७ नोव्हेंबर, २०२२

"The more serious that an artist takes themselves, the easier it is to lampoon them, because it doesn’t take much to pop the bubble of pretentiousness."

"And thankfully [Nirvana had] a good sense of humor about it, too. But there are some songs that people are just, like, waiting for the Weird Al treatment: 'Oh, Al’s going to step in and, like, take this down a peg.'... [S]ometimes my parody didn’t work so well, because I was parodying something that was already perceived as not all that serious.... Most artists in pop culture are very serious.... But I always like to make sure that the artist and songwriters feel respected."

Said Weird Al, quoted in "How Weird Al Spoofed Himself/In a new bio-pic, the singer applies his talents to a surprising subject: his own rise to stardom" (The New Yorker).

Al reveals that the reason Daniel Radcliffe was chosen to play the lead in the bio-pic is that he'd done this...

 

"And the fact that he wanted to memorize that—that means automatically he’s a huge nerd, just like me. I memorized the 'Elements' song and performed it in college at coffeehouses. And the fact that he did that, and did it on national TV, in front of, like, Rihanna and Colin Farrell—I thought, O.K., this guy’s a kindred spirit."

It was funny running across that, because we were just talking about the "Elements" song in the comments to this post 3 days ago quoting Dylan saying "one might as well write about the periodic table of elements with built-in rhymes about calcium, chromium and lithium." 

Another cool revelation from Al: "You know, for what it’s worth, Madonna, back in 1985, before my parody came out, told a friend of hers, 'Oh, I wonder when Weird Al’s going to do "Like a Surgeon,"' and her friend happened to know my manager. So word got back to me. And I thought, Oh, not a bad idea. I guess I will. So the idea actually came from her."

३४ टिप्पण्या:

Mr Wibble म्हणाले...

Weird Al's parodies work because they are mocking, but never cruel.

Achilles म्हणाले...

My kids are singing a song like that about the elements for the last several days.

They have been drawing up a copy of the periodic table on a big paper on the floor.

Songs are a good mnemonic device.

RideSpaceMountain म्हणाले...

Beyonce's "Run The World" is so 2011. Modern afficionados prefer Cardi B's "WAP".

Lilly, a dog म्हणाले...

In 1985 my father bought a used ping pong table. On the night it was installed my brothers and I played games while blasting Weird Al's Dare To Be Stupid record, over and over. My brother Chris is gone now, but he made the musical selection that night. Weird Al played a part of a lot of good memories from my childhood.

Xmas म्हणाले...

His rendition of Alphabet Aerobics is great.

gilbar म्हणाले...

i love that song.. It Makes me want to buy Caltech, and 'discover' another element..
So i could name it Lehrerium

Eleanor म्हणाले...

I introduced junior high kids to Tom Lehrer. The overwhelming favorite was "Poisoning Pigeons".

Lurker21 म्हणाले...

We talk that way, but (sorry about the nitpicking) the headline would have read better with "artists" in the plural.

I suppose it's like that with musical parodies. Is it like that with politicians? Pompous, officious types are easy to parody. So are politicians with idiosyncrasies, eccentricities, or any sort of individuality. But even generic, brown paper Jerry Ford was ridiculed. So in his day was Eisenhower, at least by the very hip. If satirists don't like a politician, they will always find (or create) something to ridicule. If they like a politician, they won't. Hence the idea of Obama as unsatirizable. Sometimes, though, the parody can be affectionate, even loving. Hence the JFK imitators. Maybe comedians then thought he could take some gentle ribbing and later comics found Obama and his image too fragile.

I read Weird Al as Weird AI. In the future, he probably will be that.

Left Bank of the Charles म्हणाले...

My favorite Weird Al song, which I saw him perform in concert just this past spring, is The Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota.

Howard म्हणाले...

Always like King of Suede because it also mocked the cheesey TV ads from Wilson's House of Suede.

The company began as two separate leather apparel manufacturer-retailers: Berman Buckskin, founded in 1899, as Berman Brothers Fur, Wool and Hides founded by David, Ephraim and Alexander Berman,[3] and after World War II, reinvented as a fringed buckskin shirt and jacket retailer,[4] and Wilsons House of Suede, founded in late 1950 in Beverly Hills California by Jerry Wilson and known for its high fashion styles. In 1964:the sons of Jerry Wilson took over the one store and in 1970 the three sons Tony Wilson, Jeffrey Wilson, and Brian Wilson developed tv commercials with them in it and became one of the first clothing retailers to advertise on tv.

Saint Croix म्हणाले...

We all take ourselves very seriously.

Althouse thinks she is very important and people listen to her.

We on her blog also think Althouse is very important, and people listen to her. And maybe they'll listen to us, too.

It is entirely possible (maybe even likely) that 0% of Washington D.C. is aware of the Althouse blog, and nobody reads it.

But Althouse, and her hillbillies, know we have something special. And so we rock this place like it means something.

And maybe it does!

Quaestor म्हणाले...

Radcliffe sort of f'up "The Elements Song" by singing it too fast and not paying strict attention to the music. It's Sir Arthur Sullivan's tune, after all. Don't mess with Sir Arthur's stuff. Just don't.

That being said, Radcliffe was the most entertaining person up there -- far superior to that b'ch in the orange gown pointedly checking her watch (that she didn't have) in the stereotypical gesture of impatience. What a stupid jerk. I'll wager she can't name any of the 118 elements except carbon, and she only knows carbon because an autistic Swedish teenager she once saw on TV can only say carbon and make faces. Who but fools and Democrats (is there a difference?) uses the "get on with it/checking my watch" gesture anymore? In the currency of kinesics the "checking my watch" mannerism is as debased as a plugged nickel after the Moron-in-Chief checked his watch at a military funeral.

Here's the funny and clearly enunciated version of "The Elements Song" performed by the lyricist himself. (If you re-arrange the Period Table in order of rhyme (sort of) and meter (sort of) instead of atomic number and electron configuration, that makes you a lyricist (sort of).

Quaestor म्हणाले...

Who'd want a house of suede, anyway?

One light rain shower and it's ruined.

Tom T. म्हणाले...

Weird Al seems like a grounded guy who, for all his talent, recognizes that the stratospheric level of fame he stumbled into was ultimately just a twist of fate, and he's determined to enjoy it. Daniel Radcliffe too, for that matter.

minnesota farm guy म्हणाले...

Tom Lehrer was a very smart, very funny man. The "Elements" song is only one of many you can find on You Tube, such as "Poisoning Pigeons in the Park", or "The Vatican Rag" Here's a taste.

minnesota farm guy म्हणाले...

A better selection of Lehrer starting with "Fight Fiercely Harvard"

Whiskeybum म्हणाले...

Weird Al was a fan of comedian Charles Nelson Reilly (CNR) and wanted to do a song centered around him. It’s his practice to go to the artist and ask permission to use either the artist’s music or name/imagery before doing a parody. Since CNR had died prior to Weird Al’s endeavor, he asked permission of his domestic partner, Patrick Hughes, who granted permission, but asked Al not to make effeminate jokes about him in his song. The result, CNR , featuring music imitative of the White Stripes, casts Reilly as some kind of crazy super-stud who did all kinds of masculine-sounding feats.

As for non-parody Weird Al songs (unless you consider this a parody of nerdiness), I discovered this amazing gem later in my Weird Al fandom:

Hardware Store

(My apologies in advance if any of these YouTube clips are preceded by one of the myriad of horrific Democrat ads that are absolutely flooding/polluting the Internets just before election day)

Narr म्हणाले...

I'll have to come back and give some listens, but my thrice-accursed PCNPR affiliate is broadcasting the Brahms PC1 w/La Grimaud.

Little things like that on a rainy morning are worth my $20.00 per month, I think; I'm glad I didn't switch off the hourly dose of news-like nonsense and forget, as I often do.

Ted म्हणाले...

When you think about it, Madonna and Weird Al are similar in that their rise to fame came at the time when music videos were becoming an important way to consume pop culture. In both cases, their songs are exponentially more enjoyable because of the great videos that accompany them.

Of course, Tom Lehrer didn't have the same benefit, and the lack of visual accompaniment may be one reason he's not that well remembered now. If kids today know "The Elements" song, it's because they heard a bunch of science nerds sing it on a bus during an episode of "Gilmore Girls."

Howard म्हणाले...

Speaking of a precipitation ruined suede jacket

Master of the house, doling out the charm
Ready with a handshake and an open palm
Tells a saucy tale, makes a little stir
Customers appreciate a bon-viveur

"Pipe Down Chorus Boy"

MadisonMan म्हणाले...

I have always preferred Allan Sherman to Tom Lehrer.

Rusty म्हणाले...

MM
They both had their charms.
My wife got bored halfway through. During the whole Madonna and mansion part. I told her about why they whole scene was funny and she stayed til the end.

SeanF म्हणाले...

Ted: When you think about it, Madonna and Weird Al are similar in that their rise to fame came at the time when music videos were becoming an important way to consume pop culture.
The only artist with Top 40 hits in the 70s, 80s, 90s, 00s, and 10s, was Michael Jackson (the Jackson 5 hit the Top 40 in the 60s, with Michael as a part, but the group constitutes a separate "artist"). He died in 2009, so his 2010 hits were posthumous.

Only two other artists had Top 40 hits in the 80s, 90s, 00s, and 10s - Madonna and "Weird Al". The really interesting thing about Al, though, is that he's only had four Top 40 hits in his entire career ("Eat It", "Smells Like Nirvana", "White & Nerdy", and "Word Crimes"), but they all charted in different decades.

holdfast म्हणाले...

My dad used to rent the town lira LP‘s from the library so we could listen to them. Now I have a box of his CDs.

Bill Peschel म्हणाले...

Well, they're streaming it for free on the Roku channel. I'm watching it now. I don't know how long it'll take before I turn it off. I'm an Al fran, but the trailer wasn't very funny.

Known Unknown म्हणाले...

UHF was a formative childhood viewing.

RNB म्हणाले...

"Tom Lehrer was a very smart, very funny man." Still is, according to Google.

Lurker21 म्हणाले...

Al Yankovic and Daniel Radcliffe are both weird, but in very different ways.

Tom Lehrer's songs were one of those things I could be enthusiastic about in high school, but now shudder at hearing. Same with Monty Python. I think it has to do with nerdy kids singing the songs and going into the routines on the school bus in real life. Or maybe it's just growing up, or just self-loathing.

who-knew म्हणाले...

When my son was going through his Weird Al phase I heard "My girlfriend's in Love with Eddie Vedder" Still one of my favorite songs.

Joe Bar म्हणाले...

I have a (now deceased) friend who performed "The MLF Lullaby" in front of a NATO crowd, back in the day. It was not well received.

minnesota farm guy म्हणाले...

My apologies to Tom who appears to be a ripe 94.

Aught Severn म्हणाले...

I have a (now deceased) friend who performed "The MLF Lullaby" in front of a NATO crowd, back in the day. It was not well received.

Let's see if I can do some live from memory...

"Some say the Germans are warlike and mean,
But that couldn't happen again...

We taught them a lesson in 1918,
And they've hardly bothered us since then!"


"Sleep well my darling, the sand man can longer...
We know our buddies won't give us the finger!

Heil Hail the Wermacht! (I mean the Bundeswehr...)
Hail to our loyal allies...

M L F will scare Brezhnev.
I hope he is half as scared as I!"

Mr. T. म्हणाले...

Tom Lehrer, despite his repertoire mostly consisting of high brow, college level mathematics and satire, sang several songs on word pronunciation that were on the children's show Electric Company, and later appeared in animated shorts on Sesame Street.

Narr म्हणाले...

I had to think about M L F and NATO.

Reminds me of the days of my youth, when the height of political sophistication was anticipating the Fourth Reich every time the German military was mentioned.

Doesn't look so sophisticated now (and it wasn't then).