TSA song by local artist Steve Vaus goes viral
By J. Harry Jones
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
signonsandiego.com
Steve Vaus
Help you make it to your flight
youtube.com!
POWAY — A few days after the “don’t touch my junk” incident Nov. 13 at the San Diego International Airport generated headlines, Poway’s Buck Howdy penned a short song lampooning the Transportation Security Administration.
The tune, titled “Help You Make it to Your Flight,” was recorded Nov. 18 at a sound studio in Escondido and posted on YouTube soon afterward, along with a slide show.
By midday Tuesday, the video was nearing the 2 million viewership count. It has averaged roughly one hit every second.
Buck Howdy, a.k.a. Steve Vaus, 58, won a Grammy this year for best spoken album for children and has been a recording artist for almost four decades. He can’t believe the public's reaction to his YouTube video.
“I thought it would float around for a week or two," Vaus said. "I thought that maybe I’d get a quarter-million hits, but it just keeps going and going.”
The song begins:
“Take the ribbon from your hair
Shake it loose, let it fall
Leave your shoes right over there
Now get up against the wall!"
Vaus said he wrote the lyrics in less than three hours and recorded the song in less time than that.
“It’s certainly the most widely issued piece of music I’ve ever done,” he added. "My biggest fear is that the next time I fly, I’ll walk through the airport and see a wanted poster with my face on it."
Outside of the music world, Vaus made headlines last year by leading a recall effort against Poway City Councilwoman Betty Rexford -- she was recalled by 78 percent of the voters -- and then by unsuccessfully running to replace her in a special election in June. He lost by a handful of votes. |
