March 2, 2018

"Earlier today, Lin-Manuel Miranda fulfilled his ultimate childhood fantasy by releasing 'Weird Al' Yankovic's 'The Hamilton Polka.'"

"The hysterical tune, which manages to cram all of Hamilton into a frenetic five-minute polka, is the latest installment in Miranda's ongoing Hamildrop series, where artists like the Decemberists, Nas, Dave East and Aloe Blacc put their own spin on songs from his Broadway musical," Rolling Stone reports, with an interview of Al and Miranda:
Let's go through the history here. Lin, tell me your first memory of hearing "Weird Al" music when you were younger.

Miranda: Oh, God. My first memory was hearing "Fat," which is a spoof of "Bad," and like most "Weird Al" fans you discover that there is a catalog and this isn't a one-off. "Oh, my God. There's tons of these." I remember asking my parents for "Weird Al" albums for Christmas and I remember the Christmas morning. There were all these cassettes, Dare to Be Stupid, Polka Party, In 3-D. I kinda got the mother lode all at once. And that's the rest of my childhood right here.

At that point, did you know the songs he was spoofing?

Miranda: To this day, I've never heard "Lola" by the Kinks. To this day I've never heard it!

Yankovic: Wow!
Yeah, wow. I agree with Al. How can you never have heard "Lola"? Never listened to the radio? Anyway, here's "The Hamilton Polka":

17 comments:

Ben said...

"Yoda" and "The Saga Begins" have eclipsed their originals.

Elizabeth said...

Sorry. “Hamilton” is dead to me.

Etienne said...
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Etienne said...
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Gahrie said...

If you like Al, and have never heard any Richard Cheese, you're missing out.

Bay Area Guy said...

Miranda was great in Curb Your Enthusiasm with Larry David. Excellent comedy yin/yang

Christopher said...

Lin-Manuel Miranda is a great guy, he loves terrorist leader Oscar Lopez Rivera, who led FALN when they murdered people.

"Wept" when fellow traveler Obama pardoned him.

holdfast said...

My kids love "Yoda" (or as the little guy says "Yo-Yo-Yo-Yoda") and "The Saga Begins".

PJ said...

Miranda loses way more points over “Lola” than he gains over Weird Al.

Anonymous said...

WAY's Hamilton polka is Spike Jones on steroids !

rehajm said...

I have never heard a song from Hamilton. Dead to me, too...

tim in vermont said...

It seems kind of ironic to me that Hamilton is so feted when it paints such a positive picture of our nation’s founding.

tim in vermont said...

Sorry. “Hamilton” is dead to me.

Dead to everybody, Burr took care of that.

RMc said...

I've seen Weird Al in concert seven times now, from Ypsilanti MI in 1985 to Tuesday night in Poughkeepsie NY. Great stuff.

Roger Sweeny said...

There's a YouTube of the Kinks doing Lola live, and a clip of Al doing Yoda live. Amazing to watch them one after the other.

Bill Peschel said...

Can't abide that cultural appropriator Miranda and I'm sorry to see Al allying himself with the guy.

southcentralpa said...

My new favorite polka (heard it on The Gamut) is Alex Meixner's "Is Anything Better Than Beer?"