We Are All Weird Al Yankovic
The first time Weird Al Yankovic appeared on national television was on April 21, 1981, on The Tomorrow Show with Tom Snyder. It's taken 27 years, but everything has been leading up to this moment of you sitting in front of a computer monitor, most likely avoiding some kind of work, staring into the dark abyss of the past. It's basically the Amistad of YouTube.
It's weird, because on the one hand Weird Al is kind of dismissed as an aggressively nerdy novelty act that should have ended years ago, and on the other hand I can easily see most of north Brooklyn up on that little stage with him, spazzing out. The pants are tighter and less colorful, and the hair has more Bedhead in it, but he's basically just a Thursday night in Williamsburg.
Posted by Gabe at 2:30 PM in Music Related Content
Tags: Tom Snyder | Weird Al Yankovic
Ah Weird Al Yankovic. I had all his tapes. They might even still be in the parent's garage somewhere. Man I love him.
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Has he not aged in the past 27 years? Dude's like the Highlander.
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Oh wow. So this is what was on two days after I turned three. That hair is killing me. And whatever happened to Crystal, the woman who did the parody on the two men who flew in the space shuttle? How did she miss the boat that Weird Al is still sailing along on?
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I think this song has some racial undertones. I took Weird Al as being more open-minded.
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The reason Weird Al Yankovic is still around and you've never heard of any other parody artists is the reverence he shows for the songs he's parodying; listen to any of his studio recordings and pay attention to how carefully his band recreates the details of the original music; even if the new lyrics are about pizza, he's also doing a pretty solid cover of the song itself.
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I was being a little sarcastic about Crystal. I've actually heard of other parody artists who, while not in the same arena of fame as Weird Al, do make really great parodies that manage to get airplay on Dr. Demento's show every week. Weird Al does do justice to all of his songs, but Luke Ski (along with some of the members of The Fump) can throw down with the best of them.
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Dan's right. Weird Al is a fucking national treasure. Seriously.
Sorry Dan if I overstated your own estimation of Yankovic.
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I've been listening to this song since I was ten and I just now put together that he's referring to the 1979 Who concert at which 11 people were trampled to death when the crowd stampeded the doors. Referencing a nine-month old tragedy -- pretty edgy for a guy who sings songs mostly about food and television.
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