"Living With a Hernia," the lead single, is a parody of James Brown's "Living in America," from the soundtrack to 'Rocky IV.' Al copies Brown's vocal mannerisms well, and even takes the time to listen to the common types of hernias that you can get. While better than most of the parodies on 'Dare to be Stupid,' it's certainly not Al's best, either.
"Dog Eat Dog" is a style parody of The Talking Heads, but is so close to "Once in a Lifetime," I wonder if Al just decided it wasn't in the budget to do another parody for this album. Every once in a while, while at a desk job, I come back to the line "And I can bend paper clips into the shape of small animals." The best I've managed is a snake. :)
"Addicted to Spuds" is a parody of Robert Palmer's "Addicted to Love," though I think the original song only got popular thanks to its video (As Palmer used pretty much the same style in his next video, it seems his record company agreed). Al turns back to food as a subject for parody.
"One of Those Days" is an original song in Al's 'house style.' It contrasts ordinary things that people might find upsetting with a series of more horrifying events: "Big steamroller just ran over my mom/ And I cut myself shaving and they're dropping the bomb./ It's just one of those days." Clever enough in places, but not Al at his best.
"Polka Party" is the by-now-traditional polka medley on the album as well as the title track. It features...
- "Sledgehammer" by Peter Gabriel
- "Sussudio" by Phil Collins
- "Party All the Time" by Eddie Murphy
- "Say You, Say Me" by Lionel Richie
- "Freeway of Love" by Aretha Franklin
- "What You Need" by INXS
- "Harlem Shuffle" (as "Harlem Polka") by The Rolling Stones
- "Venus" by Bananarama
- "Nasty" by Janet Jackson
- "Rock Me Amadeus" by Falco
- "Shout" by Tears for Fears
- "Papa Don't Preach" by Madonna
"Here's Johnny" is my favorite parody on the album, a spoof of El Debarge's "Who's Johnny.' Don't remember the original song? I wouldn't be surprised, though it was featured in the movie "Short Circuit." This is Al's ode to Ed McMahon, and it works surprisingly well in the context of the original. While Al couldn't get the real Ed McMahon to appear, John Roarke did a fair job. Peter Wolf, who wrote the El Debarge version, even brought Al a floppy disc of the synthesizer parts from the original recording. Years later, the real Ed McMahon would appear in the Disney Channel special ' "Weird Al" Yankovic: There's No Going Home.'
"Don't Wear Those Shoes," is another Al original in his house style and is about someone who really doesn't want someone else to wear a certain pair of shoes. Not a creative high point.
"Toothless People" is a parody of the Rolling Stone's "Ruthless People," from the movie of the same name. Al thought that this song was going to be huge hit. When it wasn't, he considered not including the song, but then thought it might be an insult to Mick Jagger (from whom he'd received permission), and did it anyway. Boring fact: While "Dare to be Stupid" included three songs used in soundtracks, "Polka Party" contains parodies of 3 songs from soundtracks.
The album closes in strong fashion with two originals. The penultimate track, "Good Enough For Now," might just be the best country song of all time. "I honestly can say you're an above-average lady/ You're almost just what I've been looking for." The fiddle and pedal steel give this song a great old-time country feel.
"Christmas At Ground Zero" is a lively tune in which holiday merriment is mixed with the threat of nuclear war. . "We can dodge debris while we trim the tree underneath the mushroom cloud." Like 'Happy Birthday,' this song is a yearly tradition in our household...to my wife's chagrin.
If you thought Polka Party was bad, Al's next album is...Even Worse.
No comments:
Post a Comment