When I was a wee lad of about ten years old, Sunday nights meant one thing… duct tape. I was sent to bed too early, of course. We all were at ten years old. But I had a solution for that… duct tape.
Like all good children of the 80s, I had a boom box — shiny silver with big knobs and bright lights — too bright in fact because when I’d plug my headphones in after being sent to bed, the pulsating red lights would alert my parents that I wasn’t asleep, I was listening to the radio.
“Jeffreeeey!”My mom would say (she’s the only person who ever calls me “Jeffrey”) “Turn the radio off and get to bed!”
The solution to this problem? Duct tape. A small patch of duct tape over the red LED lights would mute them just enought to let me feed my jones… Dr. Demento’s radio show.
“Weird Al” Yankovic, Kip Addotta, Julie Brown, Cheech & Chong, and Napolean XIV kept me snickering under my covers while Dr. Demento spun the latest parodies and farce songs along with classics by legends like Spike Jones and Tom Lehrer. Monday recess at school meant my friends and I would sing the songs we heard the night before and even make up a few of our own.
As I got older, I grew taller, but not more mature. I learned to play guitar and I never lost my love of music, especially wacky music. I never lost the dream of writing a song that Dr. Demento would play on his show.
During the Christmas season of 2000 I wrote a spoken-word poem called “A Redneck Christmas Carol.” My then girlfriend (and now wife) Megan performed on the song with me and an audio engineer friend produced it for me. We sent a copy of the song to our friends that Christmas and kind of forgot about it.
A few years later, I added the song to the Sound Click Web site and was surprised to find others like the bit as well. So I rolled the dice and mailed a copy to Dr. Demento and forgot about… until today. While Googling “Redneck Christmas Carol” I came across a Dr. Demento playlist from 2005. And there was my song! I hit the big time December 4, 2005 and didn’t find out until April 24, 2007. During that same show, Dr. Demento also played songs by Denis Leary and Bob Rivers — not bad company!
I’m such a dork, I know, but seriously — a show I used to sneak around to listen to played one of my wacky songs. I’m now inspired to send the good Doctor my follow-up Christmas hit, “Brown Christmas” that I wrote with my father-in-law, Robert Peckman.
You can hear both songs here: http://www.jeffbelanger.com/santa/
See you in the funny pages!
I just stopped by to check out your blog and see what you’ve been doing lately. Came across this post and had to go check out the songs. What a talented duo you and Megan are. I wonder which of your many talents Sophie will inherit. Hope things are going well…we’ll see you soon. I’ve got some things for the littlest ghost hunter!