Post by Matthew B. TepperPost by OPost by Kip WilliamsPost by OPost by Kip WilliamsPost by Matthew B. TepperI gave up on Dr. Demento* years ago, when I got effing sick and
tired of his "funny five" always including a piece of humorlessness
which was titled "Last Will and Temperament," but which was only a
tedious string of dialogue in which a group of heirs to an estate
were all told that they were to receive "a boot to the head." Over
and over and over and over.
I wearied of the flood of disk jockeys who thought that if Weird Al
Yankovic could do it, so could they, so they turned out hour after
hour of popular songs with the nouns replaced by the names of fish,
or something like that. And this drek edged out the real core of the
show, the antique novelties.
Yankovic made it look too easy to be funny. They couldn't see how
much art and craft goes into his work, even the parodies. He turns in
the occasional lemon, but as a rule, he's a mile above his imitators.
Yankovic is amazing in that his musical parodies don't just replace
lyrics, but he manages to embrace the original artist's musical style.
He and his band are very tight. This was driven home to me when I saw a
concert they did. They do some covers of pop tunes in a sped-up polka
style that reminds me of Spike Jones, in that they're fast and precise,
and so funny you don't notice how tough it must be to play. (Spike and
his band got together with one of the Dorseys one time to play around,
and sort of scared the other band when they played things double time
without breaking a sweat.)
I saw him live a couple of times, and the breakneck speeds he plays at
are the breakneck speeds he really plays at. (Once was at an amusement
park where he rode the roller coast first -- you could see his long hair
sweeping out behind him.) I'm sure Spike had a big influence on him in
terms of musical precision (Spike was supposed to have been pretty tough
on his musicians, a la Toscanini). The "Hot Rocks Polka" on his UHF
soundtrack is amazing as it encompasses the Rolling Stones entire musical
career in a three minute polka.
I saw "Weird Al" perform live once, at (as it happens) an amusement park in
Minnesota maybe thirty years ago. The highlight of his concert, for me, was
"One More Minute," which he performed in true Elvis style, caressing young
women in the audience with his scarf.
Looking at what I listen to most, my favorites of his aren't the
parodies as much as some of his original songs (like "One More Minute").
"Christmas at Ground Zero," written years before Ground Zero came to
mean the World Trade Center, is the only song he wrote from anger, but
it's a sharply hilarious mash-up of schlock Christmas tunes and World
War Three. The video is a perfect blend of the kind of bland holiday
movies they used to show at my school, along with "duck and cover"
educational films, with some cheap monster movies for lagniappe.
"Dare to be Stupid" is the greatest Devo song ever. Mark Mothersbaugh of
Devo said "I was in shock. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever
heard. He sort of re-sculpted that song into something else and, umm ...
I hate him for it, basically." The video, once again, adds materially to
my enjoyment of the song. There's a brief shot of Al and his band,
decked out in appropriate uniforms, looking resolutely in the same
direction, all with ice cream cones mashed to their foreheads.
The aforementioned polka sessions are wonderful in their own way.
Of his parodies, the best is "Fat." His video for that is an
affectionate, but devastating, spoof on Michael Jackson and his
pretensions to high drama. Great use of sound effects, too. Ho!
(I'll mention my favorite Devo video as well — "RU Experienced," a cover
of the Jimi Hendrix tune that deftly dissects the 1960s. I first saw it
in 1984, and I think it was the first time I'd seen morphing used in a
music video.)
Kip W