Tuesday, July 8, 2014

"Weird Al" Yankovic: 'Off The Deep End'

Following the lackluster performance of both the film and soundtrack to 'UHF,' Al took the longest break (to that point) of his professional career.  'Off The Deep End' found success with 'Smells Like Nirvana,' but to me is among the weakest of Al's offerings. Al had originally recorded most of the parodies and original songs shortly after UHF, but was waiting for the next big thing to come along to parody...in this case, the rise of grunge, and particularly, Nirvana.  OTFE's cover famously parodies Nirvana's cover to 'Nevermind,' replacing the baby swimming towards a dollar bill with Al swimming towards a donut. This is the last album cover that directly parodies another artist's cover.  Parodies not used for the album included 'Snack All Night,' based on Michael Jackson's 'Black Or White' and 'Chicken Pot Pie,' based on the Guns N' Roses cover of the Paul McCartney Bond theme.  Jackson didn't want the message  of his song to get lost, but was OK with Al parodying other songs from the album; McCartney, like Al, is a vegetarian, and couldn't consent to a song that condoned the eating of meat.  Both parodies made their way to live shows, though. This is the first Album that Al produced himself.

OTDE leads off with its most famous track, 'Smells Like Nirvana.'  Al famously got a hold of Kurt Cobain when the band was performing for Saturday Night Live, seeking his permission to do the parody, to which Kurt said, 'You want to make a song about food?'  'No,' Al said, 'I want to make a song about how nobody can understand your lyrics.'  Cobain agreed, and the parody prince was reborn for the grunge generation.  Like his video for 'Fat,' Al used the same set and even the same janitor when it came time to create a video for the song, resulting in a new generation of fans discovering his music.  My favorite line is 'It's hard to bargle nawdle zous with all these marbles in my mouth.'

'Trigger Happy' is a song that owes a lot, musically, to 60s surf rock like Jan and Dean and early Beach Boys recordings.  It's probably Al's most politically charged song, satirizing the idea that owning assault rifles and a plethora of other guns is really just about self-defense.

'I Can't Watch This' is a parody of M.C. Hammer's 'U Can't Touch This.'  Rather than write about one particular show, Al declares a bunch of shows unwatchable.  Similar themes can be seen earlier in 'Cable TV,' and later on in 'Syndicated, Inc.' and 'Couch Potato.'

'Polka Your Eyes Out' is the polka medley for the album, and was his best to date, in my opinion.  It includes (and again, thanks to Wikipedia for the list)...
The Metallica bit and the lounge-y cover of 'The Humpty Dance' are probably my favorite moments during the song.

'I Was Only Kidding' is the fun-filled story of a guy who finally reveals to his girlfriend that he's been lying about their whole relationship.  Like 'Happy Birthday,' this song was heavily influenced by the nearly-famous Tonio K.  As an example of Al influencing my musical knowledge, I am only aware of Tonio K's music because of seeking to listen to  more of Al's earlier influences.

'The White Stuff' is a parody of 'The Right Stuff' by The New Kids on the Block.  By the time this album came out, this particular NKOTB song was already a couple of years old, and there's only so far Oreo-related humor can take you.

'When I Was Your Age' is musically influenced by some of the more bitter alternative rock of the time, and describes the hardships faced by an older generation.  'There were 73 of us living in a cardboard box/ All I got for Christmas was a lousy bag of rocks.'

'Taco Grande' is my favorite parody on this album.  Like Gerardo's 'Rico Suave,' Al goes back and forth between Spanish and English, describing his favorite Mexican dishes.  This song includes a guest appearance by Cheech Marin of Cheech and Chong. Al handles the Spanglish very well.

'Airline Amy' had been one of my least favorite songs on the album, but as my wife likes the fact that Al uses her name in a song, I like it more.  As you may suspect by the song title, Al's in love with a stewardess who probably doesn't know he's alive. The expected humor ensues.

'The Plumbing Song,' is a parody medley of Milli Vanilli's 'Don't Forget My Number' and 'Blame it on the Rain.'  As Milli Vanilli were already a bit of a joke by the time this song came out due to their lip synching scandal, the parody lacks punch.  Maybe if he'd found a way to mock Rob and Fab's real-life shenanigans, this song might have turned out better.

'You Don't Love Me Anymore' stands in contrast to 'I Was Only Kidding.'  Here, a guy who's still obviously in love questions, 'Why did you disconnect the breaks on my car?/ that kind of thing is hard to ignore./ Got a funny feeling that you don't love me anymore.'  When released as a single, Al's record label asked him to make the video a parody, so he copied the style of Extreme's sappy, popular 'More Than Words,' throwing in lots of funny bits.  The janitor from 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' and 'Smells Like Nirvana' makes another appearance, as well as Robert Goulet.

Looking for a way to scare that someone special on your life?  Leave 'Off The Deep End' running after YDLMA.  After about 10 minutes of silence, Al's only hidden track, 'Bite Me' comes on, featuring a cacophony of sound and Al yelling and screaming, for about 6 seconds.  Because this loud intrusion comes after so much silence, it's easy to forget the CD (or iTunes) is still playing, and its sudden appearance has been known to jolt me awake on more than one occasion.  'Bite Me' was placed on the CD as a compliment to Nirvana's hidden track on their Nevermind release.

'Off The Deep End' will never be my favorite Al CD, but I'm glad for the resurgence it gave his career.  Al soon followed this album up with 'Alapalooza,' which I'll take a look at next time.
Posted by at No comments:

"Weird Al" Yankovic: 'UHF Original Motion Picture Soundtrack And Other Stuff.'

The UHF soundtrack is a mix of songs and other bits from the film, as well as some new parody and original songs not featured in the film.  Two of my favorite Al songs close the album.

'Money For Nothing/ Beverly Hillbillies*' was included in its entirety, along with the video, in the film UHF.  Much like 'The Brady Bunch' from 'In 3D,' Al takes the lyrics of a classic TV theme song and fits them to a different song.  To my knowledge, this song is the only one of Al's parodies that features the original artist also playing.  Dire Straits guitarist Mark Knopfler and keyboardist Guy Fletcher lent their talents to Al's version.

'Gandhi II' is a minute long clip of audio from the movie.  It loses something without the visual.  Still the line of 'No more Mr. Passsive Resistance' sounds like the perfect tag to an early 80s action flick.

'Attack of The Radioactive Hamsters From a Planet Near Mars' has a lot in common with 'Slime Creatures From Outer Space,' though it dials back some of the sci-fi sound effects in favor of Al's house style of rock.

'Isle Thing' is Al's first rap parody, taking on Tone Loc's 'Wild Thing.'  Once again, Al's movie soundtrack takes him to classic TV land, and Al attempts to imitate Tone Loc's growling vocals. Al would later include actual lyrics from the Gilligan's Island theme song in 'Amish Paradise,' and on the Straight Outta Lynwood tour (thought not on the album) he parodied T-Pain's 'I'm in Luv Wit a Stripper' as 'I'm in Luv Wit Da Skipper.'

'The Hot Rocks Polka,' unlike most of Al's other polka medleys, focuses on one artist, The Rolling Stones, making them Al's most-covered artist (12 songs in this polka, 1 in 'Polkas on 45,' a Mick Jagger collaboration on 'Hooked on Polkas,' and the parody 'Toothless People'). The songs included here are...
(Thanks again, Wikipedia)
The lack of variety among artist styles make this medley fall a little flat for me, as part of the fun of his medleys in when contrasting artists are placed in juxtaposition to one another.

'UHF' the song is an original in Al's house style- basically an extended jingle for a UHF station.  While the song itself is unremarkable among Al's catalog, the video featured Al parodying a number of different artists in their videos, including Guns N Roses, Billy Idol, INXS, Peter Gabriel, George Michael, The Talking Heads, Robert Palmer, and Mr. "I'll never let Al parody one of my songs because I'm an uptight prissy pants" himself, Prince. It also includes quick clips from the film, some with sound effects.

'Let Me Be Your Hog' is just a quick audio clip from the film for a spot where Al needed something playing on a radio.  He couldn't get the rights to 'Kung Fu Fighting,' and instead just recorded this snippet.

'She Drives Like Crazy' is a parody of the Fine Young Cannibal's 'She Drives Me Crazy.'  Al adopts two different vocal persona to reflect the dual vocals on the original.  Al shows off his falsetto on the verses, though I'm not really sure what he was going for on the chorus vocals.

'Generic Blues' is the blues song Al was meant to write, so it's a pretty good thing he did.  Al picks apart common blues themes- lack of money, feeling low, family problems- and has a lot of fun in doing so.  'My daddy was a waitress/ my mama sold bathroom tile/ My brothers and sisters all hated me/ Cuz I was an only child.' My 3rd favorite song of the album, and apparently, a favorite of B.B. King's as well.

While 'Gandhi II' doesn't work as an audio clip, 'Spatula City' sounds as much like a radio commercial as a TV ad. Lots of good little snippets parodying commercials for a host of other products.

'Fun Zone' is the only instrumental piece on an Al album, because...instrumentals generally aren't funny.  Since its release, though, 'Fun Zone' is used to open Al's concerts and get fans excited for whats to come.

'Spam' might be Al's perfect parody.  Musically, he captures each nuance of R.E.M.'s stand, including the vocal layering and percussion accidentals.  Lyrically, he emulates the original's chopped lyrics, rhyme scheme, and elegant simplicity.  All the way to how long he holds the last word, Al did a masterful job of imitating the song while making it about everyone's favorite canned meat product.

And if 'Spam' is the perfect parody, 'The Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota' is certainly one of Al's best original songs.  This tale of a family vacation trip to an odd tourist attraction follows the sprawling narrative of artists like Harry Chapin or Gordon Lightfoot,' with an easily recognizable but wholly Al sound.  When I was a camp counselor, it was a small hike from the pool that we used back to camp- just over 7 minutes from the time we hit the trail.  I would fill most of that time by singing this song, to the amusement of the campers and the chagrin of my fellow counselors.  As this was a church camp, I changed the line of 'I was just so overwhelmed by its sheer immensity/ I had to pop myself a beer' to 'I gave a little cheer.'  Somewhere out there, I'm sure there's a kid or two (maybe even a counselor) who has since come across Al's version and had to listen to that lyric again. 

While UHF wasn't Al's best selling album, the inclusion of 'Spam' and 'TBBOTIM' makes it one of my favorites. 

Next time, Al sees more success when he goes Off The Deep End.

Posted by at No comments:

Monday, July 7, 2014

"Weird Al" Yankovic: 'UHF' movie review

1989 was a great year for movies.  Batman.  Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.  Ghostbusters 2.  License to Kill.  Lethal Weapon 2.  So, it's no surprise that when a small-ish budget comedy from a novelty music star came out, it didn't earn much notice.  'UHF' didn't even come to my local theatre.  I called every week, just to make sure.  Finally, at the end of summer, the Palace Theatre in dowtown Lorain, as part of it's summer movie series, played it for a dollar.  Having no interest in seeing it herself, my mom dropped me off, and that's the first movie I ever saw by myself.  Since that summer, though, UHF has garnered a cult following of 'Weird Al' fans and other movie lovers.  For a while, it was nearly impossible to find on home video, though I found a VHS copy in the local discount store in Germantown, Ohio.  It has since been released on DVD.  Al fans wait with bated breath for the day when a super-remastered, 3D Blu Ray version with 8 commentaries and a whole movie's worth of deleted scenes becomes available.

'UHF' is a bit uneven for me.  As an Al fan, I want to love this movie, but as a movie fan, I also see its flaws.  Al isn't much of an actor.  He pretty much plays the "Weird Al" persona in every scene.  However, there are a lot of laugh-out-loud moments in the film, and it's easy to see why it's still appreciated by Al fans worldwide.

Spoilers ahead.  If you've never watched UHF....ah, forget it.  You don't really watch this movie for the plot, and it's predictable, anyway.  George Newman (Al), recently fired from Big Edna's Burger World, is hired by his Uncle Harvey to run the UHF station he won in a card game.  Al and friends (including Michael Richards of 'Seinfeld' fame and Fran Drescher of 'I can hurt your brain with my voice' fame) end up putting together a wacky slate of ratings-winning programs, earning the ire of the local network affiliate's station manager.  When Uncle Harvey needs some quick cash to pay off gambling debts, he considers selling the station, but is convinced by Al to give him a chance to buy the station himself.  Al hosts a telethon to raise the money by selling shares of the station.  And, of course, they succeed, despite the obligatory hiccups along the way.

Much of the humor in UHF is from the unusual programs that Al and company come up with.  At 'Stanley Spudowski's Clubhouse,' the reward for finding the marble in the oatmeal is a drink from the fire hose.  The star of 'Raul's Wild Kingdom' teaches poodles to fly.  And on 'Wheel of Fish,' contestants are berated by the host when they guess wrong.  There are also a couple of parody dream sequences in the film inspired by Indiana Jones and Rambo.  And at one point, Al falls asleep, and we get his dream of a parodied Dire Straits song.  I guess incorporating the music video budget into the movie budget was a more frugal way to go, but it's 3 minutes that, if excised from the film, don't change things a bit. 

There's also a subplot of Al losing his girlfriend (Saturday Night Live's Victoria Jackson) and attempting to win her back (he does), but she's so annoying, maybe he should have just moved on.

When the shows and spoofs aren't on the screen, the humor is a lot more forced as the plot is forced to move along- although one of the best laughs comes during a scene where Al is trying to rescue Stanley from his kidnappers at the network, only to be saved my the local karate school students.  I won't spoil the surprise.

I just watched 'UHF' with my 10-year old for the first time today (my 7 year old also came in and out), and the movie made her laugh a lot of times- probably as much as when I was 15.

As for the DVD release, the commentary track is...well, it's 'Weird Al.'  He mentions the specific locations (down to the address) where various scenes were shot- someone out there in Internet land even took photos of the places as they look now. The extras include a few deleted scenes, but nothing too impressive.  Still, if you're looking to sit back and have a few laughs over an hour and a half, you can't go wrong with UHF.

Tomorrow, we'll look at the original motion picture soundtrack from UHF...and other stuff.
Posted by at No comments:

Saturday, July 5, 2014

"Weird Al" Yankovic and Wendy Carlos: Peter and the Wolf

In September of 1998, Al began work with Grammy winning composer Wendy Carlos on the most unusual album of his career (and that's saying something!).  'Peter and the Wolf' is a fresh take on Sergei Prokofiev's original mini-opera, often used to introduce children to the sounds of an orchestra, and how to recognize different themes in music.  Like the original, each character is represented by its own musical instrument and theme, with these themes becoming interwoven as characters interact.  Al and Wendy's version introduces a new minor character, represented (of course) by the accordion.  Al's narration takes some liberties with the original as well.  Al get's particularly excited when Seymour the Wolf eats Bruce the Duck.  While certainly different musically than Al's typical recording, 'Peter and the Wolf' still carries Al's trademark sense of humor.

The reverse side of the LP is 'Carnival of the Animals, Part II.'  'Carnival of the Animals' was composed by Camille Saint Saëns, and featured themes for 14 different animals.  Al and Wendy's version contains 12 new animals that 'must have slipped [Camille Saint-Whats-His-Name's] mind.'  Al also provides rhyming verses introducing each animal in a humorous way, similar to the text Ogden Nash wrote in response to the original work.  I especially like the theme for the Vulture, which eventually settles down into a blues-for-synthesizer groove.

 My older two kids and I listened to 'Peter and the Wolf' in the car yesterday, and I think it's the most that they've laughed out loud at an Al record.  If you are an Al fan, a Wendy  Carlos fan, or just a fan of unusual takes on classical music, I highly recommend tracking down a copy.

 'Peter and the Wolf' is the rarest of Al recordings.  Current eBay prices go for $30 or more for the CD, and a sealed LP can go twice or three times that much.  The first time I ever met Al, I had him sign my copy of this CD.  He remarked on its rarity himself, and asked how I had got a copy.  I actually made Al chuckle when he asked who to make it out to, as I replied 'Congratulations eBay auction winner.' 

An aside: This meeting with Al took place at the Hard Rock Cafe at Universal Studios, Orlando.  While Amy and I had enjoyed the concert, I decided I was going to try to meet Al, and managed to sneak backstage.  It's both the most nerdy and badass thing I've ever done.  I saw the group of people who had VIP wristbands huddling near one door.  I stayed near the back of the group, and just walked through the door when everyone started moving, keeping my eyes confident and walking with purpose, staying as far as possible from the security guards.  We got to an elevator, where again I hid in the back, trying not to be noticed but projecting an air of 'I have every right to be here.'  Once we got downstairs and arrived in the VIP lounge, I got to spend about 10 minutes hanging with bassist Steve Jay and a couple of his friends before Al arrived.  I got my handshake, autograph, and went out to my very anxious wife.  At the time, we had no cell phones, so she had no idea if I had successfully made it backstage or was being talked to in a small room by people in uniform.  I'm thankful to have such a loving and patient wife and hereby publicly apologize for worrying her so much that night.  About six months later, I got the chance to legitimately meet Al when he was giving an interview for Tampa radio's 102.5 The Bone. My picture from that session has remained my Facebook photo ever since.

 Don't touch that dial.  Tomorrow, we got it all on UHF.
Posted by at No comments:

Friday, July 4, 2014

"Weird Al" Yankovic: Even Worse

"Weird Al" Yankovic's 'Even Worse' is the first record I ever bought with my own money.  Yes, record.  The K-Mart where I bought it had run out of the cassette tape, and I was so eager to spend my birthday money, I didn't care how I got it.  Al took some time off between 'Polka Party's' release and this record, and poured a lot of effort into it.  After both the dismal reception and sales of his previous album, he knew that this could be his last chance to make a career of comedy music.  Fun fact: The innermost circle of the record has etched into it 'The Magic Returns' on side 1 and '100,000,000' on side 2.  Previous records also had etchings on them, but this was the first one I had.

'Fat' leads off the album, a parody of Michael Jackson's 'I'm Bad.'  Michael was such a great sport that he even let Al use the same subway set from his original video for the parody. Al won a Grammy for his video; Michael did not.

'Stuck in a Closet With Vanna White' details a series of dreams by the narrator, performed in Al's go-to rock styling.  Usually Al's 2nd track is one of my 2 favorite originals on the album, but SIACWVW, when it comes down to it, is my least favorite track on the album, though it wins for best acronym.

'This Song's Just Six Words Long' cheats a bit with its title, as the parody of George Harrison's 'I've Got My Mind Set On You' has its title sung as 7 words ('This song is just six words long').  Al perfectly captures my sentiments on the original song: 'Why is this so repetitive?' Al's answer: 'Oh I make a lot of money/ They're paying me a ton of money/ They're playing me plenty of money/ To sing this song, child/ I gotta fill time...'  Finally the George Harrison version made sense.

'You Make Me' describes the crazy things Al considers doing over his attraction for a woman.  The strong driving beat behind it turned this into a great live song during the AlPocalypse tour.

'I Think I'm a Clone Now' is my favorite parody on the album, a take-off on Tiffany's cover version of Tommy James and the Shondell's 'I Think We're Alone Now.'  Al gets a lot of mileage out of clone-related humor, but my favorite line is probably 'Every pair of genes is a hand-me-down.'

'Lasagna' leads off side 2 of the album, and was released as a single, but with no video.  I sometimes wonder if the record company cut Al's budget a bit here, or if it was spent differently, as this album is the only one other than his first to not feature a polka medley.  'Lasagna' reinterprets the folk song 'La Bamba' (originally popularized by Richie Valens and later by Los Lobos) as an Italian mother with a strong accent encouraging her son to eat.  The accordion and other instrumentation is used to great effect in transforming the song.

'Melanie' is a twisted love story about a stalker in love with the titular woman.  'Now I may be dead but I still love you' shows just how far dedication can go.

'Alimony,' is the second of Tommy James and the Shondell's songs covered on the album, and is a parody of Billy Idol's reinterpretation of 'Mony Mony.'  Al does a great job of making this seem like a live track, although it was all recorded in studio.

'Velvet Elvis' is an original tune with nods to The Police telling of one man's obsession with a novelty painting.  Not unlike this author's obsession with a certain novelty artist.  'Check out those sideburns/ There's nothing greater/ You can tell that he's no velvet Elvis imitator.'

'Twister' takes the Beastie Boys early stylings and turns them into an ad for the popular party game.  At just over a minute, it's one of Al's shortest songs.

This album concludes with my favorite original song on the album, 'Good Ol' Day.'  If James Taylor was also a serial killer, this might be the result. 

That's the end of this review.  Go YouTube the video for 'Fat,' and then come back here next time, as we'll see what happens when Al takes on a truly classic work.
Posted by at No comments:

"Weird Al" Yankovic: Polka Party

Polka Party (1986) was "Weird Al" Yankovic's 4th album in 4 years.  Between touring, radio promotion, and running out of good pop songs, I think it's fair to say that Al wasn't at his creative best here.  Still, there are a couple of gems to be found on this release.

"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...
For me, it's the best of Al's early polka medleys.  Most of the songs in here probably would have been better parody fodder than the songs Al chose.

"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.
Posted by at No comments:

Thursday, July 3, 2014

"Weird Al" Yankovic: Dare to be Stupid

'Dare to be Stupid,' (1985) in my opinion, feels a bit rushed as a whole.  While Al's creativity is still there, it just doesn't seem like the material he had to work with was as good.  The original songs also don't bite quite as hard.  But then, smack dab in the middle, comes the one-two punch of 'One More Minute' and 'Yoda,' two of Al's best.

'Like a Surgeon' was actually suggested by Madonna.  She had remarked on how long it would take Al to do a parody of 'Like a Virgin' as 'Like a Surgeon.'  That friend was also a friend of Al's manager, Jay Levey, and thus the idea got to Al.  It's the only parody that was actually suggested by the original artist.  The video, while not directly parodying Madge's, does feature Al mocking Madonna's early choreography to great effect.  Shortly after the 'Truth or Dare' version of this song came out, Al took to performing his parody in similar fashion for his live shows, including putting keyboardist Ruben Valtierra in a cone bra. It was disturbing and hilarious.

The title track is the album's first original song.  While not a direct parody of any Devo song, this is clearly meant to be their style- made even more evident by the video.  Mark Mothersbaugh of Devo has said that this song is 'more Devo then Devo.'  This song was later featured in the animated 'Transformers: The Movie.'  Fun fact: Al's relationship with the Transformers franchise continued many years later, voicing the Wreck Gar character for 'Transformers: Animated,' in which his character, in response to Ratchet saying 'No one would dare to be that stupid!' proclaims, 'I am Wreck Gar!  I dare to be stupid!.' Al's character was also made into a toy, and he appeared at a Botcon.

'I Want a New Duck' is one of Al's parodies where I feel he may have been struggling to find new great material to work with.  While there are some great moments in this song (I still can't hear the original without adding in 'Qua-qua-qua-qua-qua-quack' sound effects during the instrumentals), it drags on a little long, and struggles to come up with more duck-related humor.

'One More Minute' is an Al original, done along the lines of an early Elvis doo wop.  Al wrote this song in response to a particularly bad break-up, and the songs has served as catharsis for many other broken hearts ever since.  And the metaphor of 'I'm stranded all alone in the gas station of love/ And I have to use the self-service pumps' thankfully didn't make any sense to me until high school.  It's one of my top 5 Al originals.

'Yoda' is in my top 5 parodies that Al has ever done.  While originally written in 1980 shortly after 'The Empire Strikes Back' came out, receiving the proper permissions from both Lucas and 'Lola' artist The Kinks took a bit of time.  This song is a particular highlight of Al's live performances, and usually closes the show in epic fashion. go ahead, so a search for 'Yoda chant.'

'George of the Jungle' is Al's only straight cover tune. (well, there's Bohemain Polka, but we'll get to that later).  If you've seen the cartoon, you've heard the song.  It was also included on the soundtrack to the live-action George of the Jungle Movie, though the version used in the movie was by The Presidents of the United States of America (whom Al also parodied, but we'll get to that later).

'Slime Creatures From Outer Space' is a humorous take on an alien invasion, most remarkable for its use of the theremin.

'Girls Just Wanna Have Lunch' was included on the album because record label people insisted Al do a Cyndi Lauper parody.  Like 'New Duck,' it feels a bit forced at times.

'This is the Life' is the third song on this album to be featured on a movie soundtrack ('Johnny Dangerously').  Al takes a fun ragtime setting and talks about how great it is to be so fabulously wealthy ('I buy a dozen cars when I'm in the mood/ I hired somebody to chew my food.').  In the instrumental break, Al throws an electric guitar solo into the mix, and then record scratching- a technique relegated to rap albums of the time.  While Al wouldn't rap for a couple more records, this shows that even during a time when rap wasn't top-40 material, he was paying attention to the genre.

'Cable TV' is done in what I like to think of as Al's 'house style.'  It's rock with a pop edge and female background vocals.  While nowadays '87 channels of ecstacy' seems an underestimation, cable's infancy had far fewer channels than that.  This song makes me miss 'Mr. Wizard.'  And I'm still waiting for the Celebrity Hockey channel.

We finish off with the now-traditional polka medley, 'Hooked on Polkas,' this time including...
While Al hasn't directly parodied any hard rock or heavy metal artists, their songs often find their way into his polkas.  Here we see ZZ Top, Twisted Sister, and Quiet Riot all featured.  Unlike 'Polka on 45s,' this medley features all current or recent hits, which will be true of most of the medleys after this.

Next time...let's get ready to party.  Polka Party!
Posted by at No comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)