That’s Just Weird!

[Parody: a literary or musical work in which the style of a piece is imitated for comic effect. 🤣]

Ever have one of those time frames in your life where you keep bumping into the same person, music style, TV show - whatever - repeatedly? That has happened to me lately. For inexplicable reasons, I keep accidentally hearing Weird Al songs every where I go.

“Weird Al” Yankovic is a genius. Go ahead, fight me on that. Could you do what he does as well as he does it? I know I can’t!

Here’s a guy who does half the work of most songwriters and makes millions of dollars at it. What a brilliant scheme! That, my friends, is why he’s a genius.

Kidding. He’s a genius because he makes us laugh with his hilarious re-dos of popular songs. Like his take - called “Lasagna” - on the classic pop tune “La Bamba”. (OK, look the other way if you might be offended by the ridiculous Italian accent he uses in this song. And the odd thing is that the original piece is a Mexican folk song. So, kudos for the cross-cultural approach there, Al!)

And who would have thought to take the grunge rock Nirvana classic, “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and turn it into “Smells Like Nirvana”? Only Weird Al. (Gotta admit, his parody of this song makes sense on some level!!)

And finally, probably his most famous parody is that of Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” which he turned into “Eat It” And the video is *chef’s kiss*…!

Lest you think this guy Al Yankovic is some kind of a joke, just check out Weird Al’s bio on Wikipedia. Not only has he been an accomplished musician since childhood (hey, accordion is legit, ya’ll), he is a world class nerd and has a degree in architecture. My kinda guy.

Looking at his oeuvres from (ahem) a serious songwriter’s perspective, there’s little to be said about things like melody, chord progression, arrangement, etc. because, well, obviously those were already in place before Al got to work. Clearly, his forte is lyrics. And keep in mind that it’s more than just finding clever rhymes. His words have to fit - or at least be close to - the syllable counts of the lines of the original song. And even the syllable emphasis needs to align or it could sound super-awkward. (Hence, how “la BAM-ba” became “la-SA-gna” and not “ra-ta-TOUILLE”). Sounds easy enough, but it’s not.

So, if this crazy complicated world is giving you headaches, sit back with a calming beverage and google Weird Al videos - there’s a LOT of ‘em - and prepare to giggle yourself silly. 

He’s a national treasure, IMO.