The Music!!!

  I suppose it's no mystery that I've been a music enthusiast pretty much all of my life. My dad's been in bands since the mid 1960's, and I've been in one band or another since 1998. Inspired by the Beach Boys and Weird AL Yankovic, most of my solo compositions have either been parodies or stupid songs that utilise a lot of harmony. From my chemistry raps written in the fall of 2000 to my latest slu of rap parodies, I've posted all of my work on the internet. Enjoy!

• The Lab Rap

I recorded this in September of 2001 and wrote it a year earlier. Our project assignment was to illustrate five rules in the chemistry lab manual. If you think the recording quality on this version is bad, the original version was even worse.

• The Atomic Freestyle

This was the follow-up to the previous little ditty. The reason why the sound quality is so much better is that I used a tape with super cromium on the ribbon, so the sound came out much clearer.

• Peanut Butter

This was in actuality the first song I ever recorded, but I'm putting these in the order in which I wrote them. I believe this was recorded in June of 2001. Since I can't play guitar worth a John Kerry, my brother and cousin helped me out with this one.

• Do the BigDawg

Recorded around the same time as the first two raps, this was definitely my take on disco. I actually wrote a follow-up to this song, but I need to track down the recording.

• Suck My Big Toe

This song is a Wheezer parody my uncle and cousin wrote. I'm the vocal panned on the left, and my uncle is on the right. At the end, you can hear my brother pay homage to Pink Floyd.

• My ranting on the Blinding Light demo

I've been a Monty Python fan for many years now. As I recall, Mitch Anderton, our producer, asked me if I liked spam, as in the fabled Monty Python sketch while I was preparing to record a vocal. I then proceeded to rant about spam for the next four minutes, while Anderton messed around with all of the vocal effects. Impressed by my hoboesque tantrum and my reddish complexion, we decided to record it and use it as a bonus track on our demo, released on March 31, 2002. Make sure you have the volume down low on this one.

• Happenin Guy

Another hit written by my uncle, this tune was dedicated to my dad who turned fifty years young on November 10, 2003. Stephen and I sang back-up, and I guess you could say we wrote the harmonies. be sure to listen for my sneeze before the third verse, and Stephen's lovely contribution at the end of the song.

• Big C Tyler G Flea What Do Ya Wanna be Ty-ler

Tyler used to always joke about how black he was and always tried rapping whenever he'd leave me messages. Well by October of 2003, I decided to surprise him by proving to him just how horribly white he truly was. By November, I'd collected about fifteen messages on my cell phone, and thus the rapping began. Keep an ear out for my one and only spoken part in the song and Kera Back's brief appearance at the very end.

• Man We Always Dhere

Impressed by my rap, I wrote an all-out rap parody to a Bone Crusha song called "We Ain't Never Scared" or something like that. Ironically enough, my mom of all people liked this song.

• Little Saint Nick

I was so proud of this when I was done. That's multiple me's on every backing vocal. As if it's not obvious when listening to it, this is a Beach Boys Christmas song from 1963. Man I loved recording this.

• The Canadian National Anthem

I'm not sure why, but one day I just started downloading random national anthems. When I found a Canadian anthem that was essentially an instrumental, I just had to record it. You wouldn't believe how many variations there are to the lyrics. Oh, and listen for a beautiful surprise at the end.

• Have Yourself A Merry Little BigDawg

This recording was the title track from the Reverend BigDawg Christmas CD of 2003. Eventually, I plan to have Mp3's from all my Reverend BigDawg discs up here. But for now, this title track will suffice.

• Rubber Band

This is a parody I'd actually written back in the summer of 2002 but didn't get around to recording a real version until August, 2004. If it isn't obvious upon listening, this is a parody of 'Barbara Ann', originally performed by The Regents in 1961, but later a hit for Jan & Dean in 1962 and The Beach Boys in 1965. For legal reasons, I'll point out that it's J & D's instrumental that I used for this track.

• Wendy's

I'd written this parody several years earlier, but didn't get around to recording this until the fall of 2004. The song is an homage to the Wendy's franchise, and yes, I'm aware that the vocals are distorted. I plan to re-record this sometime down the road. But for now, this'll do.

• Blue Christmas

For the 2004 Reverend BigDawg Christmas CD, I tracked down some Christmas karaoke tracks, one of which was Elvis Pressley's version of "Blue Christmas." Rather than performing a straight version of the song, I instead poked fun at Elvis's lyrics that strayed from the classic version of this timeless carrol.

• Let It Snow

The second in my trilegy of Christmas covers for this CD, this one was more of a direct parody. I just switched a few lines here and there, while leaving the ever-popular hook in tact.

• White Christmas

Now before anyone gets on my case about this, yes, I am well aware that my vocals are constantly flat. I'd literally done this track in under five minutes and only did one take for each vocal track. And despite my unusually off-key singing, this was my favorite track to do last year, primarily because of my falsetto at the end.

• Mister BigMan's Political Ad

As most of you recall, P Ditty was all over the media in the fall of 2004 saying vote or die and doing all of these annoying 'go vote' TV ads. So I used my rappa G dawg homy gangsta whicka whicka character to poke fun at P Ditty and our nation's two-party system. A lot of people were impressed with the second little rap segment and said I should try and turn that into a song of its own. Well...I'm sure I'll get bored enough in the coming months to do just that.