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Children's Singer Takes on TSA With Protest Tune

Dec 17, 2010 – 7:46 AM
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David Moye

David Moye Contributor

(Dec. 17) -- Finally, someone is benefiting from the invasive TSA body searches: A Grammy-winning children's music artist, who after a four-decade career groping for a hit has written a song about the Transportation Security Administration that's touched a nerve -- among other body parts.

His name is Buck Howdy and his album, "Aaaaah! Spooky Scary Stories and Songs," won the 2010 Grammy Award for the Best Spoken-Word Album for Children.

However, by a stroke of good luck, he's finally getting the exposure he's long desired with a satirical ditty about the TSA's new procedures called "Help You Make It to Your Flight," a rewrite of the Kris Kristofferson hit "Help Me Make It Through the Night."

Lyrics in the song include this opening line: Take the ribbon from your hair/ Shake it loose, let it fall/ Leave your shoes right over there/ Now get up against the wall!

Although the song was partially inspired by the experience of John "Don't Touch My Junk" Tyner, Howdy said he junked a friend's suggestion to write a song with that title.

"There's not much there," he said.

Still, Howdy says he was thinking about how "random searches aren't really random" when he suddenly thought of the old Kristofferson song, which was a hit for Sammi Smith in 1970, and got the title for his version.

"It nearly wrote itself," Howdy said. "I spent less time writing and recording it than anything I've ever done."

And he's getting more bang out of it: More than 2 million hits since he posted a video on YouTube a few weeks ago that features up-close and personal photos of airline passengers being poked and prodded in the name of national security.
Buck Howdy performs at at The Grammy Museum on August 1, 2009 in Los Angeles, California.
Rebecca Sapp, WireImage
Buck Howdy performs at the Grammy Museum on Aug. 1, 2009, in Los Angeles.

Although some might find it strange that an artist whose target audience is kids between ages and 1 and 5 is singing a song about being groped by a TSA official, Howdy is not one of them.

"I've always been edgy," he said, adding that he once wrote a song called "Cow Pies for Christmas" that suggested Santa Claus had decided to punish bad children by putting bovine defecation in their stockings.

"To me, the determining factor was the fact that the body searches have been such a big news story," he said.

Howdy says he's received some fan mail from people claiming to be TSA agents but admits he's still a little nervous about visiting an airport anytime soon.

"I'm concerned I'll be on a wanted poster," he said. "In fact, I definitely expect to go through secondary screening."

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