A Window Into My Parody-Writing Process Part 2

Hi again…

It’s now a week and a half before my gig at the “Weaving the Tapestry of Faith”, an all day event with music, teaching and fun.  It will be in St. Patrick’s Church in Moreno Valley, CA, on Saturday, October 5.  Tickets can be purchased in advance by clicking here.

I had written previously about what I was going through to create new songs for this event.  One of the takeaways was that I was not at all interested in the Miley Cyrus song “We Can’t Stop”, even though it had become a hit video and song.

This was written before the VMAs.  (And, consequently, every single tabloid-ish headline that ensued afterwards).

After her headline-making performance, I reconsidered the song, and found a narrative hook that made sense, both for the song, and for the message.

And that’s not all, folks.  I found a similar hook for (the more volatile, but musically genius) “Blurred Lines”.  It appears to me that both of them work well together, to serve the narrative purpose I wish to convey.  That they were paired together at the VMAs is a happy coincidence I well wish to use.

Granted, this song is topical, so it’s not going to have a long shelf-life.  Years after Miley’s outrageous acts will be traded in for collective yawns (a lot of us are doing that, but newspaper sales have not given that indication yet), I suspect that my parody may need to be tweaked for new names of former adorable child actresses who had fallen into the trap of money, fame and attention.

My biggest challenge is that I am writing these songs in a vacuum.  Those in my closest circles don’t follow the Top 40 anymore (is there a Top 40 anymore?).  Songs that we listen to together are from groups/bands/artists that have not entered the general consensus, although are popular critically.  She would have to go out of her way to hear the song first, and then comment as to whether my parody works.

What I do in this case is write, then put away, then revisit with fresh eyes.

It’s amazing how something that’s so funny to you one day, becomes such dribble the next.  And in that case, I need to plow along, find a new approach, a new comic zing that would still keep the rhythm and melody and rhyme intact.

And that is the temptation when you write a parody, to think it is all complete.  You have to write, and then rewrite, and then rewrite.

I plan to video my performance.  But if it happens that the song doesn’t hit as well as I thought it would, I will have to reexamine the feel of the song(s), and ask where it could be improved, if it could be improved at all.  (It goes without saying, if it works gangbusters, it’s going up on YouTube).

Do I plan to record this?  I still don’t have enough songs for a new album, and I quite disdain the new technology that makes crafting albums an almost-relic of the past.  Never say never, but for now, I am content with just crafting the songs as is, performing them live, and having them on YouTube or my podcast.