“Weird” Al Yankovic is the best known parodist. Period. If you haven’t heard Eat It, Ahmish Paradise, White & Nerdy, or Perform This Way then you probably haven’t heard much other pop music in the last thirty years either. He got his start sending in tapes to a comedy/ novelty show hosted by Barret Hansen who is better known to the world as Dr. Demento. It was here that “Weird” Al found his first audience. When he recorded a parody of The Knacks’ ‘My Sharona’ called ‘My Bologna’ he quickly became a Demento favorite. A few years later he recorded ‘Eat It, a parody of Michael Jackson’ ‘Beat It’ and introduced himself to pop culture at large. He’s released thirteen studio albums, produced the cult classic film, UHF, had a Saturday morning tv show, and has made too many guest appearances in tv shows and movies to count. Last year I spent nearly two weeks reviewing one of his albums everyday on facebook to drive home the point that he’s been producing music for the last thirty years.
I was pointed in Weird Al’s direction by some family friends who steered me towards Dr. Demento’s weekly radio show. The first song of his I heard was “Another One Rides The Bus,” a parody of Queen’s “Another One Bites The Dust.” A song about how gross and crowded buses are? My sophisticated 9 year old mind loved it! Equally important, it’s a song I didn’t need any pop culture knowledge to enjoy. I recognized the song being parodied but I didn’t necessarily care about it. He didn’t count on my familiarity with Queen or Freddy Mercury to do the heavy lifting for his jokes. He used those as a setup for his own jokes which were funny and accessible. Good parody should stand on its own merits. Knowledge of what’s being parodied should add to the humor, not be a requirement. This is something that Weird Al, for the most part, has done.
I was an immediate convert and sought out anything I could from him. First of course, were other direct parodies I heard on Dr. Demento such as “Ricky” and “I Love Rocky Road”, parodies of “Micky!” by Toni Basil and “I Love Rock And Roll” recently covered by Joan Jett and The Black Hearts. Later on I got his second studio album, “Weird” Al Yankovic In 3-D, and I learned that direct parodies were only about half of his output. As I got older I realized that many of his songs that weren’t direct parodies of pop songs were recorded in the style of influential bands that may not have had a top 10 single at the moment (Devo, Talking Heads, Oingo Boingo, etc.) Repeated listenings of Weird Al’s music over the years have been surprisingly rewarding for me.
In addition to his brilliant lyrics, I’ve always felt Weird Al and his band should get more credit for being solid musicians. Their songs cover a wide range of styles over thirty years and the musicianship is always tight and well executed. Weird Al himself may not have the strongest voice but he puts it to good use. How many artists can sing slow ballads, a cappella do-wop, and still hold their own as rappers?
Is there anyone reading this who doesn’t already know me and heard my opinions? If not, I’ll summarize. I am now and always will be a Weird Al fan. There was a period in the late ’80s when I was wary of the new stuff he was putting out but never lost my love for what brought me to him in the first place. Early on in the ’90s he brought me back and hasn’t let me down since. Thirty years after he started sending in tapes to Dr. Demento, Weird Al is still putting out music and touring. His output has dropped off – fair enough. He has thirteen studio albums. He doesn’t need to worry about not leaving enough material for future generations to get an idea of what he was all about.
A sense of humor has always been important to me and Weird Al did a lot to shape mine. Two important aspects stand out. First of all, he was rarely mean and always family friendly. Don’t get me wrong, I laughed at George Carlin and Eddie Murphy’s routines as they worked in as many ‘fucks’ into their routine as they could. What I learned from Weird Al was that it was possible to be current and funny without being obscene. Carlin and Murphy were funny because of the jokes they told that were given some extra oomph from the obscenities they used, not because of the shock value of swearing. The second thing I learned was how hard it was to do what he did as well as he did. As a boy I tried to write parodies of my own. What I came up with was never as snappy, as clever, as natural as what he did. Weird Al didn’t just have funny lines. He understood the structure of the song and used it as he crafted his lyrics. I didn’t fully appreciate that when I was ten or eleven, but I did recognize that what he was doing was more than writing one silly line after another.
I’ve had the good fortune to see Weird Al perform twice, both times at the Fort Collins Lincoln Center where I work. The first time was in 1999 while he was touring to support ‘Running With Scissors.’ I ran spot light for that show. The second time I saw him was in 2013, this time as an audience member. Both times he put on a great show with levels of energy that would shame a twenty year old despite circumstances that would make that difficult (1999 – sore throat, 2013 – being 53.) If you get a chance to see him perform then do so.
I’ll conclude these rambling sessions by listing My Favorite Song Today. This should in no way be confused with my all time favorite. This is not for the song that has inspired me the most over the years or has been listened to the most frequently. The MFST award goes to the song that appeals to me the most, for whatever reason, as of this writing.
My Favorite Weird Al Song Today is ‘You Make Me.’ The album that comes from, Even Worse (1988), is one of my least favorite albums of his. I recently picked up a copy of it anyway and my memories of the songs I didn’t care for were definitely reinforced. However, the songs I did like were even better than I remembered. ‘You Make Me’ was recorded to imitate the style of Oingo Boingo. If that doesn’t mean anything to you then it kept a frenetic pace, had agressive percussion, and over the top vocals. The song is about the effects that an unspecified person has on the singer and all of the bizarre and unrelated things he’s inspired to do (hence the title.) This song appeals to me so much now because… well… I identify with it. At forty one I met as close to the perfect woman for me as I expect to meet in this life time. Unfortunately for me, she hadn’t been living her life in anticipation of the day she would meet me and had in fact established a fulfilling life, complete with boyfriend, without me. So I was left worked up in a way that I hadn’t been in close to twenty years with no real outlet for those feelings. When I listened to Even Worse this year and heard ‘You Make Me’ I immediately felt a connection with the singer who had no sensible outlet for his feelings. The sentence, “This love song by Weird Al really resonates with me,” does not bode well for whoever said it.
Thoughts Of A Younkin 