I’ve been a fan of the delightfully loopy Weird Al since middle school,
and I’ve been following his music with particular interest since I
started my ongoing parody-writing project in 2006. Later that year, he
released Straight Outta Lynwood, a full-length album that tickled
my funny bone in a big way. Last year, Al decided to do something a
little different. He crafted an EP, which he released online one song at
a time - hence the title Internet Leaks. Every Weird Al fan had
ample opportunity to listen to his songs for free and chuckle over the
corresponding YouTube video well before the full album was available for
purchase. Pretty cool of him... But then, that’s Al!
Whatever You Like - The funny thing about this song is that I heard a different parody of T. I.’s Whatever You Like
before I heard either this or the original song. The schoolchildren who
adapted the song to make it an anthem of civic awareness got a lot of
attention during the late 2008 Election Season, and their performance
was clever, fun and even inspiring. Weird Al’s enjoyably goofy song also
has a slight political element; he starts it off by talking about the
crummy economy, then goes on to assure his ladylove that lack of funds
won’t stop him from being generous to her. The speaker’s notion of
extravagance is rather dubious, however. Melodically monotonous but
lyrically inventive, this song is a celebration of all things
economical. “And you can always ride the city bus. / Got a stack of
tokens just for us. / Yo, my wallet’s fat and full of ones. / It’s all
about the Washingtons, that’s right...”
Craigslist - I’m not that crazy about the sound
of this song, which approximates The Doors. Weird Al does his best
wailing Jim Morrison impersonation, enlisting Doors keyboardist Ray
Manzarek to better mimic the band’s style. The video, meanwhile, is
filled with trippy images that bear no immediate connection to the
lyrics at hand. But it’s a fun song, and those much more familiar with
the Doors than I praise it as a meticulous style parody. While the first
track is largely a list of cheap items, this is a series of oddball
Craigslist ads. Each is bizarre for a different reason.
One offers a very uneven trade of items. Another seeks to reconnect with a You’re Beautiful-style
love at first sight. A third, and probably my favorite despite its lack
of rhyme, is an unfounded letter of complaint from someone annoyed that
somebody else was annoyed about him holding up the coffee shop line
while talking on his cell phone, and the last hearkens back to Whatever You Like
with a “generous” offer with many strings attached. “Got a trash can of
Styrofoam peanuts, / You can have ‘em for free. / You can drop by on
the weekend and pick ‘em up from me. / But the trash can ain't part of
the deal. / Only givin' you the peanuts, get real. / Don't have no Hefty
bags, so bring your own. / Don't bug me with questions on the phone...”
Skipper Dan - My favorite track on the album by far,
it’s the only one that isn’t spoofing anyone in particular. It’s the
most melodic of the songs, and it has a lovely melancholy tone to it and
reminds me of Avenue Q's What Do You Do With a B.A. in English?
This one is for all of the frustrated artists out there, whether
they’re painters, writers, musicians or, like the narrator of this
tragi-comic ballad, thespians. The song, along with its very watchable
animated video, lacks the over-the-top silliness of many Weird Al
compositions, instead going for a subtler, mellow humor.
In one of M*A*S*H‘s
most memorable episodes, Hawkeye Pierce says that he laughs his way
through the Korean War to keep from screaming, and that’s sort of the
feeling I get from this song. Skipper Dan, a promising young actor who
once received accolades but is now stuck doing the groan-worthy
narration for an amusement park attraction 34 times a day, is “laughin'
at my own jokes but I'm cryin' inside / 'Cause I'm workin' on the Jungle
Cruise ride.” As we chuckle at his misfortune, we relieve our angst
over our own disappointments. Weird Al at his most poignant. “I should
be there on Broadway / Knockin' 'em dead in 12 Angry Men, / But instead I'm here tellin' these lame jokes / Again and again and again and again and again and again and again...”
CNR
- When I first heard this, I didn’t think it was a musical homage to
anyone in particular, but it’s actually a style parody of the White
Stripes. Which shows how much I know about them. Who it did make me
think of was Chuck Norris, the subject of so many of those ridiculous
statements of superiority that I’ve doled out to eager cell phone users
while working for the mobile answering service ChaCha. You’ve probably
heard some of them: “Chuck Norris destroyed the periodic table, because
Chuck Norris only recognizes the element of surprise.” “Chuck Norris
ordered a Big Mac at Burger King, and got one.” “Chuck Norris is the
reason why Waldo is hiding.” You get the idea. That’s basically what CNR
is - except that the subject is not roundhouse kick king Chuck Norris
but the dearly departed (and definitely daffy) Charles Nelson Reilly.
I’d been wondering what those letters could stand for and completely
cracked up when I found out while watching the hilariously animated
JibJab video, into which fans can insert themselves through the magic of
photo uploading.
I’ll always remember a Saturday Night Live sketch in which Will Ferrell as James Lipton of Inside the Actor’s Studio
interviews Charles Nelson Reilly, heaping him with embarrassingly
effusive praise and even inventing a word - “scrumtrulescent” - to
describe him because no existing words are sufficient. I’m guessing Al
saw that sketch because his song is all about CNR’s scrumtrulescence,
although he’s been dramatically reinvented as a larger-than-life Jim Croce-style character (and I love the song’s sly references to Bad, Bad Leroy Brown and You Don’t Mess Around With Jim).
The style of the song is loud and screamy, and I would have preferred
if he’d taken the nod to Croce further and made it something acoustic
and easy-going. But boy, is this song fun, even though it does get a
little out of hand. “Charles Nelson Reilly figured out cold fusion, but
he never ever told a soul. / I've seen the man unhinge his jaw, and
swallow a Volkswagen whole...”
Ringtone - This Queen
style parody includes some choral singing, some snazzy electric guitar
riffs and a whole lot of falsetto, as well as many instances of there
being too many words to comfortably fit in one melodic phrase. The
entertaining video features a large cast of characters and focuses
largely on one offender who looks a lot like The Office’s
Jim Halpert. We get to see him tick off everybody from Barack Obama to
Mary Poppins with his irritating ringtone, which we never hear, because
somehow I doubt any ditty could live up to this sort of negative hype.
It’s not so easy to sing along with, since it kinda goes every which
way, as Queen songs are wont to do. But it’s a fun end to the album -
and, I suppose, a clever way to encourage fans to buy a Ringtone
ringtone and annoy their friends to pieces. “Well, it made my wife so
sick / She smashed my iPhone with a brick. / But I had it fixed, and now
it's just fine. / It's a pain, I sure don't need it / And I probably
should delete it / But for me that would be crossin' the line / 'Cause I
hate to waste a buck ninety nine.”
If you’re willing to plunk down $5.99, Internet Leaks is a terrific collection of songs from the King of Parody. And if you’re not, you can always go have a look at YouTube...
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