Okay, first off: If you haven't read or don't remember the Facebook note I wrote entitled "On My Parodies," then please read it. You don't have to go on Facebook to find it; I re-posted it on here as the post before this one. Don't continue any further until you've read that post; I mean it.
So, now that you know some of my feelings about my parodies. However, I've had things I've been meaning to say for a while that I wished I put in that note. So, I decided to make an addendum. I had two points earlier today; one, I know exactly what it is, but I've forgotten the other one. It'll probably come to me in the middle of the night, long after I've shut this thing down.
So, my fourth point is: There are some parody ideas I've thought of that I'm never going to use. For quite a while, when I've heard songs randomly--on the radio, on TV, in movie soundtracks, etc.--I've thought about how I could rewrite them. I can still remember riding to a Cub Scout meeting in 2000 and hearing Smash Mouth's "Walkin' on the Sun," which I recently parodied as "You Are My Number One," an ode to the lovely and talented Anne Hathaway. Even though I wasn't much of a parody writer yet--the only written one I had to my name was one of dc Talk's "My Friend (So Long)"--all I could think of while hearing that Smash Mouth song was rewriting the lyrics to be about Mario Golf, which was my favorite Game Boy Color game at the time. The only line I remember coming up with was, "You might as well have got a hole in one," or something like that. I never did write any parodies about Mario Golf, which is a good thing, because, despite the fact that I loved it and the reviews were positive, I knew very few people who would even give it a shot, just because it was a golf game. Still, the idea was there.
Sometimes, there are ones that I think of and immediately decide not to write. There are multiple reasons why that can happen. One is because--and I'm confessing here--sometimes the idea I have is something that I shouldn't be writing in any form, whether it be parody, poem, essay, or anything else. I know I've said before that I'm not one for crude and/or suggestive humor, but, I guarantee you, if you didn't like that "I Guess That's Why They Call It the Blues" parody--which was deleted from this site because at least one person was offended--I've had some ideas that would send you into shock. I don't like to even think those things, but, those kinds of crude/obscene/etc. thoughts are still floating around in my mind, mainly because of the corrupt world we live in.
Another reason can be because the message I want to convey just doesn't fit the song. Could you imagine a song like "Got My Mind Set on You" (a new favorite of mine) being rewritten to talk about painful things, like failed relationships or friendships? What about an angst-y song like "Bring Me to Life" becoming an ode to a person I look up to, whether it be a teacher, a friend, or even a celebrity? Those themes don't fit the moods of the original songs, right? That train of thought has helped me understand what makes a good fit for a rewrite. One time, I remember thinking about taking Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs' "Little Red Riding Hood" and turning it into a song praising a friend of mine. I immediately realized that the mood of the original song was supposed to be creepy, and that my message wouldn't fit.
Yet another reason is that I don't want the parody to seem like a joke when it isn't. I realize that, when I gush about celebrities in parodies, there's little chance they're even going to read them. However, there are ideas I've had that I scrapped within seconds of thinking of them. For example--and you're going to laugh at this, which is exactly why I never went through with the idea--I once considered making "Bring Me to Life" into "Bring Me a Wife," which was going to be a prayer to God lamenting the fact that I've always been single, yet so many of my friends are engaged or married, and asking Him to send me a life mate now. You're probably laughing your head off at this point, and rightly so; that's why I never sat down and wrote it.
I'm about to veer a little off-topic here: I am not the only one who has had a bad idea about rewriting a song to make it your own. Some people argue that ApologetiX has had at least a few bad ideas, while others think that the whole idea of a Christian parody band is horrible. They have a right to their opinion, though I'm not sure I agree with either, despite not being a fan of the band anymore. This, though, isn't about them. If I remember right--this was a long time ago, as you'll see when I tell the story--the planners of the 2000 Democratic Party convention were planning on using the Lou Bega smash-hit "Mambo No. 5" as the theme song for the function, and were going to make it their own by substituting US states for the names of the girls, i.e., "A little bit of Montana in my life." However, they ended up not using it, because so many people, including even the commentators on TV, just thought it was going to be a big joke. Why did they think that? Simply because the original song had the lyric, "A little bit of Monica in my life," and that was only a year or two after the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal. So, don't think I'm the only one with bad musical ideas, because the planners of the 2000 Democratic Party apparently were, too.
Back on topic: One last reason--at least, it's the last one that comes to mind right now--is just because, even though the idea seems great, when I sit down to write it, I just can't make it work. Many months ago, I thought about turning "It's All About the Benjamins" into "It's All About the Facebook Friends," which would have been an ode to all the many people that make Facebook enjoyable. I sat down, began to write it, and just got so stuck that I closed the window without even saving what I'd written. A similar thing happened when I recently--that is, no more than a few weeks ago--attempted to turn the recent huge B.o.B./Hayley Williams hit "Airplanes" into a song about how I wished real life was like fiction. I had the perfect chorus: "Can we pretend that X-Wings are right outside blowing up Death Stars? I was like was like fiction now, fiction now, fiction now!" I'm sure all of you know that's a Star Wars allusion, but I also was planning on including the line, "That's why I'll never marry Maddie Fitzpatrick!" which is a reference to Ashley Tisdale's character in the Disney Channel sitcom The Suite Life of Zack and Cody. Honestly, as good of ideas as those last two parodies I just mentioned sound, I really don't know if I want to try my hand at writing them again, because I'm afraid I'll just end up getting stuck after barely even starting, just like I did the first time in both cases.
Well, it is getting quite late, and I need to go to bed, so I'm going to end this. If the other idea I had comes to me, I'll write a second addendum as soon as I get time. Later!
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