Rodd Keith Song Poems on Happy Puppy Records

Song poems are songs created around submitted lyrics for a fee. Known as song sharking, the practice typically involves cranking out tunes for next to no cost and with little effort in order to make a fat profit off those who submit their poetry to be set to music.

The results are typically bizarre and are sought out by lovers of the obscure and unusual.

For more than a year, the Happy Puppy Records netlabel and Bob Purse of The Wonderful and the Obscure blog and the WFMU Beware of the Blog have been working together to organize a series of song poem compilations. Their first collection was released today, and they kicked off the series with none other than a king of song poems, Rodd Keith.

Get the album The Wonderful and the Obscure, Volume 1: Rodd Keith [hpr068] at Happy Puppy Records.

Hear your own crazy poetry set to music by making your own song poem at the Off the Charts: The Song-Poem Story film site (film trailer)!

Happy Puppy Records is also home to a related project, poems4songs.