We have our priorities straight here in Florida. A new song to replace Swanee River.
TAMPA -- It's not a hit by the rapper Soulja Boy, or any of the other songs now at the top of pop charts. And it did not get selected with a flood of public support, the way millions anoint their favorite "American Idol."Too bad my nominee lost outBut Florida is a step closer to getting a new state song, "Florida, Where the Sawgrass Meets the Sky," a tune written by a South Florida music teacher that extols such Florida features as sunshine and the space industry.
The selection was announced Friday at the Florida Music Educators' Association conference with three versions: one sung by a chorus, a guitar solo and another that seemed suited for a piano bar.
Johnny Gaster, a 48-year-old musician who plays in bars around the Tampa Bay area, does not plan on singing the new song anytime soon. The recorded version submitted to the contest sounds like something in rotation on an easy-listening radio station.
"It sounds like 'O Canada,'" Gaster said after playing a set in a plaza in downtown Tampa. "This is an exciting state. That doesn't make me want to visit Florida."
Some lawmakers pushed to replace Florida's current state song, Stephen Foster's "The Swanee River (Old Folks at Home)," because many feel its lyrics are racist with their talk of plantations in the Old South. Gov. Charlie Crist shunned it at his inauguration last year, and the move launched an effort to find a replacement.
Just Sing Florida sponsored an online contest to replace Foster's song. The group got 8,020 votes for three finalists, and the winner got about 4,500 votes.
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Lawmakers will have to accept the new song before it replaces Foster's. Sen. Tony Hill, D-Jacksonville and Rep. Ed Homan, R-Tampa, plan to sponsor bills that would designate the new tune as the state song.
'Welcom to Florida, the rules are different here
The government is broke
but that is just a joke
come back and spend some more money next year
In Florida they pay morality cops
to go to porno theaters every day
Hey what a great way
To receive your daily pay
And welcome to Florida,
where a drive by shooting can cost you your life.....'
There was also a lyric that said if you put your head in underwear you can be a county commissioner.
Don't give up my day job? To be honest, the song I posted above or something pretty close to it was regularly featured by South Florida talk show host Lee Fowler in the 1990's.
A drought in South Florida and poor water management by officials, skyrocketing homeowner's insurance, education, property taxes, but politicians think we need a new state song. Don't you just love the Sunshine State?
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Comments (4)
Not to be difficult, but ha... (Below threshold)1. Posted by Jim Addison | January 12, 2008 2:33 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Not to be difficult, but hasn't Jimmy Buffett written a hundred or so songs Florida could use for the "state song?" Of course, they might have to pay royalties on the usage - Stephen Foster's stuff went public domain generations ago.
Speaking of Foster, just what is "racist" about these lyrics:
Way down upon the Swanee River,
Far, far away,
There's where my heart is turning ever,
There's where the old folks stay.
All up and down the whole creation,
Sadly I roam,
Still longing for the old plantation,
And for the old folks at home.
Chorus
All the world is sad and dreary
Everywhere I roam.
O brothers, how my heart grows weary,
Far from the old folks at home.
2nd verse
All round the little farm I wander'd,
When I was young;
Then many happy days I squander'd,
Many the songs I sung.
When I was playing with my brother,
Happy was I.
Oh, take me to my kind old mother,
There let me live and die.
3rd verse
One little hut among the bushes,
One that I love.
Still sadly to my memory rushes,
No matter where I rove.
When will I see the bees a humming,
All round the comb?
When shall I hear the banjo strumming,
Down in my good old home.
Is even the merest MENTION of "plantation" enough to qualify as "racist" nowadays?
Former Virginia Governor (and current Richmond Mayor) Doug Wilder made his reputation in the Virginia General Assembly by crusading to change the state song from "Carry Me Back to Old Virginny," but there were lines in that one like
"There's where the old darke'ys heart am long'd to go,
There's where I labored so hard for old massa,"
so Wilder had a point, at least.
1. Posted by Jim Addison | January 12, 2008 2:33 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on January 12, 2008 14:33
2. Posted by DoubleU | January 12, 2008 3:17 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
There is a West Palm Beach Song.
I met her in College down in Old Watford town
Where you learn some stuff on what you really W-A-N-T-A
You you W-A-N-T-A.
She walked up to me and told me a lie,
I asked her name and in a light blonde voice she said
L-O-I-S, L-L-L-O-I-S, L-O-I-S.
We'll I'm not the worlds most cleverest guy
But I still wrote her, her very own song, which took all N-I-G-H-T
Which took all N-I-G-H-T long
Well I'm not dumb but I can't understand
Why she don't like me for I am.
Oh L-O-I-S, L-L-L-O-I-S.
Well she drinks Champage and dances all night
With all het mates at Destiny Club
Oh my Lois, I wish you would notice
I sat next to her
She sat next to me
I jus can't belive
What was happing to me, and to my Lois, my my my L-O-I-S.
Cause I'm not the worlds most gifted guy
But I still like to think that I do make a big D-I-F-F-R-A-N-C-E
Some what of a Diffrance.
And she's so pretty and I'm so plain,
Please oh Lois, please oh Lois, would you you N-O-T-I-C-E
Just would you now N-O-T-I-C-E.
Well she drinks Champage and dances all night
With all het mates at Destiny Club
Oh my Lois, I wish you would notice
2. Posted by DoubleU | January 12, 2008 3:17 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on January 12, 2008 15:17
3. Posted by The Exposer | January 13, 2008 5:00 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
I vote for the theme song to Miami Vice. It doesn't get more Florida than that. ;-)
3. Posted by The Exposer | January 13, 2008 5:00 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on January 13, 2008 17:00
4. Posted by Pace Allen | January 15, 2008 7:31 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Alvin, Simon & Theodore Chipmunk want a RECOUNT. Their Chipmunk Swanee was never seriously considered for Florida's state song.
They performed a Modern Version of Swanee River using the phrase, "Oh, mom'ma how my heart grows weary." Keep Swanee River. The Chipmunks updated the words. Why can't legislators simply update the words. Stop excessive political correctness at the Suwannee River.
See, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xF6ERig0yWs
and
http://taxteaparty.com/chipmunk_swanee_recount
4. Posted by Pace Allen | January 15, 2008 7:31 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on January 15, 2008 19:31