A new tune from Chicago Magazine columnist Jeff Ruby could be “the best song ever about state capitals,” according to the Huffington Post Web site.
Well, maybe.
In 1993, the “Animaniacs” cartoon show featured a character singing, in a nasal, Ringo Starr-like voice, a sweet rhyme naming each state and its capital. Since then, grade-school teachers have employed the catchy tune to teach U.S. geography.
But Ruby’s video of his “Capital Song,” posted at the Chicago Magazine site, probably isn’t going to be much help for 10-year-olds cramming for a social studies test.
For one thing, the song, which features a pounding beat borrowed from the 1990s punk band Home Grown, includes all 50 capitals but neglects to connect 20 of them with their states.
For another, Ruby’s lyrics, sung in a vaguely Lou Reed-ish rasp, are a PTA controversy waiting to happen: “Indianapolis/Annapolis/both crapolis as capitals. … Sacramento’s kind of yucky/Honolulu’s on the island/where Obama learned to pee.”
Ruby (whose magazine, like this newspaper, is owned by Tribune Co.) wrote the song as payment after losing a bet over naming the most state capitals. Now the video is gaining some traction, popping up on a few blogs, including one at The Washington Post.
The “Animaniacs” and Ruby videos are both on YouTube. Ruby’s shows him using different colors of M&Ms to create iconic American images and build a map of the states. The “Animaniacs” version is straight from Saturday morning cartoonland.
“I was laughing with my wife over the fact that in order to stay relevant as a journalist these days, I had to retreat to my basement and make a replica of the Statue of Liberty out of M&Ms,” Ruby said.
As of Thursday, Ruby’s video had been viewed more than 8,700 times. The “Animaniacs” version: 1.17 million times.
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Caution: Contains geographic lyrics
Watch the video of Jeff Ruby’s song at chicagotribune.com/statecaps
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