" covers women getting the right to vote. But the most popular one here has got to be "I'm Just a Bill," which explains how a bill comes a law in terms so simple that even a first term Congressman could understand it. "Three-Ring Government" explains the separation of powers between the three branches.

Granted, American History might not lend itself to 3-minute lessons as well as basic principles of grammar or mathematics, but these are still so much fun, especially if you have the videos to show students instead of just playing them these tracks on the CD. Too bad there were not more of these (how would Schoolhouse Rock! have explained the Civil War or the Great Depression?), because they are just a lot of fun and then do a great job of driving a few essential points home in each lesson. "America Rock" is just the hook. It is up to history teachers and parents to provide the line. Even for more advanced students teachers can get some mileage out of these by showing them to students and either getting them to critique these (what inventors should be added?) or to be creative and write the script for their own (e.g., "I am here to provide an explanation of the Emancipation proclamation!").

The Shot Heard around the world.......2003-10-21