Someone asked what song is Don’t Download This Song and I thought of You Don’t Love Me Anymore-- but I’m not sure whether it’s a parody or not. Then I thought of Nature Trail to Hell and then drew a blank.
Two questions-- Is You Don’t Love Me Anymore a parody of a song? Any other non-parody Weird Al songs?
Plenty. On “Running with Scissors” the following are original:
My Baby’s in Love with Eddie Vedder
The Weird Al Show Theme
Germs
Your Horoscope for Today
Truck Drivin’ Song
Albuquerque
(Out of 12 songs, 6 are parodies and 6 are not)
Brian
He has a lot of songs that aren’t direct parodies of any particular song. But a lot of the original are parodies, still - style parodies. They’re meant to sound like a particular artist, or a typical example of a genre.
Don’t Download This Song sounds to be a style parody of We Are The World and similar songs. It’s too far off the original melody to be a direct parody of WAtW, but it’s clearly inspired by the style.
This wikipedia page says which songs are originals, and which are parodies - at least on the commercial releases. The non-commercially released ones seems to have spottier coverage there.
“One More Minute” is an original.
So is “Midnight Star”.
Both are from the album Dare to be Stupid, the title song of which is also original.
I’m pretty sure about “Gonna Buy Me a Condo”.
And, of course, “Christmas at Ground Zero”.
The polka quodlibets that he creates from snippets of pop tunes should be considered originals, IMHO.
“Dare To Be Stupid” is a Devo-style song, but not actually a parody of a specific Devo song. “Dog Eat Dog” is an original done in the style of The Talking Heads.
[nitpick]
“Midnight Star” is from In 3-D.
[/nitpick]
Hardware Store, from Poodle Hat, is one of Al’s best original creations.
Just to nitpick - 5 parodies, 6 originals, and a polka medley. That’s the typical Al-Bum breakdown these days. His last three albums follow that pattern. Odd number tracks are parodies or the polka medley, even tracks are originals.
“You Don’t Love Me Anymore” is not a parody. The video for it is a parody of another video, but I forget what.
My favorite Al original is “Everything You Know Is Wrong.” I also love “Dare to be Stupid,” “Hardware Store,” “Dog Eat Dog,” and “The Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota,” among others.
Isn’t Germs a parody of “Terrible Lie” by NIN? Or perhaps not an exact note for note but at least a style parody.
About half of all the songs on each “Weird Al” album are originals.
I hosted a “Weird Al” Tribute show this past April. The show featured Comedy Musicians performing cover versions of “Wierd Al” songs. Of all the performers booked only one of them chose to cover one of Al’s parodies (The Saga Begins a parody of Don McClean’s American Pie).
Original “Weird Al” songs performed at the event:
[ul]
[li]The Check’s in the Mail[/li][li]Bob[/li][li]Good Enough for Now[/li][li]One More Minute[/li][li]Midnight Star[/li][li]Dare to be Stupid[/li][/ul]
Some try to qualify the “style parodies” as if they aren’t really originals since they are written to mimic another atist’s style, though not actual direct parodies of a particular song. I would strongly disagree. The style parodies most definitely represent skilled original songwriting.
In fact, such accurate mimicry displays a mastery of songwriting craft to be envied by other songwriters. Many songwriters who have received accolades as great artists wouldn’t be able to pull off such an exercise in craft.
Some would, justly, suggest that the successful result of the style parody lies heavily upon the producer. The producer must have a great understanding of the instrumentation, effects, studio choices for the band being imitated. But I will point out that Al, himself, has produced his 6 most recent albums. He is truly overlooked as a great musician.
The song I always point to when someone tries to write him off as a novelty act, ignoring his musical talent, would be the great Hardware Store (currently song #3 on his MySpace page), written and produced by Al.
“Airline Amy,” “Taco Grande,” and “When I Was Your Age” are all original.
Yep. The song is an original, the video is a parody of More Than Words by Extreme- a video that, at the time, was being played on MTV about 6 times every hour.
Style parody. Original songwriting.
Also, funny that “Don’t Download This Song” is available for FREE Download on Al’s MySpace page!!!
ErinPuff, The Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota is one of the best songs written by anyone ever!!!
Taco Grande is a parody of Rico Suave by Girardo. I do envy your inability to recognise it, however.
A parody of Geraldo’s Rico Suave
Tip of my hat to Tengu the faster typer.
And if we combine our posts the right way, we’ll actually get Gerardo’s name right. <_<
“Happy Birthday” is one of my favorite Al originals.
And in addition to his early “Christmas at Ground Zero” he did a more recent original Christmas song, “The Night Santa Went Crazy” (in its regular and extra-gory versions).
A song off his first album, “I’ll Be Mellow When I’m Dead,” is one of my all-time favorites. And B. B. King is quoted as saying “Generic Blues” is the best blues song he’s ever heard.
Although I am getting the giggle envisioning Geraldo Rivera performing “Rico Suave.” 