The Langley Schools Music Project

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The Langley Schools Music Project is a collection of children's chorus recordings made from 1976-77 by Canadian music teacher Hans Fenger in a school gymnasium in Langley, British Columbia, near Vancouver. The students performed unique versions of pop hits by the likes of The Beach Boys, David Bowie, and Paul McCartney. The recordings were quickly forgotten until author, WFMU radio DJ, and "outsider music" enthusiast Irwin Chusid rediscovered them in 2000. He managed to get them released on Bar/None Records, and they immediately created an international buzz, making many end-of-the-year best album lists in 2001. VH-1 orchestrated a reunion of the students and their teacher in 2002, and aired a documentary as well.

[edit] Discography

Lochiel, Glenwood, and South Carvolth Schools, 1976

1. You're So Good To Me
2. To Know Him Is To Love Him
3. Help Me, Rhonda
4. Space Oddity
5. I'm Into Something Good
6. Band on the Run
7. Rhiannon
8. Little Deuce Coupe
9. Saturday Night

Hans Fenger/Wix-Brown Elementary School, 1977

1. Venus and Mars/Rock Show
2. You're Sixteen
3. Wildfire
4. In My Room
5. I Get Around
6. The Long and Winding Road
7. Desperado
8. Good Vibrations
9. God Only Knows
10. Sweet Caroline
11. Mandy
12. Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft

Innocence & Despair, 2001
(Compilation of previous 2 LPs, recorded 1976-77)

• Venus and Mars/Rock Show (Paul McCartney & Wings)
• Good Vibrations (The Beach Boys)
• God Only Knows (The Beach Boys)
• Space Oddity (David Bowie)
• The Long and Winding Road (The Beatles)
• Band on the Run (Paul McCartney & Wings)
• I'm Into Something Good (Herman's Hermits)
• In My Room (The Beach Boys)
• Saturday Night (Bay City Rollers)
• I Get Around (The Beach Boys)
• Mandy (Barry Manilow)
• Help Me, Rhonda (The Beach Boys)
• Desperado (The Eagles)
• You're So Good To Me (The Beach Boys)
• Sweet Caroline (Neil Diamond)
• To Know Him Is To Love Him (Teddy Bears)
• Rhiannon (Fleetwood Mac)
• You're Sixteen (Ringo Starr)
• Little Deuce Coupe (The Beach Boys)
• Wildfire (Michael Martin Murphy)
• Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft (Klaatu)

[edit] Quotes

• "The backing arrangement is astounding. Coupled with the earnest if lugubrious vocal performance you have a piece of art that I couldn't have conceived of, even with half of Colombia's finest export products in me." - David Bowie (on "Space Oddity")

• "The effect of all those young voices singing 'Calling Occupants' is charming." - Richard Carpenter, The Carpenters

• "When I heard about the Langley project, it seemed very interesting, but I did have the thought that it might sound like children singing off-key in a gym. The reality blew me away-- a haunting, evocative wall-of-sound experience that is affecting in an incredibly visceral way. What an amazing CD!" - Fred Schneider, The B-52s

• "I find myself calling friends, turning The Langley Schools Music Project up really loud, holding the phone out and going, 'Can you hear that?' I put it on at odd times during the day, tuning it in and out, sometimes wincing as the singers hit a strange note, then shaking my head in puzzled wonder when the music suddenly, and against all odds, transcends the kitsch limitations that seem designed to keep it earthbound and soars off into the realm of true art. It flies -- crooked as a butterfly's flight, but it still flies. I wish every school taught music like this. I wish every piece of music recorded in a school gymnasium were this haunting... and then I suspect that, if I listened to them right, maybe they would be." - Neil Gaiman

• "I knew virtually nothing about conventional music education, and didn't know how to teach singing. Above all, I knew nothing of what children's music was supposed to be. But the kids had a grasp of what they liked: emotion, drama, and making music as a group. Whether the results were good, bad, in tune or out was no big deal -- they had élan. This was not the way music was traditionally taught. But then I never liked conventional 'children's music,' which is condescending and ignores the reality of children's lives, which can be dark and scary. These children hated 'cute.' They cherished songs that evoked loneliness and sadness." - Hans Fenger, Langley music supervisor/arranger

[edit] External links

• The Langley Schools Music Project: "INNOCENCE AND DESPAIR"

See also: Outsider Music, Kidz Bop