Hi. Spaff here. Some kids want to grow up to be President or cure cancer. My goal was to get a song on the Dr. Demento Show. I listened to it faithfully every Sunday night, often with headphones so my mom wouldn't overhear songs like "Making Love in a Subaru."

In the early 2000s I somehow convinced Robert Lund, a Salt Lake radio personality, to record some of my song parody ideas, all of which I immediately sent to Dr. Demento. On November 28, 2004, he played "I Want Some Plastic Surgery for Christmas." I was giddy.

Robert and I have since collaborated on over a hundred songs, and Dr. Demento has played a number of them. I remain giddy.

So here's another. It's a tribute to Dr. Demento via a list of songs from the days he hooked me. (Needless to say, he has played countless more effing awesome comedy songs in the intervening years, some of which were created by the people reading this.)

It's a parody of "Ripple," a song the Grateful Dead wrote and recorded in 1970, the year Barret Hansen became Dr. Demento.

Pass the claret to me, Barret! May you forever stay demented.

~~~

CREDITS: Turns out Robert owns mandolins (plural) and has played them his whole life. Also he sang and played guitar and produced this recording. "Ripple" has lyrics by Robert Hunter and music by someone named Jerry Garcia. Dr. Demento brought all of these comedy songs to our attention, and the legendary titles listed here are the brain children of their various legendary parents. BUT I DID EVERYTHING ELSE.