Story Behind My Parody of Katy Perry’s “Roar”

It all began six days ago.

Last Friday my daughter (who is in first grade) and I went to our very first father-daughter dance. (Aw….). It was at her small Catholic school, and all of her friends were there.  There was a deejay and he was playing a mix of (parent-approved, some cleaned-up) pop songs from the 70s, to present day. It was a groovy time beheld by all.

It was at the half-hour mark that something happened that caught my attention.  Another young girl ran up to the deejay and made a request. Moments later the deejay changed songs and said “And now, by popular demand, here’s Katy Perry!”  And he played “Roar.”

I wish I can say that I am up with pop music scene as I should be.  I’ve accepted the fact that songs that appeal to me aren’t necessarily those which are played on Top 40 radio, and Top 40 radio had made changes in the last few years that made it entirely unattractive to me.  Top 40 really isn’t for the parents anyway.  It’s for the tweens and teenagers.  And I accept that I am behind the times, and I don’t really care–it’s nothing that can’t be corrected by having access to the listing of the latest NOW THIS IS WHAT I CALL MUSIC compilation, and an hour to spare listening to snippets.

But when I saw the response to “Roar,” I was surprised.  These kids were singing this song at the top of their lungs.  It wasn’t just a nice song; it was their anthem–and by “anthem” I mean “ANTHEM!”–all caps and an exclamation point afterwards.

My thoughts raced: is “Roar” parody-worthy?  Oh, baby, I sure hoped so.

Directly afterwards I decided to try my hand on writing one. Within a day I had caught a sense of the direction I wanted to go, and within two days I had a first full draft.  Then twice, sometimes three times a day afterwards I had looked it over and made slight alterations, reading it afresh, reading it anew, trying to find jokes on the basis of the material.

BTW, this is how it’s done.  A lot of rewriting gets involved. It’s the nature of the craft.

This morning I had decided to pull out my video camera and record me doing a live version–just me and my Takamene acoustic–of this just-created parody song.  It needs a little bit of audio tweaking, to be certain. And I hope to also add the lyrics to the video itself. But once I complete it, I will send out my lyrics and link to the video to everybody on my membership list.

What is my parody target?  It’s about something I’ve noticed greatly amongst youth and young adults today: a tendency to try to go it alone in their spiritual walk, to love Jesus, but disassociate with the Church.  This song, I hope, would put that idea to rest, while simultaneously providing a vibrant example of a member of the church hierarchy being extremely proactive in sharing the faith.

Suffice it to say, if you are interested in hearing an alternate comic take on this now-iconic song, one that encourages listeners to see the value of the Church, I suspect you would be greatly delighted in the results.

Sign up for my membership list today, and get notified the moment this song goes up.  It goes without saying that signing up you will also get all the lyrics I have ever crafted, and stories behind each song, as well as many practical helps as to how to get the most mileage out of these parody songs.  Just sign up on this page.

Know that if you are trepidatious on joining this site, know that it is free, that I promise to not abuse my list, and that you will always have the option to unsubscribe later, if what I offer is not for you.  No worries.  I just want to provide a direct avenue to reach those who would be interested in what I do.

Conversely, if you know of a song that you’d like me to be aware of, for a future parody, you can contact me there directly.

Thanks again for reading.  The day to release is near!