Sometimes I anguish if I see kids who aren’t accepting abundant Weird Al Yankovic in their lives. Like Mad Magazine, amoroso straws, bedraggled limericks, and altogether parties with R-rated movies, Weird Al is one of those abject adolescence staples that every affectable kid should experience. 29 years afterwards his aboriginal album, and continued afterwards abounding of the musicians he’s parodied accept been boarded to the dustbin of history, Yankovic is still on the road, overextension applesauce and acceptable acclamation for the alien in all of us. In The Naked Gun, it’s declared to be funny if Leslie Nielsen starts face off at a columnist conference, abandoned to apprehend the accumulated aggregation is there for Yankovic. But I dunno… in a absolute world, that arena would be documentary.
Kids tend to ascertain Yankovic at about age 8. That’s how old I was if I bought a cassette band of Alapalooza (1993), tempted by the awning angel of the Jurassic Park logo with Al’s cool beam on the dinosaur. At school, my accompany and I played that band incessantly, committing to anamnesis such abiding ditties as “Bedrock Anthem” (“Well I’ve got a little associate Barney Rubble / He’s a midget but he makes a lot of agitation / Doesn’t like to shave, he got caveman stubble”), “Livin’ in the Fridge” (“If you can name the article in that billowing over there / Then mister, you’re a bigger man than I”), and, of course, “Jurassic Park” (“Someone shut the fence off in the rain…”).
I knew in the abstruse that these were song parodies, but at the time I was absolutely amateur with “Give It Away,” “Livin’ on the Edge,” or “MacArthur Park.” Blasphemy of blasphemies, I knew Al’s “Bohemian Polka” continued afore I encountered “Bohemian Rhapsody.” If I assuredly did apprehend the Queen original, I bethink a cast of disappointment. To a grade-schooler, how can Queen’s blue glam-rock possibly attempt with Weird Al’s jaunty, hellzapoppin’ accordion jamboree? An awkward bulk of my music apprenticeship came from Yankovic, and I apperceive I’m not alone.
For any affected kid, Weird Al is a role model. In a pop music mural authentic by accepted acceptable looks and homogenized melodies, Yankovic’s fibrous hair, coke-bottle glasses, candy-colored shirts and attraction with polka angle proudly apart. Added importantly, he never gives the consequence that his
eccentricities are some affectionate of affectation (no, not even the “Weird Al” moniker, which I accept to accept he was accustomed at birth). He does was he cast and marches to his own drumbeat, and for those trapped in that alembic of acquiescence we alarm childhood, Weird Al is an inspiration.
Yankovic’s songs are affable and affectionate – added bluff than banter – and I’m abiding musicians accept to accede a Weird Al apology a assurance that they’ve “made it.” Yet over the years, a few fuddy-duddies accept accustomed ol’ Al the algid shoulder. Prince declines whenever Yankovic asks permission, and Eminem wouldn’t let him apology the “Lose Yourself” video. One of Yankovic’s a lot of acclaimed songs, “Amish Paradise,” provoked
the acrimony of Coolio, who didn’t acknowledge accepting his austere gangland rap angry into a asinine distraction about the Amish.
That’s a antic overreaction to be sure, but in their acclaim destructive way, Yankovic’s songs arrive one’s memory. If I see any of Michael Jackson’s “Bad” video, I adjure the angel of a aggrandized Weird Al singing “Because I’m fat, I’m fat, sha mone.” Whenever “Safety Dance” is on the radio, I apprehend Yankovic’s spot-on burlesque of Ivon Doroschuk’s ruggedly adult voice, belting out the Brady Bunch’s ancestors history. And, to be fair to Coolio: can anyone who was a baby adolescent in the ‘90s absolutely accept to “Gangster’s Paradise” after picturing Weird Al in a atramentous hat and affected beard?
In a contempo account on WTF with Marc Maron, Yankovic acclaimed that none of his aboriginal compositions accept approached his parodies in popularity. That’s too bad, because Yankovic’s music is added than just pop-music Mad Libs. Accede the word-painting that Al evokes in “Frank’s Two Thousand Inch TV” –“Risin’ aloft the city, blocking out the noonday sun / It dwarfs the boss redwoods and it building over everyone.” Feel the communicable exhausted of “Boogie on my Finger” bleed appropriate into your bones. Admit that “The Saga Begins” tells the adventure of Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace far added calmly than George Lucas did. And I don’t apperception cogent you that abounding times, Al improves acutely on the anemic actual he inherits. Forget “Rico Suave,” with his abs and undershirt and abhorrent over-confidence; accord me “Taco Grande,” with its appropriate actualization by Cheech Marin, instead.
I said that Al’s spoofery is affable and affectionate, and maybe that’s why, the earlier I get, the beneath absorbed I am to dig “Alapalooza” out of the basement. I still smile if I apprehend “Eat It” or “Smells Like Nirvana,” but let’s face it: acute Weird Al fandom is a adolescent man’s game. That’s accept – Al doesn’t charge me. He has new ancestors of 9-year-olds to mold, appearance and base – new throngs of elementary-school weirdos to abundance and soothe. Yankovic has accurate to be one of the added alive and abiding entertainers in accepted music. In his WTF interview, he talked about how abundant he enjoys arena canton fares, and added gigs that a lot of big-name performers would attending down upon. Attending at his bout agenda and attending at his venues, and you’ll see he’s a soldier of silliness.
Indeed, contempo years accept been affectionate to Al. His latest album, Alpocalypse (2011), debuted at #9 on the Billboard charts. He has become a approved bedfellow on alt-comedy podcasts, sometimes hosted by comedians who grew up with his music. He has popped up alongside the hipsters of Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! and Funny or Die, a associate in arms. No wonder: in this agenda age, if banana book conventions allure ball industry absorption to battling Cannes, Weird Al’s around-the-clock cast of anti-cool has never been cooler. Far added than Huey Lewis, Weird Al Yankovic has accomplished ancestors of adolescent misfits and outsiders that it’s hip to be square.
image – Al Yankovic
No hay comentarios. :