Would This Be Wrong?

[Starborn Dragon]

A metal band called Iron Maiden once turn the poem Rhyme of The Ancient Mariner into a heavy metal song.

So in thinking about this, and listening to the old Schoolhouse Rock piece on the Constitution, an idea popped into my head from out there in the ether.

What if a heavy metal band, say like Metallica, or maybe even Sirenia, got a hold of a replica of the Constitution, and turned the whole thing into a big heavy metal or even speed metal piece of music?

Would that be wrong?

 

[Locutus of Bored]

No, of course not. In fact, it would good in that it would encourage people to memorize the Constitution through repeatedly singing the lyrics, just like the principle behind Schoolhouse Rock.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Metallica should do the Schoolhouse Rock song.

 

[Amaris]

Metallica would kick ass doing the Schoolhouse Rock song.

 

[newpball]

Would be ok but nothing compared to having Shatner sing a rendition of the constitution rocket man style:








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[tomalak301]

I think that would be awesome. It would also reach a group of people who otherwise wouldn't give the constitution much thought, and that might promote more people voting or being involved.

We do need a modern version of schoolhouse rock.

 

[Gov Kodos]

Maybe they could get Shatner to cover it on his next album?

 

[Starborn Dragon]

Shatner and Sirenia?

There's a concept for you.

 

[newpball]

Shatner and Sirenia?

There's a concept for you.

Well one great thing about Shatner is that he is in for a lot of things.




2824

 

[shivkala]

It wouldn't be wrong, but a poem is one thing. It has a certain rhythm and meter to it. The Constitution, to the best of my recollection, does not.

 

[Starborn Dragon]

It wouldn't be wrong, but a poem is one thing. It has a certain rhythm and meter to it. The Constitution, to the best of my recollection, does not.

Bu the Schoolhouse Rock one did a most excellent job in putting it to music.

We the people in order to form a more perfect union....

And it isn't a pop or rock. Maybe because it has a banjo it could be considered bluegrass light.

So I don't see why it can't be done to other genres of music.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

A calypso/Rammstein fusion would also be excellent for any Schoolhouse Rock song.

 

[RJDiogenes]

The Constitution is umpteen pages of organizational and procedural legalese. The song would be ten times as long as "In A Gadda Da Vida" and one tenth as tolerable. But a song, Heavy Metal or otherwise, about the Preamble and the Bill of Rights and some other Amendments could be very awesome indeed.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

I would totally not buy this album.

 

[Stoo]

A 13 minute epic about the American Revolution sounds the sort of thing Iron Maiden could plausibly do.

album cover: Eddie crossing the Delaware

 

[CorporalCaptain]

No, it wouldn't be wrong. The contents of the US Constitution are not "worship words."

Speaking of worship words, Shatner, and the Constitution:

[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3b56e0u0EgQ[/yt]

 

[Locutus of Bored]

^ That Canadian guy really knows how to work a Tea Party rally like a boss.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

A 13 minute epic about the American Revolution sounds the sort of thing Iron Maiden could plausibly do.

album cover: Eddie crossing the Delaware

I think that would be more of a Judas Priest thing.

They did a double album about Nostradamus, so long concept albums are more their speed.

 

[RJDiogenes]

No, it wouldn't be wrong. The contents of the US Constitution are not "worship words."

Speaking of worship words, Shatner, and the Constitution:

This is what inspired me, at nine years old, to go find the Constitution and read it. Needless to say, after the Preamble I was pretty disappointed until I got to the Bill of Rights.

 

[M'Sharak]

It wouldn't be wrong, but a poem is one thing. It has a certain rhythm and meter to it. The Constitution, to the best of my recollection, does not.

If someone can set text from a Customs & Immigration form to music, the Constitution ought to be doable. (You wouldn't even have to use the whole document; just excerpt a few of the good bits.)

As you point out, the absence of a regular meter to the text means it probably won't be something catchy or very danceable, but it could work set to Metallica-style shifty-meter stuff, or perhaps spoken rhythmically over something resembling the "Augures printaniers" section from Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring.