Sunday, April 19, 2020

The Times They Are a-Changin' -- Pandemic Parody

I used to love when Mad Magazine would write new words to familiar songs. Sometimes it was satire and sometimes simply silly parody, but always fun.

Well, my wife and I have also done that quite a few times over the years. One of our favorites was a parody of a Simon & Garfunkel song, which we turned into a story about our sheltie, Sterling Blue Angel. It began... "She was a most peculiar dog. That's what Sharon Kappas said, and she should know, she lived upstairs from her..."

Anyways, with the COVID-19 epidemic on everyone's minds, it only seemed natural that sooner or later we'd be hearing songs about it. Susie began the weekend by offering up this pandemic-inspired revision to the familiar Dylan classic.

The Times They Are A-Changin'
 by Susie Newman
(with apologies to Bob Dylan)

Don’t gather ‘round people
Don’t go out and roam
Just stay in your houses
Oh please just stay home
And accept it that soon
We must all be alone
If your life to you is worth savin'.
For if you get this virus
You could sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come president, governors
Please heed the call.
Don’t stand in the doorway
Don’t block up the hall
For those who get sick
Will blame you who have stalled.
The virus outside that's a-ragin',
Will soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
Homeschool your children
Though it’s hard to understand
If your sons and your daughters
are beyond your command
They will to you be estrangin'
Give your best to them now,
And lend them your hand
For the times they are a-changin'.

The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast.
The sick ones now
Will all need their rest
The Pandemic now,
Will later be past
The order is rapidly fadin',
Please don’t minimize,
This really is vast
For the times they are a-changin'.

* * * *

Related Links
Sing Along with Mad
Dylan and Fifty Years of Change (Six Songs About Transitions)
For a list of parodies of classics by Irving Berlin, Cole Porter & others:
Berlin v. E.C. Publications, Inc.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I'd love to hear this one!

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