04th May 2003
An American Anthem
Here’s a sad fact: Americans can’t sit around and sing songs together. I remember on a trip to Belgrade in 1994, I was at a small house party of a bunch of young Serb college kids, and as part of what appeared to be standard entertainment for such youths, they passed a guitar around among themselve and one by one each accompanied the group in a sing-along of various popular American pop songs. All for my benefit, as the visiting foreigner. I was quite humiliated that I had nothing for them in return. Not only, needless to say, could I not play the guitar myself, I couldn’t even remember more than a few phrases of the lyrics to any of the songs they were singing, although I recognized them all. So I just sat there smiling like a big dope, while they wondered what the hell was wrong with this American who had no song in his heart.
I did finally redeem myself by tapping the dark recesses of my brain for a string of dirty jokes, but I was left wondering whether this sad songlessness was just me or generations of Americans. I decided to share the blame and conclude that most Americans simply can’t sing, at least not together.
There is one exception to that rule, however: TV theme songs. And, of course, the greatest of them all: The Ballad of Gilligan’s Island. Truly, who among you can’t remember all the lyrics? For better or worse, Gilligan, the Skipper, too, the millionaire and his wife, the movie star and the rest represent the best of our shared culture.
In case you haven’t heard, the great mind behind that immortal ditty, compose George Wyle, just died. As he himself said, “America doesn’t want great music themes, just something it can remember.”
Here’s the MP3 of the theme, and here’s a lame cover version by would-be punkers Rancid.
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