I'm just a bill

She-Who-Manages-The-Netflix-Queue would know for sure, but I think Schoolhouse Rock! has been steadily working it's way up our list, and is now playing at a DVD player under our TV. It is every bit as good as I remember it from thirty-plus years ago. I still recite the Preamble to the Constitution to the tune I learned in Schoolhouse Rock!

Memorable three minute lessons to tunes that will never leave your head, and viewing it as an adult I can now see influences previously invisible to me. For example, I now immediately hear the Rocky Horror Picture Show influence on Interplanet Janet. In the grammar rock arena, Verb: That's What's Happening has that Mo-town movie sound. Interjections! has the Hallelujah chorus (obvious, I know, but I wasn't exposed much to high culture as a kid).

And check out these lines:

I'm just a bill,
Yes, I'm only a bill,
And I'm sitting here on Capitol Hill.

If you're a butt-end Baby Boomer or Gen X-er, it is probable that you read those above lines not just with a certain tune, but with that raspy voice of Jack Sheldon in your head.. c'mon, you can hear it, right?

Jack is also one of the voices to this ditty:

Backup singers -- Conjunction Junction,
                 what's your function?
Jack Sheldon   -- Hooking up words and phrases
                 and clauses.
Backup singers -- Conjunction Junction,
                 how's that function?
Jack           -- I got three favorite cars,
                 That get most of my job done.
Backup singers -- Conjunction Junction,
                 what's their function?
Jack           -- I got "and", "but", and "or",
                 They'll get you pretty far.

Okay, some of it is a little dated, like Elbow Room and the recent demotion of Pluto from planethood. But this is still fabulous fun for all of us. The girls wanted to watch it again for our pizza and movie night (they liked "galaxy girl" the best -- that would be Interplanet Janet).