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America’s
#1 Patriotic Singer
An
interview with Carl Klang
By Mike
Salamone
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Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the USA" was played all over
the radio nationwide after 9-11, almost surpassing the "Star Spangled
Banner" as the national anthem. The song’s popularity is hardly surprising
since it represents a simple, feel-good kind of patriotism. However, since
1992 a Carl Klang has taken patriotic music where
it needs to be: honest and extreme. Carl's music hasn't reached the top 40
yet and probably never will. Songs like "The Federal Reserve isn't Federal
at All" and "Wheresoever Eagles Gather (the Ballad of Randy Weaver)" deal
with such topics as the unconstitutionality of the Federal Reserve and how
government agents murdered Randy Weaver's wife and child. Not exactly the
kind of subject matter the corporate suits who run mainstream radio want to
expose their listeners to. Carl does have a strong following among hardcore
patriots, though, and you don't have to like country music to appreciate his
work.
UT: What got you started in music, especially patriotic
music?
CK: I pursued a career in songwriting going to LA, and
the closer I got to any kind of success the more I realized how controlled
the music business was. My experience was kind of disheartening because
they wanted me to rewrite all my demos for what they said was more
preferable lyric content. They liked my melodies but wanted me to change my
lyrics, and I couldn't really sell my soul, so to speak, and be under their
control. My art was my art and I didn't think it should be their art. They
were not artists. They were businessmen who represented music labels. I
got involved in patriotic music when I read a book by Dez Griffin called
"Fourth Reich of the Rich", which is about the evil, filthy rotten
conspiracy; globalization. And I got involved in writing music in a
politically incorrect vein after what took place in northern Idaho with
Randy Weaver losing his wife and son, and being held hostage in his own
mountain cabin for 11 days while there was a huge government assault on his
property. I wrote "Wheresoever Eagles Gather (Ballad of Randy Weaver)", and
I put it out on a cassingle. “Wheresoever...” was on one side and a parody
about our money called "Paper Money", sung to the tune of "Paper Roses" by
Connie Francis, was on the other. From there it got on shortwave.
Shortwave radio became a medium for my music, whereas AM/FM and popular
contemporary listening stations are basically closed shops. I got an
international response from shortwave. So then I began to put albums
together. From 1992-1998 I have produced 6 albums and covered some of the
atrocities that took place including the siege on the Waco Branch Davidians.
UT: Carl, when I first heard "17 Little Children" the
first 10-13 times I nearly came to tears.
CK: There's something in the groove of that song.
UT: Tom Valentine told me he recommended you take that one woman's
poem about the Unknown Soldier and write a song about it.
CK: Yes. I heard her recite the poem. Her name is
Patricia Grady-Parcell, and her father was an air force pilot shot down over
in Vietnam. She was on a desperate search for her father. While the
government told her that he was MIA and probably dead, she, through other
channels, found out he was being held as a POW even after the war when
according to the Geneva Convention, POW's are supposed to be returned. And
our government basically let him stay. Didn't protest the fact the
communists were keeping our men even after the war. And she went to search
for her father and she wrote a poem called "The Unknown Soldier", and I
adapted it into a song. I don't think she got to hear the song because she
did raise some money and made a mission to Cambodia to find her father. I
was brought to tears when she recited her poem. But she's never returned
from Cambodia as far as I know. That was in 1994/5.
UT: What do you think of the state of politics today?
CK: Winston Churchill once said most people when they
run into the truth usually just pick themselves up, dust themselves off, and
behave as though nothing had happened. I find that to be part of the
problem in this nation. It's not so much they can't perceive the truth.
It's just that they're conditioned to reject it.
UT: Once you hear the truth you can either ignore it or react to
it.
CK: It's a mass mind control thru a pervasive medium
of education, television, radio, newspapers, magazines, and what I call
false history. History according to them.
UT: I can't believe people think George Bush is a Christian.
CK: I can't either.
UT: Like you said, it's a mass hypnosis. All they do is watch TV.
Carl, I don't even watch TV.
CK: Who in their right mind would watch TV? It's like
having an out of control freaked out relative sitting in the corner of your
house. You never know what he's gonna say or do. What you perceive or hear
and what you absorb is constantly being controlled by the way it's twisted
and spun by the spin doctors. We all believe that we cannot be that
deceived. Our pride, our ego, and our vanity keep us from believing the
truth. We cannot believe the talking head on TV would lie to us. We cannot
believe that our president could bold-faced lie to us. Pride keeps us from
believing the truth.
UT: How can people get in touch with you?
CK: I have a website,
www.klang.com, or you can write to: Carl Klang Music Ministries, PO BOX
2301, Boulder, Colorado 80306.
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