Subject: Weird Al Yankovic
Posted by: brm50diboll
Date: Jan 21 20
Weird Al's career has been too long to fit into one particular era, and he has mocked multiple different genres of music. In this thread, I will discuss Weird Al songs and the original songs that they parodied.
Posted by: brm50diboll
Date: Jan 21 20
Weird Al's career has been too long to fit into one particular era, and he has mocked multiple different genres of music. In this thread, I will discuss Weird Al songs and the original songs that they parodied.
37 replies. On page 1 of 2 pages. 1 2
brm50diboll 
|
First up, Weird Al's treatment of Miley Cyrus' "Party In The USA" https://tinyurl.com/u2h656c Now, Weird Al went with a cartoon version this time, doing (as is usual for him) the same melody as the original song but with a vastly different theme. This one is "Party In The CIA": https://tinyurl.com/v7xuvdu A truly warped mind. Reply #1. Jan 21 20, 11:28 AM |
DireWolf74
|
He always gives really good interviews. Funny and completely honest. I saw one that Jay Leno did with him on his MSNBC show "Leno's Garage" where they were driving around in a big Buick or Oldsmobile station wagon like Weird Al's parents had when he was growing up. That movie he put out back in the day was hilarious. "UHF" was it's name. Had Michael Richards from Seinfeld in it too. Reply #2. Jan 21 20, 1:17 PM |
| brm50diboll
|
He started as a teenager in California back in the 70s with an act on the "Dr Demento" radio show. From his earliest days, his act featured the accordion. Reply #3. Jan 22 20, 9:58 AM |
| DireWolf74
|
Ask and you shall receive... Dr. Demento playlist. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLE1InrZfsJQmzE4Cq8OTDGzr0dPvpsn8d Weird Al is #12 with "I lost on Jeopardy" Reply #4. Jan 22 20, 2:56 PM |
| brm50diboll
|
Aw, man! I was going to do that one later, contrasting it with the original. But since you brought it up now, any sharp-eyed viewers of "I Lost on Jeopardy" should notice that at the end of the video when the car drives off, the singer of the original (which I will not mention for now) is in the car and winks at the audience. Which reminds me of another thing.... Courts have held for years that parodies are immune to defamation and copyright lawsuits, but Weird Al really *is* a nice guy in real life. As a matter of course, with just a few exceptions, Weird Al asks the original artist for permission *before* he does the parody. Many musicians feel quite honored to have one of their songs get the Weird Al treatment. It's a badge of honor, actually. Reply #5. Jan 22 20, 5:44 PM |
| DireWolf74
|
Sorry for the toe stepping. One exception to what you said was Coolio and Gangsta's Paradise. Reply #6. Jan 22 20, 6:22 PM |
| brm50diboll
|
Yes, and I was going to mention that when I do that one. But I'm not going to reveal either the order or the dates I plan to do these in, and plan to take my time on this. Unlike my Music Forums thread, I'm going to go a lot slower and hopefully have more discussion along the way. If other people want to post Weird Al videos themselves, that is fine, but I'll probably repeat it at some point later in my own idiosyncratic way. Since the plan for *my* posts is to do direct comparisons of the original with the Weird Al parody, I need to emphasize *right now* for the record that not all Weird Al songs are direct parodies of specific songs. Sometimes Weird Al does a song intended to parody a particular genre, and not a specific song. Those can be pretty good, actually, but they're not the ones I intend to feature. All I am going to say now is I plan to skip about fairly randomly, definitely *not* adhering to any kind of chronological order in my sequence. Don't want to get predictable. Reply #7. Jan 22 20, 6:36 PM |
| DireWolf74
|
Looking forward to the songs and discussions. Reply #8. Jan 22 20, 9:48 PM |
| brm50diboll
|
Life has a way of getting in the way sometimes. I've been wanting to add to this thread for some time, but I've been too busy. But I haven't forgotten. So today I will go all the way back to Weird Al's early years - the 70s. A popular song from 1979 was The Knack's "My Sharona". Here is the original: https://tinyurl.com/ufg6ar6 And here is another version, not much of a video but higher quality audio, in my opinion: https://tinyurl.com/uxnxasj OK. Now a young Weird Al (during his Dr Demento days - a radio show, recall) gets ahold of this catchy tune and decides to spoof it. Now, MTV did not exist yet and Weird Al was just beginning his long career, so I will cut him some slack for all the rough edges, but here are a couple of versions of his parody, entitled "My Bologna". First, a crude video: https://tinyurl.com/ubq9cpt I told you it was crude. Certainly no special effects. And it features his trademark accordion. Considering he was parodying a rock song with an accordion, he does a decent job of reproducing the melody of the original song. The video is poorly lit, so it is hard to see much there, but the pace was considerably slower than this next version I will show: https://tinyurl.com/rev3fkw No video at all there, but the audio is clearer, though it is much faster paced than the previous version. As for Weird Al's lyrics, they have his somewhat falsetto delivery focusing on rather morbid details of eating, actually, not too different than the theme of "Eat It", a much improved performance just a few years later. I put this one as sort of a "base point" for comparison as his style develops over the years. But I'm not going to stick to a chronological pattern. Who knows where (or better, when) my next Weird Al interruption will be? Reply #9. Feb 13 20, 1:57 PM |
| brm50diboll
|
Answer: Sooner rather than later. Tonight, in fact. I plan to be quite random about the timing of these posts. So Weird Al parodies many genres of music, not just pop. In fact, he parodies even rap (which I generally despise, by the way. I say it is misspelled. It is missing the "c" that should be there). Nevertheless, in the interest of my discussion I will nevertheless show a well-known Weird Al parody of a gangsta rap video. First, the original: From 2005 by Chamillionaire, we have "Ridin' Dirty": https://tinyurl.com/wmqhjvr Goodness! Anyway, look at what Weird Al did with *that*. Here is "White & Nerdy": https://tinyurl.com/qqupl4a Man! The cameos in that one. That was the comedian team of Key and Peele in the car at the beginning, for one, and there were many others. Compare Weird Al's version to the original. As usual, the melody is almost the same but the theme is *totally* reversed. Weird Al in this one is practically my role model. Reply #10. Feb 16 20, 7:33 PM |
| brm50diboll
|
Radio Free Weird Al broadcasting again: So now let's look at Weird Al's take on 90s grunge, with the best-known group from that era (Nirvana) and their most famous song "Smells Like Teen Spirit": https://tinyurl.com/rmsroa4 Wow! Who else but Kurt Cobain would make a pep rally look so dark and depressing? Even the cheerleaders' outfits have big anarchist's "A's" on them. Now look what Weird Al did with this iconic video. His version is "Smells Like Nirvana": https://tinyurl.com/ruv7bco Beautiful recreation of the ambience of the original, down to getting the actor who played the janitor in the original to appear in the spoof. And Weird Al mocks Cobain's gravelly delivery relentlessly, with marbles, subtitles, and gargling water. And then the kazoos! Yep, that's grunge rock, all right. Reply #11. Feb 26 20, 11:30 AM |
| brm50diboll
|
Back into my time machine and shooting forward this time, to the relatively recent past and Taylor Swift, yes, Taylor Swift. Although 80s music is by far my favorite, I am by no means stuck in a particular era of time. I still listen to new music. And, so does Weird Al. We begin with Taylor Swift's "You Belong With Me" from 2008: https://tinyurl.com/slvt7zo Obviously popular. What would Weird Al do with that? Well, he went with the cartoon format and decided to after paparazzi, something Taylor Swift would know quite a bit about. So here is Weird Al's "TMZ": https://tinyurl.com/ujr43kn Ruthless, utterly ruthless. Reply #12. Mar 06 20, 10:29 PM |
| brm50diboll
|
All right, let's go back to the 80s. I have a thread devoted to 80s music in the Forums, so whenever I mention or post 80s music elsewhere, it is likely to be a repeat of something I already did in the Forums. And that is half true today. The original song I'm examining is Toni Basil's "Mickey", which I certainly did post in my Forums thread. However, Weird Al's response to that is something I did *not* post in the Forums, although it, too, is an 80s song. First, let's look at "Mickey": https://tinyurl.com/uaanozb Now, this is a goofy fluff of a pop song. There is no real scathing social commentary to make by parodying this song, but why not have some fun and be goofy with the parody? So Weird Al does "Ricky": https://tinyurl.com/uebxhe8 I few observations about this. In the 80s, Weird Al was generally seen with a frizzy Afro and a mustache. And he does appear that way in the video in the scene where he plays his trademark accordion. But Weird Al also plays Ricky Ricardo in the video, and for that he had to take on a look that was very unusual for him at that time. Most of the video is in black and white since it is an obvious parody of "I Love Lucy" as well as Toni Basil's "Mickey". Weird Al must have noticed the similarities between the goofiness of Toni Basil in "Mickey" and the goofiness of Lucille Ball in "I Love Lucy". His fake Cuban accent and his laugh at the end of the video is hilarious (to me, at least). Too bad he never said "Luuuuucy! You got some 'splainin' to do!" (A line never said exactly that way in "I Love Lucy", by the way, much as "Beam me up Scotty" is never said exactly that way in "Star Trek" - but I would've expected it in the parody.) Note the cheerleader at the end of the video where it is in color - to link it back to "Mickey". The actress who plays the "Lucy" role in the video does a great job of mocking Lucy's mannerisms. I mean, when you really think about it, "I Love Lucy" episodes are basically the same schtick over and over. Yeah, I'm definitely overthinking this. Reply #13. Mar 10 20, 9:14 AM |
| brm50diboll
|
OK. So R.E.M. does a song called "Stand" (which I featured recently in my thread in the Forums Music Cellar. If you haven't seen it, here it is: https://tinyurl.com/t69ja7e Kind of weird, I think. What does it mean? I don't know, but my opinion is that you have to make decisions with incomplete and contradictory information and you need to stick by (stand) those decisions once you've made them, even if the consequences are crazy. But what did Weird Al do with this? Well, here's Weird Al's "Spam": https://tinyurl.com/sogvz27 I've eaten Spam lots of times. Looks kind of funny, but not so bad once you eat it. My Dad used to cook it for us when I was a kid lots of times. I mean, if you can't trust your own eyes, what can you trust? Reply #14. Mar 24 20, 3:56 PM |
| brm50diboll
|
As much as I personally do not like rap music, nevertheless, it is unavoidable if you're out and about as I am. I feel it is a destructive subculture, but one which needs to be acknowledged. So then there's Eminem. And his song "Lose Yourself" from his autobiographical movie "Eight Mile" in 2002, widely played at basketball games: https://tinyurl.com/sjbf399 Weird Al has remained connected to the present over these years and has not isolated himself in endless loops of 50s and 60s music. He also seems to have a sort of morbid fascination with food and eating which shows up in multiple parodies of his. For some reason, when Weird Al parodied Eminem's "Lose Yourself", he did not create an official video. But here's Weird Al's "Couch Potato": https://tinyurl.com/rrdv44k The fact that Weird Al himself did not star in a video of this did not stop his legions of fans from creating fan videos of the song. Here's one of the better fan videos (in my opinion) with a fake Weird Al: https://tinyurl.com/v9udd6o Pretty good, I think. The real Weird Al has had no problem portraying himself as morbidly obese ("Fat") and this fan-made video does a pretty good job of capturing what happens to people who sit around watching TV all day. "Reality TV" is an oxymoron. The more TV and internet you watch, the less connected to reality you are (and I know I'm writing this on an internet site). There is no substitute for real human interaction. Enjoy your social distancing, y'all. Reply #15. Apr 05 20, 6:21 PM |
| brm50diboll
|
Now for something a bit lighter. From 1999, we have the Backstreet Boys with "I Want It That Way": https://tinyurl.com/wm6lcdk A catchy tune. If I were a teenage girl, I might have thought even more of that song, but I'm not. Anyway, Weird Al's version is called "Ebay": https://tinyurl.com/s7fkddu Materialism. It's a dead end, people. (Except for Shatner's old toupee. Gotta have that one.) Reply #16. Apr 10 20, 7:20 PM |
| brm50diboll
|
A few days ago, on my 80s music thread in the Forums, I posted Dire Straits' video of "Money For Nothing", an iconic 80s video (I Want My MTV!) If you missed it, here it is again: https://tinyurl.com/s9tm222 Now Weird Al does an absolute number on this. Here is Weird Al's "Money For Nothing/Beverly Hillbillies": https://tinyurl.com/y8vobwyz As usual, Weird Al took the time and effort to get the cooperation of Mark Knopfler (from Dire Straits) on his parody. And it really paid off. His visual effects are a stunning copy of the original's. And the fact that the lyrics are, for the most part, just "The Ballad of Jed Clampett" from the intro of the old TV show is just hilarious. "That little Clampett got his own cement pond. That little Clampett, he's a millionaire!" (Compare that to the lyrics in the original.) I just about died laughing watching this. Reply #17. Apr 23 20, 10:55 AM |
| brm50diboll
|
Coming back with a new one, a little different this time. Don McLean's classic, "American Pie" was done in the pre-video era, and Weird Al did not parody it until many years later, but I've thrown something together nonetheless. First, a video with lyrics of "American Pie": https://tinyurl.com/ycvu3668 I remember that song as a kid. It wasn't until years later that I learned what it was actually about. Buddy Holly, et al was well before my time. It is a catchy tune, though, but a little on the long side for my tastes. For some reason, Weird Al chose to parody "American Pie" for the release of "Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace". Maybe it was the "long, long, time ago". Anyway, Weird Al's version is called "The Saga Begins": https://tinyurl.com/yc7mxjdn Al's lyrics are actually a pretty good summary of what happens in that deeply mediocre movie, which deserved parody for a variety of reasons (in my opinion, reason #1: Jar Jar Binks). Having "Darth Sidious" play the piano was a nice touch. I hear Don McLean got a good laugh out of this. Reply #18. Apr 30 20, 11:02 AM |
| brm50diboll
|
Very early on in this thread, DireWolf had linked to Weird Al's "I Lost On Jeopardy". I'm returning to it now because, among other things, it is classic 80s MTV Weird Al and I wanted to say a little about the song that it parodies. The Greg Kihn Band did a song called "Jeopardy". The chorus line in that song goes "Our Love's in Jeopardy". We'll, here's the original song and video: https://tinyurl.com/y8teeyp5 Weird Al's parody, of course, is "I Lost On Jeopardy" and here it is again: https://tinyurl.com/yawb96fd I have several comments about this. Back in the 80s, I saw Weird Al's parody and thought it was hilarious long *before* I ever saw Greg Kihn's "Jeopardy". Silly me. I thought Weird Al was parodying the "Jeopardy" game show, but I thought even *that* was strange. Imagine my surprise when, several years later, I saw Greg Kihn's "Jeopardy" and thought "Wow! You mean that was really a song?" As to the parody of the TV game show "Jeopardy", I am young enough to not remember there was a 70s incarnation of that show that was hosted by Art Fleming. I am definitely of the Alex Trebek era. I was really surprised, just from watching Weird Al's video, how different *that* "Jeopardy" was from the one I was familiar with. I did recognize announcer Don Pardo's voice in the video though, as I am a big "Saturday Night Live" fan and Pardo was the announcer for SNL for many years. And of course, there is the cameo of Greg Kihn himself winking in the car driving away at the end of Weird Al's video. Weird Al always did try to get the cooperation of those who he parodied. I had no idea who Greg Kihn even was. Obviously he was a good sport though. Then there was Coolio. A story for another time. Reply #19. May 04 20, 1:59 PM |
| brm50diboll
|
The Coolio story will just have to wait. I love the 80s Weird Al. Need to do more of it. This next one heavily features his talent with the accordion. It was a spoof of Joan Jett's "I Love Rock'n'Roll", which I had previously featured some time back on my 80s music thread in The Forums, but here it is again: https://tinyurl.com/y7jxlfcmObviously, a fine rock anthem with a powerful beat. Weird Al's version of this was "I Love Rocky Road": https://tinyurl.com/ybfaj4s9I mean, what is it with Weird Al and his fixation on food and eating? It appears in so many of his songs. This is probably *the* most accordion-heavy video from the 80s. Fairly early in his career, yes, but the video is a lot more than just Weird Al playing. (Pretty hot chicks for a Weird Al video, actually.) Seems his falsetto was a lot more marked in the early days and mellowed a bit as the years went by. Reply #20. May 17 20, 7:29 PM |
37 replies. On page 1 of 2 pages. 1 2
Legal / Conditions of Use
|
|
: