Further miscellaneous notes on Christian parodies

In 2017 at the advanced age of 73, I had a totally unexpected andunsought inspiration to write Christian lyrics for Frank Sinatra’s ‘My Way’.After being thoroughly shocked at the report on Premier Radio that thesong's nihilistic words had become the most popular secular song atfunerals I began to get hopeful lines parodying Paul Anka’s wretchedverses that, apparently, even Sinatra had grown to hate in his latteryears. I wondered what song I would want to be remembered by andbegan to write the words down alongside the original lyrics, resulting in‘His Way’, seven new verses which, unintentionally were my personaltestimony after more than fifty years as a believer. Over the next weeksand months I was prompted on hearing other smash hit numbers and,even getting up in freezing conditions in the middle of the night, feltcompelled to write them down.

By Christmas I had written five parodies plus what turned out to be myfirst original composition ‘I Know My Lord is Coming Soon’. It quickly ranthrough my mind, unwittingly at the time, to the old hymn tune of TheChurch’s One Foundation, somewhat inconveniently as my wife, Chris andI were getting ready to go to our church carol service. I scribbled downmaybe three verses verbatim but, although I had others that there wasnot time to write, we dashed to church. I knew it was no coincidence asthe first Bible reading was the apocalyptic Isaiah 9, 1-7 which had longbeen my favourite Christmas passage, announcing not only Jesus’s birthbut his Millenium Kingdom which was the inspiration for my writing thatmorning. On getting back home I wrote the substantial part of the otherverses. In 2020 I replaced ‘earthquakes’ with the tyranny word of themoment, Lockdown, to the biblical scale disasters in verse 5.

As I had never dreamed of writing songs and don't sing or play music Inevertheless, felt sure the lyrics I had saved were not to remain locked in

the files of my laptop, I spent two years praying and contacting well-known worship leaders to explore if the lyrics were worthy of publication

and if they could advise me. Although I had some encouragement mostonly recorded their own or other professional lyricist's work. I was givenmore than one warning that I could be pursued by powerful publishers ofthe original works and that when Cliff Richard had sung a parody of MyWay at a concert in Berlin he never sang it again after a threatenedinjunction. I don’t suppose Cliff will ever read this but I don’t doubt thatmany fans would love to hear it now as there is no law that prevents it.

Undaunted by these considerable obstacles an unexpected invitation tothe CRE (Christian Resources Exhibition) in Manchester in 2019 provided a breakthrough at last. After a harrowing rail journey hindered by the previous night’s damaging storm an unscheduled termination at Crewe caused me to miss the music seminar I was headed for. Clutching my lyric sheets and a letter of introduction I hurried doggedly towards the three stands I had decided to concentrate on. Although I was politely received at a chance meeting with AndyHawthorne of Delirious and personally encouraged to press on by formerEurovision winner Dana at the seminar pavilion I was eventually able toleave my precious sheets with worship leader Nicky Whyman at the Ministry of Music stand.

Then, for three months, nothing! Until an email from Kim at MoM in Maywith one of my parodies ‘You Took the Chains from My Heart’ interpretedby Nicky in a voice note on her phone and an introduction to her publisherthe exact one I had been attempting to contact for the past three months.Since that fateful day, the lyrics and many more have been professionallycrafted and released by the publishers, Homegrown Worship and ResoundMedia in Gloucester, despite considerable Lockdown obstacles.

I had indelibly imprinted on my mind that music can reach wherepreachers cannot. When I entered into an initial contract to produce myfirst five parodies Andy Baker, head of HomeGrown Worship challengedme to write and collaborate with him and other worship leaders to writetwelve original songs in the following year. I was not sure if I would beable to take this on as I only wrote when I had received inspiration from

the Lord. It was quite a step of faith to agree, especially as the not-inconsiderable cost would be borne by me! God works in mysterious ways

and I was left a small legacy in 2019 when my dear Mom went to be withthe Lord at the age of 98 so I saw no reason to turn down theopportunity. I have since enjoyed the exhilarating, and sometimesexhausting, experience of writing both original material and sitting downtogether, or online during Lockdown, collaborating with other Christiansingers, songwriters and musicians from the USA, South Africa and TheNetherlands as well as throughout the UK. Apart from the ready-madetunes of the parodies, all but two needed specially composedtunes/melodies added by the brilliant team at HGW.

In 2021, a song I had written after a long dark night of unrelenting trials‘When the Morning Comes’ had, to my complete surprise, been nominatedby judges and listeners as a ‘Song of the Year’ Finalist in the StepForwardChristian Music Awards in the company of well-known worship leaderssuch as Matt Redman and Rend Collective with the winner being PhilippaHanna with ‘You’re Still God’. That was OK with me as Phillippa’ssuccessful Christian parody of the Ed Sheeran smash hit ‘Perfect’ hadencouraged me to press on with my quest to record parodies regardless

of the albatross of litigation. Was it chance that she was launched on herworship ministry by Andy Baker’s RocketFuel crowd-funding platform? Afurther, very significant moment was when I discovered that parody andpastiche had been legalised in an EU treaty in 2014.

In order to build outreach for the songs they have been entered into theUK International Songwriting Contest in the last few years, consistently

winning maximum 5-Star ratings by the panel of judges, up to Semi-finalist level by 2021. 25 were entered in the 2022 contest resulting in

three Finalist and two Semi-finalist nominations in the Christian category.My first original compilation ‘I Know My Lord is Coming Soon’ was one ofthe finalists and was also awarded a Semi-finalist nomination in theLyricist of the Year class which is open to the thousands of entrantsthrough all 30 categories, 29 being secular songs! When the results ofUKSC 2022 were announced, I was pipped at the post by a professionalNashville Country-style lyricist, Tony Olsen with 'Only Me' which can befound on Youtube. One of my rewards of the UKSC is 60-minute privateface-to-face Zoom meets with Nashville music industry guru DallasGregory, a former Warner/Chapel creative director and Christian musicspecialist.

I have an HGW and a general website devoted to my songs so they canbe shared with church members, friends and others via the following link:https://www.homegrownworship.com/artist/robtromansI hope I will be excused for the photo that my publishers used! It was atthe 75th Anniversary of VE Day when I wrote a Simon & Garfunkel parodycalled The Sound of Sirens! My nominations and the stories behind someof my songs and collaborations with worship leaders and musicians areincluded together with a brief (for me!) personal testimony from 1962.

The first five songs I wrote were parodies of some of the most famoussecular songs of the post-war years by inspiration 'straight out of theblue' in 2017 using my pen-name ‘Jude Meritus’ from my 2015 bookMagna Carta R.I.P? I was greatly encouraged when, in the broadcast ofan interview for Revelation TV in 2021, Gordon Pettie referred to theadaptation by General Booth in the 19th C of popular songs and tunes inhymns which were able to touch the public nerve of the time.

They are on my website above.

I guess the current peak of my calling to write is the recording by Jonny &the Jazzuits - heavenly jazz gospel group based in The Netherlands, led by Jonny Boston, who recorded and created a music video for my song When You Return (overlooking the Mount of Olives) in Jerusalem in 2023 just before the current, prophesied conflict in Israel. I was introduced to Jonny, a Silver-Dove Award nominee in The Netherlands by Nicky Whyman in 2020 when I sent her my re-written version of the Louis Armstrong all-time Jazz classic ‘When the Saints’ to her for advice.

I hope you will be greatly blessed by the collection of biblical words andmusic, which, by God's good grace are now on YouTube, Spotify andother worldwide streaming services. Please feel free to share this story -for the glory of our Lord and Saviour who constantly surprises us with hisplans for us and his glorious Kingdom, coming soon as he promised! As Iam often saying now ‘never let them write you off’. As I write this, itoccurs to me that this could be the first line of my next song! Even at 80 Iam looking forward to publishing three new songs already written in spiteof almost insurmountable problems and delays of the past three years.