Bob Dorough, Schoolhouse Rock performer and writer, RIP

If you make educational concepts fun and memorable kids will be more likely to retain and remember the information.

 

Shouldn't this be in the music forum?

 

RIP. Blue Xmas indeed.

 

My profile photo tells you how I feel about this

edit: what a crappy article

 

Born on the same day as another famous Bob-- Barker of TPIR, who is still living!

 

I put it in Visual Arts due to the Schoolhouse Rock affiliation and more people know Bob for the Schoolhouse Rock deal than his other musical efforts.

 

Really ? Wow.

 

Bob Dorough, Blossom Dearie, Jack Sheldon, and Dave Frishberg were all close musical friends, occasionally appearing at each other's gigs, and playing each other's songs. All four shared a love of dry humor in lyrics, and were unfortunately not as well-known as their work should have made them.

They were all involved in Schoolhouse Rock, making it a very special show indeed. Sheldon and Frishberg are still with us, mostly performing on the West Coast. If you get a chance to see either of them, take it. It'll be a fun, highly entertaining evening.

 

Co-wrote,produced Give a Damn with Stewart Scharf. Part of the New York Urban Coalition ad campaign and later by John Lindsay's reelection campaign as NY mayor. Still learning....

 

So their audiences were indeed folks that were "hip"(famous Frishberg/Dorough song) and kids watching Sat. morning cartoons while inhaling Captain Crunch. Years ago, I asked my then-adult kid why he didn't know about Schoolhouse Rock. He reminded me that I forbid ABC 'toons in the house,largely because of the awful Scooby Doo. Pee-Wee,Smurfs,Muppet Babies,edited Looney Tunes-OK. Scooby? Not even today!

 

I understand the reasoning,but Bob,for me,was pure music. I rarely go into the Visual Arts,as I will never partake in extra priced TV after being robbed by cable,and many a new film under discussion is another action,blow-'em up. This coming from a forum member with little Beatle interest and 90% of rock,so go figure.

 

An essential part of every Gen-X kid's childhood. I absolutely loved Schoolhouse Rock shorts sandwiched between Scooby Doo and Superfriends cartoons! Such innocent times.

Also, "Figure Eight" haunted the heck out of me when I was a kid.


dan c

 

Yeah, you'd hope that the cartoon would hurry up and finish so a Multiplication Rock video would some on.

 

This one scared me:

 

Smurfs over Scooby? No way! Now, Scrappy, on the other hand...

 

NPR's Fresh Air will feature an edited 1982 interview with Bob,recorded in a studio with Bob playing piano and singing. I believe this interview is not part of available Fresh Air archives and was originally aired a few years before Fresh Air went national. Teaser features Bob really going nuts on I'm Hip,a song he wrote with Dave Frishberg. Fresh Air feeds as early as noon East Coast(odd that Allentown's NPR outlet,WDIY,gets that early feed and airs it online via wdiy.org but FA's flagship station,WHYY,doesn't air it till 3PM(rebroadcast @7PM). The episode eventually be available as a podcast later in the day.

 

A true Southern gentleman and an extremely talented and gifted musician. May he rest in peace.

 

I hope it doesn't get edited too much. I moved to the Lehigh Valley in 1981 and discovered Fresh Air, in its three-hour format, almost immediately. I remember that concert segment, because it's how I found out there was a jazz scene in the Delaware Water Gap. I caught one of Bob's shows at the Deer Head Inn there, and he was wonderful. That's also how I got turned on to his friends and collaborators Blossom Dearie and Dave Frishberg, who themselves made concert appearances on Fresh Air (thank you Terry Gross and Francis Davis).

 

Very true!

 

I am deeply saddened by this news. It's as though a significant portion of my childhood has passed with him.

RIP Bob Dorough

 

This thread makes me want to find my Best Of Schoolhouse Rock CD and give it another listen.

 

The "Devil May Care" album is excellent. And it says something to be the only person to have sung on a Miles Davis album. (I believe that's true.)

He did several gigs in the Bay Area in the mid-70's and they were always a treat, sometimes with either Dave Frishberg or Blossom Dearie also on the bill. They were all of a school. I met him at a Great American gig and ended up mailing him a recording of one of his live shows I had captured. He sent me a letter back thanking me. He was a really nice guy and an underrated musician. Putting words to Charlie Parker solos would not be easy. RIP and thanks for the music.

 

What an interesting life. He was a jazz musician who when given the opportunity, wrote and sang great children's music.

Schoolhouse Rock was a bit like MTV no? 3 minute educational music videos for kids in the 1970s. Like Grant said earlier, kids could tell when something had a higher production value (Schoolhouse Rock) than your average Hanna Barbarra shows from the 70s.

Anyways since this is a music site:

Since Multiplication Rock was a released album, all the tracks are available in STEREO.

I'm not sure about the rest of the Schoolhouse Rock songs. The available "Conjunction Junction" download on Amazon is in glorious MONO. Not sure if there were Stereo mixes made for the rest since there were no albums from the rest of the series.

 

I'm more of a Captain Kangaroo guy than Schoolhouse Rock - never saw or gave a hoot about the latter, but I loved his voice on songs like "Dog" and "Blue Xmas", which he did with Miles Davis.