AUGUST 31st, 2006 - When the John Mark Karr nonsense hit the news media like a tsunami of stupidity, I knew KHOW's Peter Boyles was going to want a song or two for his show. In the meantime, the "satellite truck farm," had returned to the parking lot of the Boulder Justice Center, where national and international news was camped out for about two weeks. I wandered down there one Sunday morning and handed out some of the Ramsey Murder Investigation Parody songs I'd done just to help them ease the boredom. Then this article in the Boulder Daily Camera (below) came out and before I knew it I was scheduled to appear coast-to-coast on Sirius satellite radio with Vinnie Politan and the lovely Lisa Bloom.

What started out as a pick 'n' play of some of the parody songs took a turn as Lisa Bloom joined the show's last segment. "Isn't is a shame the Boulder police only looked at the family and none of the other theories..." she offered. " Excuse me?" was my response and we were suddenly in a spirited debate which revealed just how little Ms. Bloom, a media pundit, actually knew about the case (while presenting herself as an expert). And here was a guitar player from Boulder filling her in on yes, it was Burke's Hi-Tech boot print found in the basement, among other significant points she was unclear on. Sheesh.

JonBenet blues

Greg Glasgow: Boulder Daily Camera

August 25, 2006

Don Wrege figured he'd written his last song about the JonBenet Ramsey slaying years ago.

The Boulder musician and Ozzy Osbourne look-alike started writing parody songs about the case in 1997. Tunes such as "(Hang Down Your Head) Tom Koby," "Grand Jury, the Ramseys" (to the tune of Bobby McFerrin's "Don't Worry, Be Happy") and "The Ballad of John and Patsy" were featured prominently on radio talk-show host Peter Boyles' daily program on KHOW (630 AM).

It all started, Wrege says, when he took a contract job at the Denver Tech Center and found himself stuck in traffic every rush hour, listening to Boyles talk about the case.

"Months into the investigation, as it was getting weirder and weirder, he came out of a commercial break and they were playing the Warren Zevon tune ('Werewolves of London') as bumper music," Wrege says. "And he started singing along with it, 'Werewolf of Boulder,' and laughed, and he said, 'Somebody ought to do that.'

"And here I was stuck in traffic, miserable, with a pad of paper next to me, and I started saying, 'Well, heck, I could probably pull that off. I can sound like Warren Zevon; I've got those instruments in the basement.' So as a joke, I put it together and sent it to him."

Wrege's first tune — which mentioned then-prominent Boulder figures such as "Pasta" Jay Elowsky, Tim Honey, Leslie Durgin, Tom Koby and Alex Hunter — was such a hit that Wrege started writing more tunes based on rock classics, recording them on a 24-track machine in his basement.

"I've been a musician all my life ... I always dreamed of having a song on the radio, and now I'm driving down I-25 listening to myself sing," says Wrege, who also has written parody songs about Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper and University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill. "The hair's standing up on my arm and I'm going, 'This is almost like fame.' I like this."

On Thursday morning, Wrege was scheduled to appear on Boyles' show to take listener suggestions for a new tune about John Mark Karr, the former teacher who has confessed to JonBenet's murder. Wrege says Boyles suggested "One Night in Boulder," inspired by the '80s hit "One Night in Bangkok"; others have suggested reworking tunes such as the Beatles' "Drive My Car."

No matter what song he ends up using as inspiration, Wrege says, folks like District Attorney Mary Lacy and CU professor Michael Tracey (hey Don — those rhyme, by the way) will end up figuring prominently in the lyrics.

His songs are funny, but Wrege makes a point of saying he means no disrespect to the memory of JonBenet.

"One thing I need to stress is that none of this is meant to belittle the tragedy of the little girl's death," he says. "These things started out essentially as protest songs, because of the lunacy of the Boulder police. They are meant to poke fun at Tom Koby, at the Boulder city government and in some instances the way the Ramseys acted, but these songs were never intended and don't mock the family for the pain they've been through."

Check out the new tune — whatever it turns out to be — as well as the rest of Wrege's Ramsey parodies at www.simulstream.com/mp3.html.

Copyright 2006, The Daily Camera