TONY TRUPIANO campaign song
Lyrics by Jim Terr / Blue Canyon Music BMI © 2006  
Song title suggested by Carolyn KayI used to hear Tony's talk show here in Santa Fe, and was always struck by his thoughtfulness and fairness. (Check any of the sound clips on his website). So when I heard from Caro that he was running for Congress, and had a good chance, and she even suggested a song title, well, I just felt I had to do one for Tony.
      I hope it rallies and encourages the troops. Even from out here in New Mexico, it would be heartening to have a guy like Tony in Congress. We ordinarily do jingles for a fee (100% win rate so far!), but glad to do this one for Tony!

It's not the job of a satire queen,
To help a particular candidate raise some green.
But we gotta help Tony Trupiano come through,
Won't you help make a red district blue?
Now Thad McCotter's not a vampire, you know,
But with a record like that, the guy's gotta go.
Iraq and phony ethics reform,
Thad's got his own little desert dust storm.

Tony talks from a heartfelt place
And that's why he's gonna win this race.
Tony will fight hard for Michigan's 11th.
So won't you be there for Tony on November 7th?

So throw a few bucks Tony's way,
Ask a few friends to listen to what he's got to say.
Carl Levin likes him -- Granholm, Stabenow and Dingell too.
So won't you make a red district blue?

Yeah doesn't "Congressman Tony" sound sweet to you?
Won't you help make a red district blue?

Please Mr. President
Jim Terr © 2006  Blue Canyon Music BMII've always been struck by the ignorance of callers to talk shows (both "right" and "left") who have never figured out that if you streamline the ability to arrest and prosecute the "bad guys," then that "bad guy" could be YOU if things are as fouled up and vindictive as they tend to be, or if the leaders you hate are in power next time.
      Not to mention the talk show hosts who don't point it out -- or who also haven't thought of it. Duh!Please Mr. President, it couldn't-a been me,
I been a Dallas Cowboys fan since 1983.
I watch the NASCAR races, I drink from a can,
I got my NRA card, I hunt like a man. So what am I doing in here? Must be a mistake of some sort,
Somebody wrote the name wrong when they took that report.
Please just ask my wife, you can call her at home.
I ain't one of the bad guys, I'm Rodney Malone. Oh please, Mr. President, I voted for you,
Not just one time either, I think it was two.
I like the way you said that you would throw away the key
But there's been some kinda error, they came to get ME. I need to call a lawyer to straighten this out.
No one in here knows or cares what I'm talking about.
When we threw out that habeus corpus and those trials, you see,
Wasn't that for the bad guys, not the good guys like me? Please Mr. Prison Guard, don't beat me again.
Can't you see in other circumstances we could be friends?
Won't you let me call my lawyer? I can call him at home.
I ain't one of the bad guys, I'm Rodney Malone.

Those terrorists and protesters, they all hate the U.S.
And they should be gotten rid of, I agree that would be best.
But I thought there was some way that you would surely have known,
I ain't one of the bad guys, I'm Rodney Malone.
No, can't you see I'm one of the good guys? I'm Rodney Malone!

"WORLD LEADERS AT PLAY" Public Service Announcement
Jim Terr © 2006 Blue Canyon Music BMINo satire here. 100% serious. Does GWB have any friends? I hope so, but if he does he keeps them well-hidden.We've all had the realization at one time or another. The handsome, self-confident high school jock or the beautiful cheerleader we all look up to turns out to be the loneliest one in the crowd, with the biggest problems of all. Yes, it can be lonely at the top, and no less so for world leaders. Including YOUR world leader, upon whom you depend for your very survival, what with today's nuclear weapons and scores of other possible scenarios for global destruction. So when your president or prime minister has a chance to meet with other world leaders, to let his or her hair down and share a diet soda with others who hold the fate of their people in THEIR hands, we suggest you support and encourage these social opportunities. Whether it's staring deeply into the soul of a Russian president, conducting virtual war games with a British prime minister, visiting Graceland with an Elvis fan or finding common ground with a German chancellor, remember that world leaders are people too, and they benefit from human friendship and social interaction just like everyone else. In fact, they may not HAVE any other friends, and playing with other world leaders may be a valuable outlet and a great chance to learn to cooperate with others, just like it is for children.

So encourage your world leader to take every opportunity to socialize, to find out about other cultures, to learn to get along. They may say it's just getting to know people with whom they can do business, but we know it's much more important than that.

DON'T WATCH THE VIDEO (to the tune of "Down By the Riverside")
Jim Terr © 7-06 Blue Canyon Music BMIMan you GOT to see this video. It's incredible. It's all in there. It's got the REAL experts, and the music is really good. Scary. Inspiring. You'll know the Truth after you see this video, I swear to God!! (Pardon my cynicism, but I produce documentaries myself, so I know the potential for propagandizing...)If you don't wanna get yourself upset - DON'T WATCH THE VIDEO!
Make ya fret - (DWV) - make ya sweat - (DWV)
If your opinions are pretty firmly set - (DWV) (DWV) If you ain't concerned about climate change - (DWV)
Tons of rain - (DWV) - hurricanes - (DWV)
If this heat wave don't seem mighty strange - (DWV) (DWV)If you like to shoot off your automatic, and don't like your neighbors givin' you static, You better not watch the video….
The one where the NRA says they're tryin' to take your guns away,
They're just doin' it real sneaky and slow. If you like your sirloin medium rare - (DWV)
It ain't fair (DWV) You don't care - (DWV)
About the slaughterhouse and what goes on down there (DWV)(DWV) And if you think a plane hit the Pentagon - (DWV)
Skidded across the lawn - (DWV) just after dawn - (DWV)
I got this tape about how it was all a con. (DWV) (DWV) If you think a fetus is a lifeless speck -- and only God knows if you're correct --
Don't pop in that DVD….
You'll see that little tadpole cryin', sayin' "Please don't kill me I'm just tryin
     to grow up to be all I can be!"

So if you don't wanna get your shorts in a knot - (DWV)
Get too hot (DWV) Have a brain clot (DWV)
Think them so-called experts don't know squat? (DWV) …..
DON'T WATCH THE VIDEOOOO……

Busy Putting Burrs Under Saddles: See, Hear Jim Terr

By Leslie Linthicum / Of the Journal on Sun, Sep 18, 2011

LAS VEGAS, N.M. – Conservative demagogues who are familiar with Jim Terr might ask, “Jim, why do you hate America so much?”Everyone else who has heard Terr’s twisted country tunes about our current national morass might wonder why he isn’t famous yet.Terr has been kicking around the music and film business ever since he graduated from Northwestern University in the early 1970s with a major in partying and a minor in English literature.While Terr has written some beautiful mainstream country tunes, he’s best-known for his novelty songs, which take on corporate greed, the NRA, menopause, Walmart, Glenn Beck, day trading, Santa Fe tourists, the American health care system, Joe the Plumber, Texas school board members, global warming, Karl Rove and Facebook.Have we left anything out?Oh, yes. Terr has also skewered common grammatical errors, the BP oil spill and NPR correspondent Susan Stamberg’s annual Thanksgiving piece on her mother-in-law’s cranberry relish recipe.“Believe me,” Terr assured me, “I’m an equal opportunity annoyer.”Terr, who has lived and worked in Santa Fe for most of his career, is back in his hometown of Las Vegas these days. Terr (rhymes with “burr” – as in burr under the saddle of just about everybody) has been on my radar screen for a couple of decades, mostly because of his profuse letter-to-the-editor offerings, but it was two of his most recent songs that persuaded me I needed to finally meet him.“The Campaign Finance Song” is a subversive little piece that takes on the fundraising system that keeps members of Congress chasing campaign contributions. Terr’s solution is for each of us to just kick in six bucks and eliminate the possibility of special interest influence.And “Standard & Poor” examines the economic slide of the upper middle class. “I guess I’ve been downgraded, now I’m standard and poor,” is the money line.Over coffee and papitas at the Spic & Span cafe, a short walk from his family home, Terr told me that finding targets for satire is as easy for him as tuning in to the news of the day or listening to people talk. His songbook grows thicker every day.“Since I’ve been in Vegas, I’ve been on a real amped-up song-writing streak,” Terr said. “Sometimes, I write a couple a day.”It’s not like there isn’t plenty of material out there for a willing satirist, and Terr sees something to get worked up about everywhere he looks.Indeed, Terr has a stunning array of songs and videos available on his websites, www.jimterr.com and www.bluecanyonsatire.com and on YouTube, where he recently passed 600,000 views. His oeuvre includes a spoof commercial spot for turquoise-encrusted jackalope droppings as well as “Chicken Stock,” a Jewish parody of Woodstock, and a rock ‘n’ roll song about a public health care option accompanied by singing hamsters.Which is to say he’s not exactly mainstream.Still, Terr put out a record called, “Please Cut My Song, Mr. Travis” and even though Mr. Travis has not yet complied, Terr hopes to someday write a country hit.Even though he has been aired on NPR and other nationwide radio broadcasts and he has released a handful of CDs, he says he barely makes a living writing and recording songs. His new CD, unreleased and as yet unnamed, is mostly comedy, only some of it political, and Terr said he’s tried to trim out the most partisan tracks.“It just cuts back your market to have songs about hating Republicans,” Terr acknowledged.Even so, the new CD will include “What We Need Is Another Texas President” and “Bosses of the World Unite.”And, for the record, Terr doesn’t really hate America. He just wants to keep it from flushing down the drain.“I don’t hate Republicans,” Terr assured me. “I’m anti-demagoguery and mass hysteria and so I attack it when I see it.”Terr also likes to take a break from politics and just have some fun. Two of his most popular recent releases are “Mama Don’t Send Me to the Big Box Store” and “Do They Have Email in Heaven?” The punch line to that tune, which could be the official anthem of the 2000s, is “cause if not, I don’t want to go.”

UpFront is a daily front-page news and opinion column. Comment directly to Leslie Linthicum at 823-3914 or llinthicum@abqjournal.com. Go to www.abqjournal.com/letters/new to submit a letter to the editor.
— This article appeared on page A1 of the Albuquerque Journal