~~~ TL;DR: It's an updated remake of a Beastie Boys parody about Dr. Demento and Whimsical Will. ~~~
One of the most iconic 'Side 1, Track 1' songs in the history of Generation X is the first song on the legendary 1986 Diamond Certified debut album by the Beastie Boys "Licensed To Ill", titled "Rhymin' And Stealin'". ... Far less iconic is the great Luke Ski's 1997 Certified Plastic sophomore album "Shadows Of The Bunghole". For that album, I had the oh-so-clever idea to begin the album with a parody of "Rhymin' And Stealin'", with the gag being that if someone put the disc in and started playing it, another person nearby hearing the album start would be fooled into thinking the album playing was "Licensed To Ill", and then when the first sound bites and lyrics dropped, they would be overcome with a feeling of jocular bamboozlement. Whether or not that ever occurred in real life is unknown and assumed not ever have actually happened.
After nearly 2 years of finally being able to listen to "The Dr. Demento Show" on the actual radio, I felt the need to pay tribute to the show, to Dr. Demento (a.k.a. Barret Hansen) himself, as well as the weekly purveyor of the "Demented News" on the show, "Whimsical Will" Simpson. So that led me to make a parody of the aforementioned Beastie's song, titling mine "The Doctor And William". I call this type of song a 'forced parody', in which there is no clever wordplay or other logical or parallel connection between the original song and subject matter being discussed in the parody, making it obvious that the author (in this case, me) just REALLY REALLY REALLY wanted to parody THAT SONG about THAT SUBJECT despite the fact that it doesn't make any sense to do so intellectually. So, having copped to that, I still really liked what I did with it, with my other MCs making up my Beastie parody trio being J. Styles (Jason Stahl, best friend since the 4th grade) and DJ Skrabble (my brother J.T. Sienkowski). The good Doctor never played this track on his show, but Whimsical Will did report on the song during the July 6th, 1997 edition of the Demented News.
27 years later, an impending celebration of Dr. Demento's birthday made me think it would be fun to give this track an update and perform it live at the celebration with the help of some friends. So I commissioned Professor Shyguy to make a new backing track (and also mix this final studio version), so that I, the great Luke Ski (doing the King Ad-Rock parts), along with Devo Spice (MCA) and Tony Goldmark (Mike D.), and also along with the chanting assistance of Chris Mezzolesta of Power Salad, Insane Ian, and ShoEboX of Worm Quartet, performed it for Dr. D. to the jocular bamboozlement of everyone in attendance.
In conclusion, for the millionth time, thank you to Barret Hansen, a.k.a. Dr. Demento, and "Whimsical Will" Simpson, for bringing so much joy, laughter, and found family together with your decades upon decades of demented news, mad music, and crazy comedy. We owe it all to you. And we will never ever forget to stay deee-mented!
Will the good Doctor play "The Doctor And William (2025 Edition)" on his show? Perhaps he might if the fans REQUEST for him to play it, either from "The Dr. Demento Show" Request Page, or post it with the word REQUEST at The OFFICIAL Dr. Demento Show Facebook Page!
