Category: Jam Session
I happen to have loved them since I was seven or eight, which is when I was first introduced to the wonderful world of Weird Al Yankovic and more recently those of Bob Rivers and Cledus T. Judd. But I'd never seriously sat down and tried to come up with my own...until now. And I'll say this much. It takes just as much creativity if not more, to write a song parody than it does to write an original song. With parody, if you want ot done well, you have the original melody and rhythm to consider, so your new words have to fit into that. And then there are the words themselves, which is where I'm really having trouble. I can write stories and I'm not absolutely orrible at poetry, but I've never tried to write a song, let alone parody one. But with all the recent stuff in the news the idea for a parody of Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville came into my head. Oddly enough I'm thinking of titling it Obamaville. Then of course once I've got lyrics down pat I have to find some simple chords to Margaritaville and try learning them on my guitar. Ah well, guess I'll get back to it...
good luck with that. Parodies are very fun to write, I've done a few of some Punk rock songs and made them into republican songs just for the fun of it. It's great once you get it down.
don't give up and you'll get it.
My goal is actually to write the song, play it for myself a few times and then perhaps even put it on Youtube. I've got one verse pretty much ironed out but the chorus is proving tricky and then there are still two more verses since I am going for a straight parody.
That's why artists like Weird Al are so talented. He makes the words fit exactly into the frame of original song. He even gets the vocals and harmonies exactly like the original. I'd say he's one of the best in the art of parody, whether you actually like his stuff or not. Bob Rivers is good, too. Don't like Cletus T. Judd, though.
oh i love weird al, he's amazing. a lot of his songs are very funny, too.
I doubt I'll ever be as good as Weird Al but my goal is to to at least write a parody that's listenable.
the Best to ya!
Thankyou. Thankyouverymuch. Aside from the fact that I just love song parodies in general I feel the Obama administration needs making fun of. But that's just my personal opinion.
omg i love paradies, i think wierd al is halarious, so good luck!
the Very BEST to ya BryanP22 *smiles
Well thanks. Of course it'd be easier to concentrate if I wasn't worried sick about what the hell's been going on with my fiance, but that's a whole nother story.
One of my personal favorites is El Vez, the Chicano Elvis. He also covers songs by Paul Simon, John Lennon and Bob Dylan.
We have a guy here in Columbus named Dan Oar who is producer on a morning show for a local rock station. He has a band and they do all sorts of song parodies. He has had his songs played on the Dr. Dimento show several times.
If I'm not mistaken that was also where Weird Al got his start. Not sure about Bob Rivers though but I think he was based out of Washington somewhere, maybe even Seattle.
Well as far as Bob Rivers goes, he is in Seatle, last I knew. He got his start here in Baltimore, as did Weird Al. Not sure what that says about this city. Some of the conservativ talkshows have some wonderful people doing paredies. During the Clinton Administration, Rush had someone singing "Me and Paula Jones" to the tune of Me and Mrs. Jones. Also, if you like older rock, try and find some Stan Freberg material. He goes way back to the 50's and 60's, but his material was wonderful. You're so right about the difficulty in writng good paredies.
Lou
Ah yes, Paul Shanklin. He's known for his impersonations of Clinton and Gore. I'd have to say my favorite song of his is either Me and Hillary or Wholesome Prison Blues. Those or Subpoenaville (which is misspelled Subpeonaville on the album).
Hadn't heard of those particular Song Parodies.
Well Me and Hillary is a parody of Me an Julio by Paul Simon. Wholesome Prison Blues is a parody of Fullsome Prison by Johnny Cash. Subpoenaville is of course a parody of Margaritaville by Jimmy Buffett.