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The Baltimore Rock Anthem "Baltimore: The New Rock Anthem will no doubt appeal to a wide and diverse audience, and anyone who takes pride in the City of Baltimore" - Michael E. Dalton, Assistant Chief, Baltimore City Fire Department. "I am signing this petition to express my hope that you will pass a resolution to adopt “Baltimore” by Fitehouse as our city’s Official Rock Anthem, I appreciate the song’s message of optimism and pride in Baltimore. Making the song our Official Rock Anthem would be a bold move and I believe that it could help boost our city’s image on the national scene" - Petition signed by scores of ordinary Baltimore citizens.
"I kind of like it" - Mayor Martin O'Malley, Baltimore City.
By the time Fitehouse was up and rolling as a band, the damage of the 1996 Telecommunications act had already been done. The vast majority of commercial radio stations had become consolidated in the hands of small number of companies. Gone were the days when bands could hope to be picked up by local DJs and radio stations that made their own programming decisions. Fitehouse faced the reality that firms like Clear Channel were making computer-aided programming choices for the whole country from their corporate headquarters in Texas (a veritable Ministry of Culture).Getting access to those folks took economic resources (dare I say payola?) that bands simply did not have, unless, of course, they had signed share-cropping deals with one of the then big recording labels -- the other major component in our now centrally-planned culture industry. Fitehouse knew that braking through the bureaucracy was going to take a bold publicity stunt. Thus was born the Baltimore Rock Anthem.
In doing some research at the central branch of the Enoch Pratt library in Baltimore City in the year 2000, the band came upon a fact that was becoming increasingly lost upon the citizenry: the city had an official Municipal Anthem -- "Baltimore, Our Baltimore," that had been adopted in 1916. In theory it was still the city's official song. Make no mistake, it was a darned good tune, but you just couldn't karaoke to it. This discovery spurned an idea: the band would compose a rock song about Baltimore and then organize a movement to get it declared the city's official Rock Anthem. The band would argue that given the economic woes of the city, and it's limited resources to promote the city's image, adopting the rock anthem would be a gutsy and creative move (as no other U.S. city had an official rock anthem). It could be the seed for a national news story on Baltimore's re-emergence as an invigorated and exciting city. Of course, along the way, the controversy that would inevitably be generated by Fitehouse's political maneuvering would serve to promote the band itself. Ultimately, Fitehouse wanted to see what lengths it would have to go to get some local airplay for its material. To get the ball rolling on the rock anthem campaign, the band sent out brochures and CDs to over 500 community leaders and public officials, arguing for the merits of a rock anthem (after all, Baltimore had it all, but where was it's rock anthem? -- The classic Wizard of Oz phenomenon). The brochures were followed up with a "Baltimore City Image Survey" which could be used to take the pulse of city officials on their possible support for a rock anthem in general and to solicit their feed back on Fitehouse's proposed song. This survey would act as the basis of a press release to be sent out to local media.
And the ball started rolling indeed!
- Several prominent politicians went on record as either endorsing the song “Baltimore”, or supporting the concept of a rock anthem in general. Among them were then Lt. Governor Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, Michael E. Dalton, Assistant Chief of the Fire Department and Barry W. Powell, Deputy Commissioner of the Police Department.
- Fitehouse contacted Carmen V. Russo, a recent Baltimore arrival and the newly appointed Chief Exectutive Officer of the Baltimore City Public School System, to inform her of the status of the rock anthem debate. Russo decided to act, and contacted her fine arts department to help get the school system on board. As a result, the department requested 200 copies of the Rock Anthem CD for distribution to all Baltimore City music teachers at a professional development session. Fitehouse provided packets including the CD, sheet music and suggested classroom activities.The Band's bassist then went on to arrange a full marching band score and piano reduction, to be made available for the city's schools and universities (see side bar downloads).
- Then Mayor Martin O’Malley remained silent on the issue for some time, responding to Fitehouse’s multiple inquiries by indicating that the proposal had been "forwarded to a staff person for review". Finally the Baltimore Sun blew open the rock anthem debate (see image above) and journalist Todd Richissin was able to get the mayor to finally go on record as “kind of” liking the song. Though the Mayor thought the tune was “pretty good,” he did not yet openly endorse it as a possible Official Rock Anthem. Of course, the band's hopes would be dashed when they saw the Mayor and his band ("O'Malley's March) a few weeks later performing his own Baltimore-themed song on national television. It was clear that the Mayor was not an impartial party in the rock anthem debate.
- Former Sun music critic J.D. Considine evaluated Baltimore as “hack work,” while City Paper author Joe MacLeod slammed the song for being written by non-native Baltimoreans. The latter set off a maelstrom of controversy in the City Paper’s letters-to-the-editor section, which lasted for five consecutive weeks. During the letter writing campaign, Fitehouse blew the cover off the City Paper's MacLeod when it revealed that he was actually originally from Schenectady, NY. The embarrassing revelation, and his less-than-impressive footwork in researching the issue, caused MacLeod to later make a full, (though completely facetious) retraction of his original position.
- In 2001, Fitehouse would finally be invited by a couple of local radio stations to make their case for the Rock Anthem on the air. While "98 Rock" did dedicate a full 30 minute segment on the program “Wake up call,” it was done as part of their FCC-mandated public service material and aired at 6 am on a Sunday morning, This is hardly the finest hour for most rock-n-roll fans. Indeed, outside of these public service spots, no Baltimore radio station ever aired the song.
- Though the rock anthem issue never went to vote, in 2002, Fitehouse made a presentation to the City Council’s Subcommittee on Economic Development, to explain the Rock Anthem efforts and to call on the council to use a similarly creative approach in its efforts to promote the city. At the end of their presentation, Guitarist Joshua Cohen and Drummer Ellis Baylor were invited to join a newly created “Better Image for Baltimore” Committee. The committee never convened.
No radio station ever argued that the questionable artistic quality of the song "Baltimore" might be behind the decision not to air it (we admit that it's a pretty cheesy 70's corporate-rock-inspired ditty). Rather, despite the levels of insanity and public participation in the Rock Anthem debate, it became dreadfully clear that there was a total disconnect between the programming of commercial radio and the issues and happenings of the local community. Though the Baltimore rock-anthem stunt did not catapult Fitehouse's career, it did inspire the band to dedicate much of its creative energies into further efforts to expose the rot that was plaguing the music industry and threatening the vibrancy of our shared culture. Furthermore, the rock anthem stunt would serve as the basis of much of the band's "street cred" as it began it's other anti-industry propaganda campaigns.
Perhaps the greatest achievement of all is the fact that the Baltimore Rock Anthem brochure can now be found in the Maryland History section of the Enoch Pratt Central Library, where it rests along with the 1916 anthem, just waiting to be discovered by future generations.
(Return to the About Fitehouse page)
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