What’s Wrong With “The Albany Song”?
When the new theme song for the City of Albany was unveiled last week, we thought it was cute. And then we moved on to other things.
But apparently folks here in Albany take their theme songs mighty serious. Suddenly, fans of Albany and the Albany music scene came down on the song – hard.
“VERY cheesy,” proclaimed Dan Ross on the CRUMBS blog.
“The new song is YUCKY,” insists Laurie Jacobson on The Times Union‘s Albany blog.
Comments were worse over at All Over Albany:
“Downright horrible,” declares Paul.
“The song sucks. Totally,” says Kittie.
“That new song is about as pleasant as getting a pap smear…good grief,” adds Litt1eMinx.
Whoa!
Our question is: Well, what did you expect? The song is a perky little ditty that does pretty much exactly what any rah-rah, we-live-in-the-best-city, chamber-of-commerce kinda jingle is supposed to do. Did anyone really expect it to be – gasp! – hip?
The lyrics were penned by Deputy Mayor Phil Calderone. On a napkin. In Tampa, Florida.
The music was written by Melli Rose, who handles public relations for the City’s Special Events Office. Rose also sings the song.
And by the way, Rose released an album of her own “Phantasm” back in 2001. She sings with Chris Dukes, and she’s one-half – along with Sarah Herzog – of the delightful folk-pop duo Lucky Lips, who you may have heard on WEXT-FM.
We say, “Stop the hatin’.” And get Jim Coyne and Mike Tyson to make cameos in the video…
I’m trying to convince (one of) my band(s) to open our downtown shows with it. The lyrics are unisex, so that’s not a problem. The music would be simple enough to pull off. I’m just afraid of a situation occurring like the one that arose in that scene in The Blues Brothers movie. Can you say “chicken wire”?
Oh, I hear ya, Andy. (Which band, by the way?) Two years ago, Ramblin Jug Stompers played the classic “Let’s Have a Party, Albany,” and well you shoulda seen the looks on the faces of the unsuspecting folks in the crowd…
I’m thinking that Jess from the Ruddys could certainly handle the female lead, but might not want to deal with the shame involved. The Juice Junkees could do an alt-punk version that might actually be pretty ripping, but we’d want to change some words to make it less lame. Rudeke wouldn’t touch that thing with a 10′ pole!