The emails came in sporadically in the short month of February, 2000, but one contained a verse that really rang 'home' with me. Everything it mentioned sounded familiar. It made me feel warm and comfortable, and immediately I decided it had to be included in the March 2000 issue. Printed with anonymous as the author, we carried it that way and gave the friend who sent the email a line saying submitted by....PrairWarur, who obviously knew a good, cheering verse when she saw one.
In late June, 2002, we received a brief email asking that credit be given to the rightful author, who was the one sending this request. Getting right on it, was not too easy, as it had been since archived, though available by address online, so the webmaster had to be contacted for info about the poem.
Once he got the message, he found it in short order and not only posted the correct author to the poem, but also posted the bio for the author found on his website. I would never have gotten so much info so quickly, which serves to emphasize the difference in an editor and a webmaster.
Since the composition is now archived, we decided to carry it again... within this article, for two reasons. One, to be sure that the author was duly credited in a current issue, and two, because it couldn't be a more timely statement to remind us of our American value system which is being threatened first one way then another. Because we do Trust in God, and have been reared to do the right thing, here again is the poem:
Black and White
By Steve Vaus
You could hardly see for all the snow,
Spread the rabbit ears as far as they go
Pull a chair up to the TV set,
"Good night David, Good night Chet"
Dependin' on the channel you tuned
You got Rob and Laura - or Ward and June.
It felt so good, felt so right --
Life looked better in black and white.
I Love Lucy, The Real McCoys,
Dennis the Menace, the Cleaver boys,
Rawhide, Gunsmoke, Wagon Train,
Superman, Lois Lane,
Father Knows Best, Patty Duke,
Rin Tin Tin and Lassie too,
Donna Reed on Thursday night --
Life looked better in black and white
I wanna go back to black and white,
Everything always turned out right.
Simple people, simple lives,
Good guys always won the fights.
Now nothin's the way it seems
In living color or on the screen.
I wanna go back to black and white.
In God they trusted, in bed they slept.
A promise made was a promise kept,
They never cussed or broke their vows.
They'd never make the network now.
But if I could I'd rather be
In a TV town in '63.
It felt so good, felt so right --
Life looked better in black and white.
I'd trade all the channels on the satellite
If I could just turn back the clock tonight
To when everybody knew wrong from right --
Life was better in black and white.
©1994 Steve Vaus
Here is the biography that tags to Steve Vaus's name:
Steve Vaus has performed for millions of fans around the world. He has created music for television programs, pro sports teams, the America's Cup, the Olympics, the World Series and the United States Navy Blue Angels. He has produced and recorded with Willie Nelson, Kenny Loggins, Randy Travis, Kenny Rogers and other superstars. He's been named an Outstanding Young Citizen, won countless awards, carried the Olympic torch, even been invited to sing at a White House event.
But none of that makes any difference to corporate entertainment executives. They've gone to great lengths to keep his patriotic music off the airwaves and out of record stores.
The trouble began in 1992 while Vaus was signed to a recording contract with RCA Records. Just as his rousing anthem for cultural renewal, "We Must Take America Back," began climbing the charts, Vaus was summarily dropped by RCA because of complaints by a handful of deejays who objected to the music's themes.
The fact that the public loved the song (and made it a top request from coast to coast) is what got Vaus in trouble with the music industry. The fact that RCA received thousands of calls protesting the decision to pull the record off the store shelves made no difference. Vaus' RCA career was over. In 1995, history repeated itself. Some new Vaus songs grabbed the attention of another Nashville record company. A deal was struck. But weeks before the release, the project was canceled after label employees protested the record's conservative content.
Who would have thought that an artist could be censored by the entertainment industry because of an uncompromising stand for God and country? Who would have thought we would see the day when sex and violence in music is celebrated, yet songs about faith and freedom are forbidden?
Don't get mad, get even. Show RCA and the other record companies they made a big mistake in sacrificing principle for politics, morality for conformity and decency for phony hipness. Steve Vaus has recorded many albums since 1992 -- full of songs you'll listen to over and over again and happily share with your friends and family.
To learn more about Steve Vaus, here is his website, http://www.stevevaus.com/
Now, "Black and White" is truly anonymous no more!
