You know, some people have actually asked me where I get my ideas for my song parodies ... Well, actually they ask, "What WERE you smoking?!" Funny thing is (or should I say frightening?), I wasn't smoking anything! I wasn't even drinking! So, do you really wanna know the truth? Can ya handle it? Do you think you could truly understand the stories BEHIND the parodies? If you think you can ... scroll on down ... I've decided to jot down some notes about my parodies to give you a look into my twisted mind. Enjoy!
It all started way back in the fall of 1996 ...
"Lust" started off with a misheard lyric and a really bad day. I remember stumbling around some Def Leppard homepages and found that someone had misheard the lyric "Slang with me" .... they heard "Sleep with me." I hadn't known of this until about some weeks after the concert, where I had been singing along and told my friend that I WANTED to "get my hands dirty." Well there I was, so long after the concert, and the only way I could unwind each day was (and still is!) listening to Slang in its entirety. Stress finally set in and I started singing the chorus, "Sleep with me/I wanna get my hands dirty" ... weren't enough syllables so I added in the name of the lust of my life.... and wrote it down. I stared at my paper and went, "Hey ... you know ....." and the little wheels started turning .... then I wrote from the chorus to the end, back tracked, and wrote the beginning after that. Anyway, "Lust" can be found archived on one other homepage: The Inessential Def Leppard Page.
Honestly, I wasn't too thrilled about parodizing "Let's Get Rocked" because I had seen two parodies of it already. But, "Let's get drunk!" and the verse "Seven day hangover/drunk all night/head in a toilet/flushed all right" as well as the chorus just came out one day. So ... why fight a funny parody about a lot of people's favorite past time? And I did indeed write it from a GUY'S point of view.
"Chuck It" of course came about while I was listening to Vault and cleaning my bedroom. At that time, my room was the messiest room in my house and the parody literally described it! Eek! Luckily ... it's not that bad anymore .... honest!
"All I Want Is Burger King" was SUPPOSED to be a shot at President Bill Clinton and the whole McDonalds thing ... and Burger King rhymed with Everything. After sitting on the parodized chorus for about a week, it developed into being about a really hungry pregnant woman. *shrug*
You can blame "Pornoflick" on Joe ... and those 50 questions he answered that are on Yutaka's Def Leppard Home Page. He said he wanted to be in one!! Of course .... at this point I wondered seriously if I could get sued for this.
"Pour Your Body On Me" began as just a switch-it-around for a girl's point of view. I had begun singing "Little Mister Innocent" and "I got the peaches and you got the cream" for the hell of it ... then one day I somehow got extremely hyper (who would've guessed?!) and just threw in verses like "Lust is like a bomb," "Won't mind if all five were knocking at my door," and "Sweet to taste your body." With those in mind, I sat down, wrote, revised, and typed it all in one sitting ... and kept it to myself until I put the Lair into business. Thus it was the very first parody ever on the Leppard Lair as Parody of the Month.
"Delivery" was the product of a commercial. You know, have a pizza delivered in thirty minutes or it was free? It gave me the chance to use the word "baboon" *snicker*
"Have You Ever Needed Smoking So Bad" is an ode to a coworker who is ALWAYS on a cigarette break!
"Cook Food Like A Chef" .... just a reminder of the fact that I personally can NOT cook! It's one of my favorites because of the rhyming of casserole, Spaghetti-Os, garlic rolls, and Oreos. :-)
"Malvin Is" was fun! "Malvin is" fit perfectly where "Heaven is" was and I had just finished reading Malvin's bio on Def Leppard After Dark (no longer in service) when the lyric "Hey boys, Stumpus Maximus' back" .... I'm still waiting to be sued for damages ... *grin*
"Shop! Shop! Till You Drop" is an ode to my family. They're shopaholics. I go in, grab what I need, and leave. They look and look and look ... and shoot me if there is a SALE .... so, out shopping with them, bored to tears when "Shop! shop! till you drop" came into my head .... went home and wrote the entire thing out!
"City Song" .... everyone teases me about my dirty little mind.... especially when it comes to the Leps. *grin* Note the lyric: "a mind so twisted with thoughts so kinky." Though I'm addicted to Joe, it is a picture of Sav in ripped up jeans (1992/1993 tour) that makes my mind "dark and dirty."
Why parodize "Like A Virgin?" 'Cause I could! :-) I was listening to an '80s show on a local radio station and heard it .... the next morning, the light bulb in my head burnt out! And it all started from the lyrics: "Like a Lep fan/Rocked for the very first time."
"Food's Too Gross" started out as "Meat's Too Tough" after a nightmare dinner out. I could've hit my waitress with that steak and given her a concussion!! But it became an autobiographical parody. Hey, if YOU can't laugh about it .... maybe one day I'll tell you about the Grilled Cheese Sandwich Incident. Maybe. But then I'd have to kill you .... Oh yeah, and I got to mention "road kill" too! *grin*
"Rock Me Baby" took me a very loooong time to write. Sad, isn't it? To think, it started out as "Rock Of Lawyers" in September of '96. Thankfully, by August of 1997, I went lustful on the tune! Then ten months later .... it was finished and the next month it became the song parody for the month of July, 1998.
"I Wanna Eat That Hoagie" was brought upon in January of '98. The idea of Hero = Hoagie itself stuck in my head because I was asking people what they thought the word "hero" meant. A friend of a friend responded that a hero was "a hoagie with more stuff on it." I think he was hungry at the time. *shrug*
I was still wreaking havoc with Retro Active when I thought up "Fractured Palm." I thought it would be a great song to parodize but couldn't really think of a good idea. I kinda was wondering, what could be fractured? Couldn't think of anything. Until "fractured love" sounded a little too much like "fractured palm." Sounded good to me!
"Droolin'" came from the fun little parodized lyric "take me Phil." And then I added the bit of "do with me what Joe will" and I just ran with it! I mean, don't we all wonder sometimes "Does anybody else do this?" I think it's the unofficial anthem of all lusters.
"Can't Help Myself" ... oh hell I couldn't help myself!! I heard the song on the radio one day and thought, "hehehehe." The original version was quite edited but I got talked into posting the second, unedited, version.
I honestly, for the life of me, can not remember the inspiration for "Def Leppard." All I know is that I got this compilation CD that had the song on it and it just ... worked!
Poor Mick ... "Don't Look Down" ... when I hear that phrase I always think of someone who is afraid of heights. So that's how this one got written. And thanks go to Sioux for figuring out the rest of the real lyrics and for reminding me that there was a rhyme scheme I was supposed to follow.
"Lust Brigade" came about because of all you lusters out there. The original lyrics had it all set up and all I had to do was tweak it here, tweak it there ...
"Clothes Off" ... okay I was on a roll with On Through The Night. Another song that just set itself up for tweaking. After all, who wouldn't mind telling their favourite Lep, "Getcha clothes off!"
With the release of the new album came a very weird need to defend my title. I HAD to be the first one to parodize a song off the new album!! So tadah, "21st Century Sha La La La Hunk" came into being. This one was written to be rewritten from a woman's point of view, don't you think? And it all started with ... "What if I put 'hunk' where 'girl' is ..."
Okay, some sort of explanation for "Golfing" ... eh. Well I actually wrote this one on my lunch break. I kid you not!! You see, I knew I had to parodize "All Night." No way around it. But how to do it without being predictable ... and boring ... Well men have obsessions about sex ... cars ... and sports ... especially golf ...
"Simply Irresistible" came to be because I again heard it on the radio, on one of those '80s specials, and I thought of Joe and thought, "Well, you know, he is!" So I dug out my tape of Robert Palmer ... cranked it ... forgot what the words were exactly ... had to surf the 'net to find 'em ... a couple hours later I had my parody!
I love T. Rex. Especially Electric Warrior. I mean, who doesn't?! And I am so not ashamed to admit it. So I had to have my fun, especially with "Jeepster." I am ashamed of one thing though: not knowing exactly what the hell a "jeepster" was. Duh me, I know, I'm not as all knowing as some people hope. But I wrote the damn parody anyway, 'cause I was used to sticking Joe's name in all the key spots ? and I liked it ... especially writing "Longing" so it fit Joe a little better.
Okay, "My Stereo" was derived from 2 sources. The first was a misheard lyric. Someone thought the band was singing, "I'm a stereo/a stereo." And then to top it all off, if you check out the tablature online for "Hysteria" there's a typo. Instead of "feeling" it's "fellin" ... which works way too well if you make it "felon" ... hehehehehehe ...
"Lep Loving Fan" ... well it's all Lisa's fault. *G* She had an idea for the parody and had most of it written. She got stuck I guess and asked if I worked alone. *scoff* With all these voices? So I told her to go ahead and send what she had and maybe I could help out ... and I got a little carried away ... finished it ... and we were both okay with the end result ... one many collaborations I hope!
An after thought .... the weird thing about writing these parodies is the fact that I have a stronger appreciation for their music. Be it sound wise or rhyme scheme (which is a serious bitch sometimes, just take a look at "Pour Some Sugar On Me" and "I Wanna Be Your Hero!") I just have a respect for them as lyricists more now than before! Go figure!!