Parody puts DJs in spotlight

Kirk Baird

Tuesday, Nov. 20, 2001 | 8:30 a.m.

Maybe Lee Greenwood shouldn't buy that new sports car just yet.

The man responsible for "God Bless the USA," the ubiquitous and unofficial patriotic anthem of Operation Desert Storm and following the Sept. 11 attacks, has some competition these days in the song category of "feeling good about America": a two-minute parody, the "Bin Laden Bomb Song," that's making its way electronically across the globe.

Popping up in forwarded e-mails from friends and family, with typical subject lines such as "really funny ... must listen," the animated video for the song, available at madblast.com, has been downloaded 15 million times, according to MadBlast.

It's easy to see why.

Based on Harry Belafonte's classic "Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)," there's a genuine it's-so-goofy-it's-genius-quality to the parody, with such lines as, "Come Mr. Taliban, turn over bin Laden. Pay back come and we drop de bomb."

Perhaps even more surprising than the parody song's popularity is that neither "Weird Al" Yankovic nor Rick Dees (of "Disco Duck" fame) had anything to do with it.

Instead all credit and/or blame (it is a novelty song, after all) goes to three Las Vegas disc jockeys/radio personalities -- Craig Williams, "Sweet Al" Miller and Andy Kaye.

The trio, who form the "Craig Williams' Rock & Roll Morning Show," heard weekday mornings 5-10 a.m. on KOMP 92.3-FM, wrote and produced the song following the Sept. 11 attacks.

"When (the attacks) happened, we went from a morning show to talk radio. We didn't play a song for five hours," Williams said. "We were all just sitting around wondering what to do."

Looking to find some levity in the crisis, the three began brainstorming. During the meeting Kaye, who reports news and sports on the program, began reciting "Taliban, Taliban, Taliban."

"We realized it was the 'banana song' and took it from there," Williams said, and 20 minutes later the "Bin Laden Bomb Song" was written.

Miller is the musician of the trio and, consequently, handles the "Morning Show's" song parodies, used his home recording studio for the "Bin Laden Bomb Song's" instrumental tracks, namely keyboards, stand-up bass and a few rhythm instruments. He recorded his Belafonte-esque vocals tracks at the radio station, with Williams and Kaye helping out with the background singing.

A week after the attack, the song made its show debut, getting a spin every hour during the program. As more listeners learned about the parody tune, the "Bin Laden Bomb Song" gained popularity and became KOMP's most-requested song, a title it still holds.

But it wasn't until the station posted the song on its website for downloading that the "Bin Laden Bomb Song" craze really began.

At some point an MP3 file of the song made its way to MadBlast, an Australian Internet company specializing in computer animation.

MadBlast animators then put together a cartoon video of the song, featuring Colin Powell as Harry Belafonte, George Bush on bongos, and Osama bin Laden as the terrorist who's bounced around by a relentless shelling from U.S. missiles and bombs.

The animation is straight out of the "South Park" school of "crude, but funny," but the cartoon proved more popular than the song and also made the e-mail rounds. However, no credit was given to the "Morning Show" since no authorship was included in the e-mail or mentioned in the song.

That left the "Bin Laden Bomb Song" fair game for desperate morning radio programs to claim as their own creation. One a.m. drive-time team in Tuscon did just that and was featured in a USA Today article as the creative team behind the parody.

"I got on the phone, talked to USA Today, proved it was our song and they printed a retraction," Williams said.

He also spoke with MadBlast officials, and the site now credits the "Morning Show" with writing, producing and performing the song.

Since Williams, Miller and Kaye received proper credit, the morning-show jocks have been featured in Rolling Stone, and on National Public Radio and the British Broadcasting Corp.

There's been little backlash for the song, they said, save two e-mails upset over the cartoon depiction of Afghanistan being nuked off the planet at the end of the video. "Hey, we didn't do the cartoon," Williams is quick to remind.

And the trio are planning to release the "Bin Laden Bomb Song" on a compilation disc of many of the show's best song parodies, with a portion of the proceeds going to charity.

They even thought far enough ahead to have prepared a song in the event of Osama bin Laden's capture, although the three remain tight-lipped on divulging any information.

All in all, they said, the song's success has been fun, rewarding and good publicity for the show. Plus, there's the extra perks of that 15 minutes of fame.

"This is our first of many 15 minutes," Williams countered in mock seriousness.

For Greenwood's sake, let's hope not.