It was no fun obeying all those arbitrary prohibitions.
A sort of fictionalized take on my parodying the Styx album Edge of the Century.
It was the dawn of a new era - one of song-parodying pirates with something to them. It said they would take things on their own merits and have a nice time - exactly what a certain group before them would never have done - or learned they could do.
And their employer, Buccaneer Blue, knew just what she wanted them to do. A recent addition to her music library was Edge of the Century. It was her only Styx album that had not been touched by her ex-employees in their heavy-handed, unsuccessful attempts to please her.
Magic of some kind was going to be behind her subjects, Buccaneer Blue knew. Not like the LEGO game, where you could not tell this was supposed to all be supernatural, or who was whose sister or daughter or girlfriend, where nothing had rhyme or reason. Yes, parodies where you were apparently supposed to take everything for granted would stop.
But that had not become clear to the audience, who had played for them lyrics about how I’m making my way back to Chicago.
The mention here of the true love he had waiting for him invoked parodying on the fly, about dumb love. Only those no longer employed would think that was perfect.
The song Love is the Ritual would be done.
Here’s some more material I could have perverted,
Buccaneer Blue told the crew. She was never one for a love story, and the real Captain Jack was actually listening to her. That was so unlike his counterpart, with the plastic head full of air, who never branched out, remembering that a lot happened at night in the Lego game but never questioning it.
Blue was going to like Love Isn’t For You
better than the original lyrics.
The title track was to be taken and turned into something completely different.
The former employees only pretended to be 18th century. Lego Jack would likely have betrayed that at this point.
But there was no Oh, we know what that means
from a (relatively) real pirate character towards this song. They got none of this 20th century stuff. They would have assumed a CAT scan involved a cat. They left nothing of the original lyrics that did not suit them, which was a lot.
I feel the same way I did then.
That second line of Love at First Sight was pretty broadly applicable. Could be said to a daughter, or a son, or a lover, or just be a general statement of fact. It could be held onto, Jack Sparrow knew. All the ramping up would be to twist the rest of the song.
Buccaneer Blue would likely have sneered at her former employees if they took a stab, either changing for the sake of it or leaving that line unchanged because none of their feelings ever changed.
Everyone who was still here happily marched to work.
It wore on the Crew, hearing about all that modern stuff in Not Dead Yet. But he knew someone who was not dead despite a lot, who might have been called Squidbeard
if Buccaneer Blue did not do away with someone. One of Blue’s new parodying rules banned such fan-made names.
Jack had a goal - to be unexpected. They (excluding dangerous LEGO characters) all knew that made things funnier.
Including Barbossa. With Barbossa there, it was inevitable that there would be fighting.
But not that getting revenge on Squidbeard
thing. Since that mutineer’s dismissal, this fight would be in the song that already used the word.
They heard Carrie Ann, and decided to write the parody about us.
It met with a grin, a nod, and a pardon for, um, darkening the tone of the song, but just a little, and it was all in fun at least for those not into love songs and certainly an improvement over what had happened if no sacking had been done.
Some things might have seemed sick here, in Heart-Cutter.
But it was not the kind of sickness the Lego ex-employees induced, or perhaps seemed to have themselves. Or at least whatever made them need to wait to suddenly get an idea.
It was another example of why this non-Lego captain had been allowed to commandeer the parodying. He noticed how familiar the whole bad relationship sounded, and how But can you escape?
was a good question. There was a lot to save in this song. Sure, any modern stuff that appeared in it was useless to everyone who was still here. But remember, that is not the thing to focus on. What was done with the song was a hint to how things had changed.
dumb love,sorry.
Back to Chicago got done, and upturning the whole thing was not how Jack did it, because he was not a Lego captain. And so, the point was hopefully made.
The sacked still growled from the minds of the readers, but would not be heard like that for a long time - although minor Jack Spasmesque ideas could happen anytime. But readers would be right about what awaited them for a while, if they had any ideas at all.
And now, the ship of the imagination is on course for The Collection.
Jack will continue to prove himself.