Independent Lens Episode: "Off the Charts: The Song-Poem Story"

Season 4, Episode 2
Episode Synopsis: “Off the Charts: The Song-Poem Story,” a wry exploration of the industry in which record producers set amateurs' poems to music and record them (for a fee, of course). Included are interviews with producers, performers, observers and people who have submitted their poems for musical adaptation. And there's a sampling of the results (examples include “Non-Violent Tae-kwon-do Trooper” and “I Am a Ginseng Digger”). Most songs are “in one ear and out the other,” says musician Ellery Eskelin (the son of a song-poem “auteur”). But, he adds, “There's the 10 or 20 percent that are from another planet.” Original Air Date: Feb 11, 2003
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Season 4, Episode 2
A fascinating, at times unsettling, look at the strange underworld of the song-poem industry.
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Length: 54:38
Aired: 2/11/2003
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Premiered: August 09, 1999, on PBS
Rating: TV-PG
User Rating: (17 ratings)
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