The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #66922 Message #1114599
Posted By: Mark Cohen
12-Feb-04 - 12:15 AM
Thread Name: Favourite Parodies
Subject: RE: Favourite Parodies
I believe Bob Blue wrote "Their Way", though I'd love to hear Roy sing it. I have a few favorite parodies: "Garnet's Home-Brewed Beer", "It's Not What I'd Sing When I'm Sober" (David Diamond, I believe), and one I once heard in Victoria, BC but never learned: "Borscht Riders in the Sky" (the chorus went, "Yippie-oy-oy, Yippie-oy-vey"). I'm also partial to some of mine, of course: The Perennial Beginner (The F-Chord Song) (after Phil and Lou Berryman's "A Chat With Your Mother (a/k/a "The F-Word Song"), Greenberg's (after "Green Fields"), and For Just One Dime (after Stan Rogers' "Northwest Passage"). And one more, that isn't in the DT. This one came from a Mudcat song challenge in January '02, after John Ashcroft ordered thousands of dollars worth of draperies to cover up the immense statue of "Justice" in the Justice Dept., which depicted a woman with one breast exposed. (I've made some editorial changes.) It's after "The Sound of Silence," of course.
THE BREAST OF JUSTICE (c)2002 Mark Cohen
Hello Justice my old friend They're trying to cover you again Because John Ashcroft softly weeping Saw the photographs of his meeting And your proud metallic gleam in the flashing light Gave him a fright It was the Breast of Justice
Remember back in '34 They placed you on the marble floor Like a beacon in the dark you shone Like a goddess on a heav'nly throne And for years and years you proudly stood and glared At all who dared To hide the Breast of Justice
While the people bowed and prayed To other gods whose games they played You alone held up this warning To the ones whose fears were forming And you told them, "Justice will prevail, though the prudes of any shape May throw a drape Across the Breast of Justice"
"Fools," you said, "You do not know This metal skin is only show While you beat your breast in anguished pose Because you happen to see mine exposed Do you think that a few yards of cloth will set you free? Don't you see? This is the Breast of Justice"
In every corner of the land Wherever Justice takes a stand Putting curtains up to hide the light Will only make the truth burn twice as bright And our eyes will behold the heart of liberty Beating free Within the Breast of Justice