COVID-19 RHAPSODY

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A parody of a song by Queen.
A Collaboration by joeythejammer in Ellicott City, MD & mrlip in Springfield, VA
Recorded: 03/25/2020  Released: 03/26/2020  First aired: unaired

Lyrics

"COVID-19 RHAPSODY"
( AKA #CoronavirusRhapsody )


Is this a sore throat?
Is this just allergies?
Caught in a lockdown
No escape from reality.

Don’t touch your eyes
Just hand sanitize quicklyyyyy
I’m just a poor boy, no job security
Because of easy spread, even though
washed your hands, laying low
I look out the window, the curve doesn’t look flatter to me, to me....

Mama, just killed a man
I didn’t stay inside in bed
I walked by him, now he’s dead
Mama, life was so much fun
but now I’ve caught this unforgiving plague

Mama, oooooh,
(anytime my nose blows)
didn’t mean to make them die
if I’m not back to work this time tomorrow
carry on, carry on as if people didn’t matter

Too late, my time has come
sends shivers down my spine
body’s aching all the time
goodbye everybody, I’ve got it too
gotta leave you all behind and face the truth

Mama, oooooh
(everytime my knows blows)
I don’t wanna die
I sometimes wish I never went out at all

I see a little silhouette of a man
what a douche, what a douche
did he even wash his hands though
security is tightening
very very frightening me

Gotta lay low (gotta lay low)
Gotta lay low (gotta lay low)
Gotta lay low masturbate
Masturbate O O O O

I’m just a poor boy, facing mortality
HE’S JUST A POOR BOY FACING MORTALITY
spare him his life from this monstrosity
Touch your face, wash your hands, will you wash your hands?
BISMILLAH NO WE WILL NOT WASH OUR HANDS! (WASH YOUR HANDS!)
BISMILLAH NO WE WILL NOT WASH OUR HANDS! (WASH YOUR HANDS)
BISMILLAH WE WILL NOT WASH YOUR HANDS! (WASH YOUR HANDS!)
WASH YOUR HANDS! (never, never, never wash your hands oh oh oh oh oh oh oh)
No no no no no
Oh mama mia, mia (mama mia wash your hands!)
COVID-19 has a sickness put aside for me, for me

So you think you can stop me and just shake my hand?
So you think we can hang out and not break our plans?
Oh baby, can’t do this with me, baby,
Just gotta stay home, just gotta stay home with my fever

Oooooh
Curving can get flatter
Anyone can see
Curving can get flatter
Curving can get flatter, you’ll see
Just look out your windows….

Parody of "BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY" by QUEEN
Lyrical credit to Dana Jay Bein @danajaybein (twitter.com)
Vocals by Joe Aro & Steve Lipton
Some additional lyrics by Steve Lipton
Cover Art: Steve Lipton

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Comments

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  • Thomas
    I just noticed the weirdest thing there is an app called Tik Tok where in a person named Kylie Scott does this exact opening word-for-word without attribution it is available on YouTube as well as on Tik-Tok
    1625 days ago.
  • Chappell in ALEXANDRIA
    I put an idea up for Dana
    1637 days ago.
  • Thomas
    Much kudos to the production. I want to praise the 2nd voices. “Anytime my nose blows” not only is genius writing, it comes into the mix at an appropriate level. The overdubbing is awsome, the number of tracks laid down is to me incalculable. I fear for your jobs: with so much time put into this project I begin to fear that you have . . . er. . . unexpected time on your hands. Singer, Lyricist and Production are assembled here in this Rhapsody, but for a visual component, surely a Wagnerian Gesamtkusntwerk in which you have slipped the surly bonds of earth, and danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;and joined the tumbling mirth of sun-split clods . . . I wish you would post this on Youtube with a slide show with some public domain photos [here’s where you could help the ignoratti distinguish Stephen Miller (Ms. Miller provides an even more enticing homonymic substitute for BISMILLA for the political kind {but how many people would get that joke?})]. I was traipsing on Youtube the other day and I searched up at least a dozen version of this tune performed on solo 12 string guitar – so there is a market. I have to tell you that I even played this cut for my wife.
    1639 days ago.
  • Thomas
    Joe, that’s why, as Eddie Murphy joked, that singers get all the p****. You perform with such confidence both in the material and your singing talent that it sounds like you have toured with the material and are singing it after being filterd through an hundred iterations to cheering crowds. It enlivens the words, taking them off the page into performance [unlike my recent solo efforts in which I sound like a seventy year old asthmatic reading copy cold in a sort of rhythmic pulse], and even taking risks, like the melismas and dying falls, risky but when properly deployed, as here, double down on comic effect coupled with sincere selling of the song by the usual gang of idiots. I want to praise the taste of the lyricist. He knows when to change ‘em, or to derange ‘em. There are times when the original lyrics are too apt to give in to the impulse to change ‘every little thing’ in the targeted song, but how could you improve “Mama, I just killed a man” for appropriateness to the kernel of the parody? You can see this ‘leaving the original words alone in approriate places’ in ‘Inject Yourself’. One doesn’t have to demonstrate one’s mastery of invention in every bar.
    1639 days ago.
  • Thomas Aldridge
    Singer, Lyricist and Production are assembled here in a Wagnerian Gesamtkusntwerk.
    1639 days ago.
  • joeythejammer in Ellicott City, MD
    Yes, I have read them all, in order. I must say though, I feel like I had the easy part in this production. I didn't write any of it, and the reason it sounds so crisp and clear is because Steve Lipton is a masterful sound technician. He just tells you to lay down your vocals, and somehow puts them all together in an unbelievable mix, all the while adding his own vocal tidbit gems. I really appreciate the words. Just knowing someone out there listens to this stuff and smiles makes me ready to do another one!
    1640 days ago.
  • Thomas Aldridge
    I trust that ultimately you were able to reverse the posting order dictated by the space limitations of a single comment. But, good sir, I only hope the value of my comments were commensurate with the quality of its subject.
    1640 days ago.
  • joeythejammer in Ellicott City, MD
    Thomas, that was the best commentary on a jingle I have ever had the pleasure to read. Thank you!!
    1640 days ago.
  • Thomas Aldridge
    I would think it hysterical if the word BISMILLAH were replaced by repeated utterances of STEVE MILLER - but that would be politicizing (that's MY job) the farcical actions of President Bonespurs, and also would an indication of the overestimation of the ability of the public at large to distinguish one of the most powerful and toxic racial theorists in the employ of the U.S. from the eponymous Gangster of Love. But this work is no partisan screed [cf. my last two submissions] but good humor in the jugular vein of MAD collaborationists Frank Jacobs, Al Jaffee and the late, lamented Mort Drucker, which as a boy I studied eight editions annually, religiousy, even rabbinically, poring over such recondite texts as "Whon thot Aprille swithin potrzebie, "The burgid prillie gives one heebie-jeebie." Nobler patrimony doesn’t exist.
    1640 days ago.
  • Thomas Aldridge
    High production values and exquisite vocals [multi-tracked] which are compressed to the absolute edge of intensity but never overflowing its banks into dissonance, this is the finest product which will never see air time, though it is good enough to be taught in university. Maximum props to Joe, Dana and Steve. One caveat, perhaps uttered here to prove that I have not foregone my critical facilities and second-guessing the inspired originators, I think the decision not to find a comic substitute for BISMILLAH is too bad as it spares from ridicule one of the over-the-top expostulations of the original-in light of the announcement of the positive test for Coronavirus infection of the Vice President's press secretary.
    1640 days ago.
  • Thomas Aldridge
    This is the best work, bar none, surpassing anything I may have contributed or even heard over the years in terms of ambition, scale, faithfulness, execution and production. Dana's lyrics, passionately sung by Joe and Steve in an unstoppable collaboration, amaze me, successfully following the structural template of vowels, homonyms and syllables from the original in intimidating ingeniousness while strictly confining the ambit of the world envisioned by the lyricist to the core conceit, which is appropriating the rather vague story line of the Queen original to real life sequelae of the pandemic.
    1640 days ago.
  • jessegm in Ann Arbor, MI
    This was fantastic! Put a huge smile on my face.
    1684 days ago.
  • Tommy
    This is fantastic!
    1685 days ago.
  • Anonymous Little
    OMG !
    1685 days ago.
  • EmmetGM in Boston,MA
    This is the masterpiece of the quarantine era!
    1685 days ago.

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