Listen to Bernie Sanders "sing"
Forget spearheading an overhaul of the besieged Veterans Affairs health care system; Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, clearly missed his calling.
To the thrill of Republican muckrakers, political bloggers and presumably everyone else, a Vermont-based blog on Wednesday released tracks unearthed from a folk album recorded by the longtime liberal crusader in 1987. One reviewer has dubbed the gem "so bad, it's good."
The album, which features Sanders' signature throaty Brooklyn accent stabbing in spoken-word at classics like, "This Land is Your Land" and "We Shall Overcome," was apparently the brainchild of Todd Lockwood, a connoisseur of all things artsy from Burlington, Vermont. He told "Seven Days" the offbeat idea simply came to him one morning 27 years ago.
"I thought, 'You know, there's an idea,'" Lockwood said of what's arguably not a natural conclusion to draw after a brainstorm about Sanders, who at the time was serving as Burlington's mayor. Lockwood left a message with Sanders' secretary that was almost immediately returned.
"I was surprised he said yes," Lockwood said. "When I first went to his office he said, 'I have to admit to you this appeals to my ego."
With an OK from the defunct BurlingTown Recordings label, Sanders headed to the recording studio armed with a list of his favorite Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger tunes. The session didn't go quite as planned.
"As talented of a guy as he is, he has absolutely not one musical bone in his body, and that became painfully obvious from the get-go," Lockwood said. "This is a guy who couldn't even tap his foot to music coming over the radio. No sense of melody. No sense of rhythm."
Plan B involved a couple dozen Vermont musicians whose background chorus would supplement Sanders as he jerkily preached the lyrics. The end product proved well worth it for the label, which sold several hundred cassette tapes that year - many, reportedly, to conservatives who purchased them as gag gifts.
With its newfound publicity, the album is likely to see a resurgence, as gag gifts or otherwise, particularly if Sanders - a progressive independent who caucuses with Senate Democrats - mounts a bid for president, as he's indicated he might. Lockwood said he doesn't expect the album to haunt Sanders' political ambitions.
"Part of it seems a little preachy now, but I think it's a pretty cool project," Lockwood said. "I don't see any reason why he would be embarrassed to have it out there. When you listen to what he's saying, a lot of the message is exactly what he's saying now - the 'one-percenter' stuff. It's been in his repertoire for a long time."
