Adventures in Parody Writing

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I’ve been quite busy these last few months, especially with writing a new eBook about worship, but I thought I’d take a little time and share what has been going on with me, creatively.

In a couple of weeks I will be presenting for a group of teenagers in Illinois. As per my custom, I try to craft a couple of new parody songs for the event. This is both fun, and a little bit taxing.

My first order of business is to take a few days and re-educate myself as to what is current, what has been made familiar, to this generation. (Apologies to all those concerned, but I don’t generally listen to today’s pop music). I scour through iTunes lists, blogs, reddit posts, spotify playlists, and ultimately Billboard magazine to track what the most notable, most familiar songs of 2014 are.

I also tend to avoid songs that “Weird Al” had done recently. My songs would invite comparisons, and I simply don’t want that weight upon them.

From this list, I listen to samplings of tracks. What I look for: songs that are catchy and fun. Songs that fit within my range. Songs that I could mimic vocally, mimic on guitar, or have some proper karaoke recording already in place. And songs for which the video itself isn’t too embarrassing. I aim to craft a short list, say, five to seven tracks.

From this, I find the lyrics online and print them out, each on a single page.

Parody ideas, for me, come through excessive familiarity with the song itself. Since all of these songs are new to me, I have to immerse myself into the song, and not just be a casual listener. I need to pinpoint those parts of the song that are the key hooks, and work on them first. I need to examine those hooks, and see if there is any unique substance there for which I could find an alternate word rendering, which keeps the same number of consonants and same rhyme.

And this last part is the most creative part of the process. I would sound out that section, repeat the phrasing over and again, with nonsense words, nonsense phrases, until I find something that sticks.

After I find a couple of phrases of such a song, I then ask whether this alternate phrase can not only withstand a full series of new verses to support it, (and that these new verses must contain elements of comedy that would be unforced), but also that the tone of the song would be perfect for the new lyrics.

And so one song that caught my attention was the hit song “Problem” by Ariana Grande. I thought this song had great potential. It is extremely popular, musically interesting, and upbeat. The lyrics of the song, on closer introspection, represent a girl’s struggle with whether or not to stay close to a boyfriend, (who was not ideal). The chorus, whispered by another artist, repeats “One less problem without ya” over and again.

And right away, I thought of a strong lyric replacement: “Confess problems to Father. (Fath-ah).” And ideas flowed; the lyrics would be about this person’s struggle against sin (the humor being within the specifics of such sins), and the need for the weight to be lifted off of her shoulders. I like it. Another song tauting confession.

Unfortunately, once I started listening to the music trax of this, admittedly, complicated song (three different vocalists), I found that this was a belly-flop of an idea. The problem wasn’t the lyrics; the problem was the musical tone of the original song. The second time the chorus whispers “Confess problems to Father,” this sultry saxophone riff is overlaid upon it. For my alternate lyrics, this is just plain odd. It doesn’t work. And it can’t be ignored or sidestepped.

So that song had to be scrapped.

Another song that caught my attention was “Pompeii” by Bastille. This song has become one of the biggest songs of the last year, and I love the production of the original. Lyrically, the song is about the destruction of one’s society, and society’s ambivalence to being destroyed. It’s a great theme. I have a number of ideas from this.

Unfortunately, this too, had to be scrapped, for no other reason that there was not a good musical trax I could use in its stead. Seminal to the song is its background vocals, and yet all karaoke trax have an all-or-nothing approach to this song. Either I get no vocals (and I would have to somehow replicate this live), or I get the vocals for this, and for the original lyrics. This drops the song right out of the gate.

Another song “All About that Bass” by Meghan Trainor, is extremely fun and retro. But closer inspection of the original lyrics makes me think that the song has a dominant message of its own, one that proponents of its message would be distracted by. Also, I sense this is so new that it hasn’t quite settled in yet. Scrapped.

As of this writing, I have not completed this task. I may go down my list of songs and not find anything that sticks. If such were the case, I would have to go back to the drawing board, and find another list of five or six relatively recent songs) that I could try.

However, I currently have a hope that I got something for one of the last songs on the list. There is great potential for the retro-reggae song “Rude” by “Magic!”. Last night, I came up with an idea for the song, and it’s gotta be fleshed out. The vibe is very relaxed, extremely fun to sing, extremely catchy. And the lyrics of the original song have grown on me.

 

Do you have a favorite song of the last year, that you think might make a good parody song? Let me know in the comments!

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