Paul Jacobs (musician)
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24.2.163.132 18:54, 9 February 2007 (UTC)Paul Ross Jacobs is the creator of the song "Sloppy Pop" on Between the Lions on PBS. Since 1988, Jacobs, with his wife Sarah Durkee, have composed over 100 songs for Sesame Street,working with artists as diverse as Mel Torme, Amy Grant, Johnny Cash, Brian McNight, and India Arie among many others.
He has also toured and collaborated with Meat Loaf, and he wrote a top 20 UK hit song for the singer, titled "Modern Girl", and "Where The Rubber Meets The Road" for the album Welcome to the Neighborhood.
Other songs written for Meatloaf are Bad Attitude, Piece Of The Action, Sailor To A Siren, Jump The Gun, Take A Number, Priscilla and Keep Driving
Paul also wrote the music for several songs for the 1973 National Lampoon play and album "Lemmings," which starred, along with Paul, John Belushi, Chevy Chase and Christopher Guest. As well as being musical director for the production, he played guitar and piano and sang lead vocals on several songs.
Jacob's association with the National Lampoon came through Christopher Guest who had written a large chunk of the first National Lampoon album, "Radio Dinner." Guest was working as a session musician and met Jacobs when they were both performing at the same session. Guest was developing his own songs at the time and asked Jacobs to contribute, and a musical association was born. When Guest was tapped for "Lemmings" he brought Jacobs onboard.
Jacob's audition for Lemmings was literally an ad-lib performance of the five songs that he ended up co-writing for the show. Tony Hendra and Sean Kelly were impressed enough to name Jacobs Musical Director of the Lemmings show and he proves himself far and away to be the most talented of the bunch, turning in performances on guitar and piano that are not only spot-on parodies of the targeted music, but awesome performances in their own right.
When writing song parodies, it is absolutely essential that the music be right...emulating the era and style while also poking musical fun at it. This is what Jacob brings to the table: A wide musical pallet that gives him an uncanny ability to write songs that are absolutely true to the spirit of the original.
The best way to illustrate the diversity and breadth of his chops are to listen to Lemmings, then remember that he won the Van Cliburn Institute Amateur Piano Concerto Competition in 2000 and has won several Emmys for his work on childrens shows.
Some of the songs co-written or performed by Paul Jacobs during his association with the National Lampoon are:
Lemmings Lament - A CSNY Parody that opened Lemmings. Paul wrote the music and sang the lead vocal, a killer David Crosby impersonation. Overlooked is a fierce racous guitar solo that showcases Jacob's distinctive fingerpicking style. Nobody was playing hammer-off arpeggios like that in 1973.
Positively Wall Street - A Dylan parody Jacobs wrote with Sean Kelly. Manages to work in parodies of both Dylan's wheezy early vocal style and his throaty "Lay Lady Lay" voice, with Christopher Guest doing a killer Dylan.
Papa Was a Running Dog Lackey of the Bourgeoisie: The Communist Manifesto as performed by "a group of soul brothers who are gonna lay some of their natural rigor mortis on you" the Motown Manifestos. Paul co-wrote the song with Tony Hendra and sings lead, doing a sweet "Curtis Mayfield" type falsetto vocal interspersed with funky "Sly and the Family Stone" type vocals where every family member gets a turn. An odd and wonderful song.
Lonely at the Bottom - Co-written with Belushi, a great Joe Cocker parody written in the loose, funky "Mad Dogs and Englishmen" style with Jacobs channeling Leon Russell. The "lost" Lemmings VHS video features a false ending where Jacobs rambling piano vamps at the end of the song send Belushi into a disoriented spiral around the stage, wondering how his blues song morphed into Eine Kleine Nachtmusic as band members frantically try to direct him back to the mike. Priceless.
Megadeath - Paul recently wondered aloud if the group Megadeth got their name from this great heavy metal parody (they didn't, according to amiright.com). Paul co-wrote this song with Sean Kelly, and it served as the finale to the Lemmings show, where the final song actually killed any audience members remaining alive (if you put your head next to the amps as instructed :-) Christopher Guest would later famously revisit the theme of the fake heavy metal band in "This Is Spinal Tap".
Overdose Heaven - Co-written with Sean Kelly and performed on the National Lampoon Radio Hour. Paul plays great barroom piano on this country romp about "Brian and Jimi and Pearl".
Goodbye Pop - Elton John Parody performed by and co-written with Paul Schaffer (lyrics by the great Sean Kelly)
The B Side of Love - Guest sings this country ballad parody written with Kelly, Schaffer, and Guest.
I'm a Woman - Helen Reddy parody on the Goodbye Pop album sung by Gilda Radner surrounded by a studio full of men telling her what to do. Lyrics by Sean Kelly.
Art Rock Suite - Parody of ELP, Yes, etc on Goodbye Pop.
This is by no means a complete listing, but hits the highlights.
After serving as musical director and cast member of "The National Lampoon Show" Jacobs moved on from Lampoon related activities and did a stint writing numerous songs for Sesame Street. Jacobs currently works as musical director for the PBS show "Between the Lions" alongside his wife, Sarah Durkee, and they have won several Emmys for their work on that show.
Also, he recently finished producing the soundtrack to "The Runaway Beauty Queen", the autobiographical musical written and performed by Rhonda Coullet, who sang "You Put Me Through Hell" (Joni Mitchell parody) and "Pull the Tregros" (Joan Baez parody) in the touring version of Lemmings after Alice Playten left the show.
Paul currently is the musical director of "Between The Lions" and resides in the New York area with his wife and two teenage kids.
