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Song Parodies -> "A Baby Boomer's Rap"
Original Song Title:
"Lose Yourself"
Original Performer:
Eminem
Parody Song Title:
"A Baby Boomer's Rap"
Parody Written by:
Mari Aranoff
The Lyrics
Look, if you young people would listen for a minute�
Let's talk about when the whole music world was different
Back in the sixties, even seventies...
Yo, once there were stations that played variations
Of style and type, from many nations, fine creations
All groovin', and we were movin', all the generations
Sometimes there were no words - that was okay
Frank Sinatra, then The Who, folk-rock too
Followed by cool jazz, with solos that kicked ass
The Beatles, we listened to The Beatles, man
And surf bands, Beach Boys in the sand
We heard true diversity, saw them all on TV
Cher without surgery, whoa!
Michael Jackson when HE was a kid of ten
Oh, you say we are just boomers, back in our White Rooms
Who eat magic mushrooms
If you look past our age
And when you reach our stage
You just may see the way music was in our time
And their lyrics mostly rhymed
We were all exposed
Went down some less traveled roads - but we're stuck in boxes now, yo!
I sure miss
All the eclectic music, the fusing
Of all styles, and it would always make me smile
Blues, country, rock 'n roll, and soul merging all the while
And even comedy -- just turn the radio dial
I sure miss
All the eclectic music, the fusing
Of all styles, and it would always make me smile
Blues, country, rock 'n roll and soul merging all the while
And even comedy -- just turn the radio dial -- it was great
Different directions, the musical selections
No worries about infection
From other genres -- minds were open, we were hopin'
We would all come together, but keeping identities forever
Performers played their own guitars, drums, basses,
And keys -- sometimes added to these were strings, flutes, horns
They fit with ease into all kinds of places
But into no catego-rees
It was art, the players were artistic,
Psychedelic, introspective, odd, mystic,
Natural world - so some girls wore no lipstick
And sex - there was no XX - writers found ways
To get past censors' checks, perplex
They used imagination --
Won grammies for writing songs, and for strong
Singing right along with playing, not liner notes
Na na na na na goodbye!
I sure miss
All the eclectic music, the fusing
Of all styles, and it would always make me smile
Blues, country, rock 'n roll, and soul merging all the while
And even comedy -- just turn the radio dial
I sure miss
All the eclectic music, the fusing
Of all styles, and it would always make me smile
Blues, country, rock 'n roll and soul merging all the while
And even comedy -- just turn the radio dial -- it was great
Present day music has a corp'rate face
And though you'll see blending, mixing of ev'ry race
Dance, dress, sing alike 'cause we must have the same taste
It's all the same party -- I don't like this place
Colorful words are gone -- now all you hear is "let's do it"
While in the next car, I'm forced to listen to it
No longer classic, now plastic, and it sells
A million CDs, tacked-on lawyer's fees
And on the web sites, pop-up hype, sound bytes - looks fun but it's not
Reality's not real, way too serious
It's all just out there, nothing's mysterious - I'm kinda pissed
In these times it's a reach, tryin' not to get too preachy
Puttin' a strain on my hippie brain, but
It's not all bad - sometimes reminds me of me and my dad - he would protest
Like in "Father Knows Best," hated my stuff --
However, I just can't rest...
They're hypnotized, the tunes all synthesized
Singers who want to make it on a big scale
Must have a 'tude and be street-wise, maybe have been in jail, tough guys
Or look like a models with big hair, double D's, flashing the guys
Young dudes singing but not playing are called bands
They're not real, just clones shaking their thighs
You don't have to idolize
Make up your mind, don't mind what the others say -- hear and see with your own ears and eyes
I sure miss
All the eclectic music, the fusing
Of all styles, and it would always make me smile
Blues, country, rock 'n roll, and soul merging all the while
And even comedy -- just turn the radio dial
I sure miss
All the eclectic music, the fusing
Of all styles, and it would always make me smile
Blues, country, rock 'n roll and soul merging all the while
And even comedy -- just turn the radio dial -- it was great
You can like anything you want to like now - see?
Let's talk about when the whole music world was different
Back in the sixties, even seventies...
Yo, once there were stations that played variations
Of style and type, from many nations, fine creations
All groovin', and we were movin', all the generations
Sometimes there were no words - that was okay
Frank Sinatra, then The Who, folk-rock too
Followed by cool jazz, with solos that kicked ass
The Beatles, we listened to The Beatles, man
And surf bands, Beach Boys in the sand
We heard true diversity, saw them all on TV
Cher without surgery, whoa!
Michael Jackson when HE was a kid of ten
Oh, you say we are just boomers, back in our White Rooms
Who eat magic mushrooms
If you look past our age
And when you reach our stage
You just may see the way music was in our time
And their lyrics mostly rhymed
We were all exposed
Went down some less traveled roads - but we're stuck in boxes now, yo!
I sure miss
All the eclectic music, the fusing
Of all styles, and it would always make me smile
Blues, country, rock 'n roll, and soul merging all the while
And even comedy -- just turn the radio dial
I sure miss
All the eclectic music, the fusing
Of all styles, and it would always make me smile
Blues, country, rock 'n roll and soul merging all the while
And even comedy -- just turn the radio dial -- it was great
Different directions, the musical selections
No worries about infection
From other genres -- minds were open, we were hopin'
We would all come together, but keeping identities forever
Performers played their own guitars, drums, basses,
And keys -- sometimes added to these were strings, flutes, horns
They fit with ease into all kinds of places
But into no catego-rees
It was art, the players were artistic,
Psychedelic, introspective, odd, mystic,
Natural world - so some girls wore no lipstick
And sex - there was no XX - writers found ways
To get past censors' checks, perplex
They used imagination --
Won grammies for writing songs, and for strong
Singing right along with playing, not liner notes
Na na na na na goodbye!
I sure miss
All the eclectic music, the fusing
Of all styles, and it would always make me smile
Blues, country, rock 'n roll, and soul merging all the while
And even comedy -- just turn the radio dial
I sure miss
All the eclectic music, the fusing
Of all styles, and it would always make me smile
Blues, country, rock 'n roll and soul merging all the while
And even comedy -- just turn the radio dial -- it was great
Present day music has a corp'rate face
And though you'll see blending, mixing of ev'ry race
Dance, dress, sing alike 'cause we must have the same taste
It's all the same party -- I don't like this place
Colorful words are gone -- now all you hear is "let's do it"
While in the next car, I'm forced to listen to it
No longer classic, now plastic, and it sells
A million CDs, tacked-on lawyer's fees
And on the web sites, pop-up hype, sound bytes - looks fun but it's not
Reality's not real, way too serious
It's all just out there, nothing's mysterious - I'm kinda pissed
In these times it's a reach, tryin' not to get too preachy
Puttin' a strain on my hippie brain, but
It's not all bad - sometimes reminds me of me and my dad - he would protest
Like in "Father Knows Best," hated my stuff --
However, I just can't rest...
They're hypnotized, the tunes all synthesized
Singers who want to make it on a big scale
Must have a 'tude and be street-wise, maybe have been in jail, tough guys
Or look like a models with big hair, double D's, flashing the guys
Young dudes singing but not playing are called bands
They're not real, just clones shaking their thighs
You don't have to idolize
Make up your mind, don't mind what the others say -- hear and see with your own ears and eyes
I sure miss
All the eclectic music, the fusing
Of all styles, and it would always make me smile
Blues, country, rock 'n roll, and soul merging all the while
And even comedy -- just turn the radio dial
I sure miss
All the eclectic music, the fusing
Of all styles, and it would always make me smile
Blues, country, rock 'n roll and soul merging all the while
And even comedy -- just turn the radio dial -- it was great
You can like anything you want to like now - see?
Songs by RAD & MAD, aka Rick & Mari Duncan, can be found at website
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Voting Results
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Voting Breakdown
The following represent how many people voted for each category.
| Pacing | How Funny | Overall Rating | |||||||||
| 1 | 3 | 3 | 3 | ||||||||
| 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||
| 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | ||||||||
| 4 | 2 | 3 | 4 | ||||||||
| 5 | 25 | 24 | 24 |
User Comments
Comments are subject to review, and can be removed by the administration of the site at any time and for any reason.
Wow! This is much better than mine. I'm gonna go back to my homies and ain't not listen to that Sinatra dude.
Triple 5 ! Mari D, I am greatly impressed - you've written a magnum rappus opus here. Well done!
Well I'm impressed. Can't wait to hear the recording ; )
Claude and Johnny -- thank you! This was undoubtedly the most challenging one that I've ever done, since Eminem's rhymes are not always in the same places, and with different faces, Ace of Bases, put them through their paces, and without a doubt, what about the space cases... Recording? That would be interesting. And I must be coming up in the world; the "Ones Guy" got me!
Mari D - Sensational sentiments! Superb writing. DKTOS and will not be listening to Eminem any time real soon, so no voting from me. But you took me back and what you say is very true. Until I dumped my cable about 6 months ago I did watch late night MTV videos to see what there might be out there, but it's absolutely DREADFUL. Now even in 2002 I was finding SOME stuff I liked (Red Hot Chili Peppers, No Doubt, Tori Amos, Counting Crows, Sheryl Crow, even Avril Lavigne and some others I don't recall at the moment) but as of August 2003 not one song on the "Top 20" was even remotely appealing. 60's/early 70's music WAS a lot of fun. Not just the big name group that everyone had heard of but also local/regional bands, too; Kaleidescope, Sweetwater, It's a Beautiful Day, H.P. Lovecraft, and many more. Well, too long on my soapbox this morning, got to find my rheumatiz Rx and monitor my pulse. Later....
Paul -- you won't be listening to Eminem? Awww... Actually, I don't hate Eminem's stuff; it was interesting, getting into a different writing head. Sweetwater... I hadn't heard them until someone made a TV movie about them a few years ago. Thought the movie was rather lame, but liked the music and bought a CD. And they had a flutist AND a cellist! And isn't H.P. Lovecraft the band that did "Mobius Trip"?
Mari D - Yeah, "Sweetwater" movie on VHF1 was rather lame. However, group was very interesting and a whole lot of fun, especially LIVE. Yes, they had both a flute player (Albert Moore) and a cellist (August Burns), and further they did NOT have a guitar player, rhythm or Lead. Vocals, keyboards, drums, bass, cello, flute, other percussion and maybe some more stuff I'm omitting. Very colorful, mutil-racial ensemble group (very unusual at the time). Lead singer was a young woman (Nansi Nevins) who virtually walked on stage during a small club performance, ad-libbed her lyrics onto a Jazz-arrangement of "Motherless Child" and disappeared. They located her later and she joined the group. One very unfortunate aspect was that all the public recognition flowed to Ms. Nevins even though all members ot the group were quite talented. She suffered a near-fatal traffic accident after their first album and the group never regained momentum. She appears on some 2nd album cuts mostly through splicing of material she had recorded prior to the accident. The second album was actually pretty good (Those would be songs 11-14 on your Rhino CD, the original 2nd album had 8 or 9 songs altogether and a couple they did not include on the Rhino collection were actually pretty good (a version of "Compared to What?", lead vocal by Albert Moore, comes to mind). Third album I was not too fond of, it had a couple moments. But the Rhino CD is a very good listen and includes all of Sweetwater's fine debut album (tracks 1-9 on the collection, plus track 10, some rather poorly recorded snippets from their Woodstock appearance, memorable for the most part only for the comments at the beginning and how totally blown away 19 year-old Nansi Nevins is to be suddenly standing in front of 500,000 people). OH...Nevins DID recover although her incredible voice was never quite the same. Sweetwater currently performs with some frequency on the SoCal club circuit, but only about 3 of the original band are still around. Lots of weird tragedy befell various members of the group and Flautist Moore, Cellist Burns, drummer Alan Malarkowitz are no longer among the living. As to H.P. Lovecraft, yes, you are indeed correct, "Mobius Trip" was on their 2nd album. Now, Rick MIGHT also be acquainted with this group through his "Dr. Demento" days since the good Doctor often played "The Time Machine", a novelty type song from Lovecraft's 1st album which is kind of fun. There is a double-album CD of this group that contains all their significant work (Albums 1 & 2) and I would recommend. It also includes 2 cuts they did at a later date which, in my humble opinion, are a complete waste of time and not up to other works on the CD. But they are the final two cuts and easy to avoid if one agrees with me. Well, that about boils most of my trivia knowledge about these two groups into almost disgestible pieces. Class dismissed for today. Seriously, Mari, glad you are acquainted with these groups, they did some interesting stuff and added greatly to the mosaic of the 60's/early 70's music.
I think this was better than Weird Al;s "Couch Potato"---and that says a lot.
Agri -- I'm very flattered! Paul -- great trip down memory lane. And what's your typing speed?!
Mari D - Oh, I don't know...pretty fast, I guess. It can ALMOST keep up with my thoughts sometimes. Damn, I didn't realize just how long my "Sweetwater/H.P Lovecraft" dissertation went on! Just looked up at it here. Good thing I didn't start talking about "Kaleidescope" & 'It's A Beautiful Day", too. You know the Supervisor I had BEFORE Lilian at ProSystem would sometimes walk by my desk when I was finishing up the "Resolution" part of my "Call Ticket" descriptions and go, "Paul, you don't have to write a book". Little did he know...Anyway, "Memory Lane" is always fun for me when it revolves around music. OH...One more small "Sweetwater" note: The "Christmas" song on the collection CD (track #15, I believe) is really pretty interesting if you have not checked it out. One of the few XMAS song renditions that I REALLY like. They weave a couple of different XMAS songs("We Three Kings" is one of them) as instrumental solo's between the first and last verse lyrics of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" . Flute & cello player's even got in on the solo's so you might find it of interest from that perspective also.
Great trip into the past, I enjoyed this!
This is just fabulous I love it!
yeah its good i am starting like a song where we sing my songs
Mari and I made a rule where we won't vote for each other, but this is one of my favorites of hers, and one of the most difficult. (althought we made that rule AFTER January.....hmmmm)
I'd say especially since there are so few entries, it would be a mistake not to at least consider it.
Mari - Well, you would THINK after all the words I spilled on this thread back in January that I would have remembered looking at this. And if you did THINK that, you would have been WRONG. So I looked in today after seeing Claude's remark and find that I damn near typed a BOOK about a couple of 1960's groups and a few other thoughts that had floated in through my ears and were stuck in the nether areas in between them. But I'm glad I did because it gave me a chance to re-appreciate your excellent piece. Like a record (or CD track, nowadays) that you really enjoy hearing it is well worth reading more than once (especially when your memory of reading it the first time was apparently wiped out by the same glitch that erased all the vote tallies a week or so ago). OH...I voted today, even though I have not yet (and probably never will) listened to Eminem's original version. I'm going to keep voting on parodies, but my perspective is in flux on the issue. I know I like to see a decent vote count on mine, but the comments ARE more fun. It's still good, especially for newer writers, to get an idea if people really like their work and are being entertained and whether or not they think you have done a decent job with the pace/rhythm/cadence, etc., but some days I feel like everything is a five because I'm just having such a good time and other times I feel the need to take a more critical view of the pieces. It's a good thing nobody's future depends on me being consistent about it. Good thing I don't have a job as a Teacher. Kind of funny you asked me about my typing speed in this thread. Late last night (well, early this morning, actually), I kind of laid it on some boz...er...fellow...about using his "fast typing" as a lame excuse for having a ton of spelling errors in his comments and I mentioned that I was extremely fast, but managed to not post too many errors by doing this thing called "Proof-Reading", particularly when I wanted to be taken seriously. I think that's the first and only other time on this site that I felt the need to make mention of it...once to honestly answer your inquiry and the other time to try and chide and prod this fellow into using his head as something more than an ear-separator. Well, this is turning into another book so I guess I'll end this chapter now...
(SOTM) I have the overwhelming urge to shout "Testify!" :) Very well done, Mari! I can see why this is one of Rick's faves. Speaking of which...
Rick, considering that this is one of your very top favorites of Mari's entire catalog and you feel strongly enough toward this particular parody to mention it, there's no question in my mind that you would have voted for this parody if it wasn't one of Mari's. That being the case, for you to maintain the objectivity and integrity that motivated you and Mari to adopt your policy, in the first place, I think you should make an exception to your self-imposed rule to vote for this one. (Just my humble opinion.)
Rick, considering that this is one of your very top favorites of Mari's entire catalog and you feel strongly enough toward this particular parody to mention it, there's no question in my mind that you would have voted for this parody if it wasn't one of Mari's. That being the case, for you to maintain the objectivity and integrity that motivated you and Mari to adopt your policy, in the first place, I think you should make an exception to your self-imposed rule to vote for this one. (Just my humble opinion.)
Rick D - I'm not in the contests currently because I was just not able to uphold the reading & voting obligations...when it all started to feel LIKE an obligation rather than fun to me I just couldn't see the point for me to continue. I could have a change of heart later, but that's how I'm still feeling now But speaking as an outsider now I agree with Melhi's thinking here. I don't think anyone here (well, hardly anyone) questions your integrity. Certainly nobody that knows anything about your work & efforts on and for this site and the people who submit their work to it.
(SOTM) My mind's in a tree and it's drunk on sap, this fine poetry's a slick Duncan rap, a snap to see that it beats my attempt, to rap with glee that bleats I'm farklempt.
JOTM--Earlier, I thought this was better than Weird Al's parody, and still do...time has brought even funnier "Lose Yourself" parodies, but this one had a certain charm that others don't have. 555
Wow. Double wow. I read your nostalgia for pop music's good old days as sincere, not sarcastic, so it's more than a little ironic that you used a song from a very talented current artist to make your point. (Discuss.) There's plenty of great new music out there, but the great stuff doesn't often make the charts, whereas in the 60s what made the charts was the great stuff. Dig? But back to my point: Wow. Double wow.
Jeff, Martha, Tim, Claude, Paul, Melhi, Johnny, Agri, Spaff (and, of course, Rick): Thanks a bunch! It’s obvious how long it’s been since I’ve REALLY looked at this page and saw everyone’s wonderful comments, yo! Spaff: Yeah, the irony was VERY intentional. While not a big rap fan, I actually kind of like some of Eminem’s stuff. I HAVE heard some good music out there (mostly by unknown local acts) but agree with your comments about its availability. Must get off soapbox before it’s too late…
How'd I miss this masterpiece? (possibly because it was twenty years prior to my existence?) Truly a great effort, though I sometimes got lost as to what line was being parodied halfway through a paragraph. A true beacon for your generation!
JSOTM Even though I don't know this one, I gave you 5's...I couldn't give less because it was so powerful it brought a tear to my eye (Probably sounded different with music) AND took me right back to all the real stuff that we liked...real music, etc.
Rick, I don't blame you one bit for breaking the rules on this beaut.
Rick, I don't blame you one bit for breaking the rules on this beaut.
Still very impressive.
(SOTM) Very hard to follow, but an excellent job overall.
What a great job, lots of hard work in there !
Coulda swore (but I'm not a rapper) that I already commented on this. Mad Mari got some mad skillz up in this no fib crib. You even addressed the nay-sayers in the third mammoth stanza. Nice one Mari.
sotm--enjoyed it again, excellent job on a tough song
Jeff, 2nz, Per & Mer, Claude, Adagio & Jake: Thank you for all of your comments and votes in the SOTM! Adagio: I miss those days, too! Jake: I'm very flattered to be called a beacon!
http://www.inthe00s.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=3009.0;id=1423;image
Make that a Golden Beacon!
Still excellent. I'll readily admit that Sixties stuff is my fave, even though it was already on oldies radio by the time I discovered it.
Cher without surgery? Whoa, indeed! Well done, MAD.
I wasn't even alive yet and I prefer 70s rock to most of what's out now. Still well stated Mari.
It was good! umm... well I can understand people that lived back in the sixties and wut not loved there music so yeah I'm down with that! CYA!
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