Uploaded July 2014 | Updated September 2026, 1 hour ago
It takes more than glasses to rebrand a politician—it takes a new theme song.
When he first hit the scene
His persona stunk
He was naive and green
and possibly drunk
He was quickly dismissed
by political classes
But now he's back, and he's got glasses!
He's Smart Rick Perry
He's someone who would never say "Oops"
He's Smart Rick Perry
Look at him, he's deploying National Guard troops!
In twenty-twelve he looked dumb as hell
And he got buried
But he's got glasses now
So he's Smart Rick Perry
More stuff at RobPRocks.com
or twitter.com/RobPRocks
©2014 Paravonian
It takes more than glasses to rebrand a politician—it takes a new theme song.
When he first hit the scene
His persona stunk
He was naive and green
and possibly drunk
He was quickly dismissed
by political classes
But now he's back, and he's got glasses!
He's Smart Rick Perry
He's someone who would never say "Oops"
He's Smart Rick Perry
Look at him, he's deploying National Guard troops!
In twenty-twelve he looked dumb as hell
And he got buried
But he's got glasses now
So he's Smart Rick Perry
More stuff at RobPRocks.com
or twitter.com/RobPRocks
©2014 Paravonian
![Brad Paisley & Rachel Platten love insurance, and so do I! [52Sellout Week 36]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/ca7X_--hiPg/mqdefault.jpg "Brad Paisley & Rachel Platten love insurance, and so do I! [52Sellout Week 36]
Brad Paisley and Rachel Platten love to just sit around the house writing songs about insurance, and since they’re big time stars I figure I should do it too! I think I might even be better at appealing to the folksy folks too, when I put my mind to it…")
![Driving With Grandpa—[Live Album Official Lyric Video]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/cp60QWB8oA4/mqdefault.jpg "Driving With Grandpa—[Live Album Official Lyric Video]
I wanted to write a Beach Boys-style song that I could have related to when I was 10-years-old, and this is what I came up with :P
From my new live album “Rob P. Rocks A Jazz Club” available on iTunes, Spotify, bandcamp, and all of your fave digital music outlets! (https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/rob-p-rocks-a-jazz-club-live/1449305498)
Here are the song lyrics:
Grandpa hasn’t gotten new glasses in years
(wop, wop, wah-ooo, wop wop)
Now driving with him is one of my greatest fears
(wop, wop, wah-ooh)
He’s yelling at the other drivers like he’s insane
I’m in the back seat praying and praying
Cuz I’m the only one who knows we’re in the wrong lane
Driving with Grandpa,
gives me heart palpitations
Driving with Grandpa,
it’s all moving violations
Driving with Grandpa,
I wanna make it home tonight
A ride with Grandpa always fills me with stress
(wop, wop, wah-ooh)
Cuz he stops traffic to yell at the GPS
(wop, wop, wah-ooh)
The right directions it won’t show
We asked three people, nobody knows
Cuz the place we’re going closed 8 years ago
Riding with Grandpa,
ooh-wee-ooh
Riding with Grandpa,
ooh-wee-ooh
Riding with Grandpa,
wee-ooh-wee-ohh
Pull over! Pull over!
Thank you, officer! I’m blinking Morse Code to you so you can rescue me!")
![Dial Up Days [album version]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/cy88YByNCM0/mqdefault.jpg "Dial Up Days [album version]
A ragtime song about the early days of the internet, when it was something you had to access over a phone line while sitting at a desk. It may seem quaint and even a little ridiculous now but, as the song says, at least we could turn it off.
From the album Keep Your Jazz Hand Strong by Rob Paravonian (http://robprocks.com, http://twitter.com/robprocks, http://fb.com/robprocks)
Here are the lyrics:
There was a time when going on line
Was something few people could do
You needed a computer and a telephone
A modem and an ISP too
You paid for your hours and there wasnt much power
And at home was where you had to stay
Cause you could only make a call
when you were plugged in a wall
Back in the dial-up days
And not only that, to comment or chat
You had to find a Usenet feed
Special software was needed if you wanted to read it
And access was not guaranteed
There was always a lag cause servers would drag
So flame wars took so long to blaze
If you were an online jerk
You had to put in the work
Back in the dial-up days
Oh, it was aggravating to disable call waiting
So you wouldnt get kicked off line
And heaven forbid you traveled out of town
Where a local access number was impossible to find
Then theyd initiate a new software update
And the progress bar would make your eyes glaze
It took forever to download em
With your 56k modem
Back in the dial-up days
Sometimes you couldnt get through and video barely moved
Back in the dial-up days
You may giggle and scoff, at least we could turn it off
Back in the dial-up, where everything took a while, but
Those were the dial-up days.")
![Dial Up Days [Live]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/d4WoLVc_I9c/mqdefault.jpg "Dial Up Days [Live]
A live version of my ragtime song about the early days of the internet. Recorded at Flappers Comedy Club in Burbank, CA at the B.O.R.E.D. Tour show in June 2013.")
![Celebrate 420 with Colorado Buds & Duds! [52 Sellout Week 16]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/e4zG6PqffOI/mqdefault.jpg "Celebrate 420 with Colorado Buds & Duds! [52 Sellout Week 16]
The folks at Colorado Buds & Duds want to be your 420 HQ so they put this ad together with jam band music and specials to celebrate everyone’s favorite unofficial holiday!
For this week’s music I put together a jam band kind of groove with a couple of guitars, some bass guitar and drums doing a few tight accents here and there, and then an electric guitar noodling endlessly over the whole thing. It was fun to do a piece that’s a bit longer than the other ones, but at under 3 minutes it’s still WAY too short for the jam band genre.")
![Retro Asbestos Promotional Video [52 Sellout Week 18]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/ew8PwbY_o84/mqdefault.jpg "Retro Asbestos Promotional Video [52 Sellout Week 18]
Nostalgia is all about misremembering the good and overlooking the bad, like old optimistic ads touting the benefits of asbestos! Or cigarettes! Or lead paint! The marvels of yesteryear!")
![Ghostbusters as a 1980s drama [52 Sellout Week 43]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/f3MjWgUQN5s/mqdefault.jpg "Ghostbusters as a 1980s drama [52 Sellout Week 43]
People freaked when they remade Ghostbusters with female leads so I really hope they don’t see my recutting of it as a 1980s hour-long drama a la Hill Street Blues.
I originally wrote the music to be a 1980s sit-com theme, sort of like Taxi, but it wound up sounding more appropriate for an 80s-era hour-long drama. For several weeks I didnt know what to do with the music or how to approach doing a spoof of an 80s drama, but as one random, mental connection led to another I wound up here.
I think it turned out pretty well, hope you like it!")
