This entry is in response to Jason's Emo Philips entry. Emo made a guest appearance on "Weird Al" Yankovic's film UHF (1989). I am including the video clip - enjoy the blood!
Plus,
this Weird Al song is fitting for anticipation of the new Spider-Man
movie and that whole "Ode to..." thing. The song is a reconstruction of
"Piano Man" by Billy Joel, which I'm sure you've all heard. But in case
you haven't, here's a direct link to Billy Joel - Piano Man
(I had to give you the direct link because it requires you have to
login to listen to it - but you can get around this by disabling
scripts).
I've been listening to Weird Al since Dare to Be Stupid
and I can tell you that Weird Al writes two kind of songs: the parody
and tribute songs. I like his tribute stuff, which is almost all
original music and idea. For instance, "The Biggest Ball of Twine in
Minnesota" is kind of a rip off of Harry Chapin's 30,000 Pounds of Bananas.
Weird
Al's other style is, which is what he's best known for, are the
parodies of popular songs. The only thing that's smiliar are the music,
everything else is pretty much original. This "Ode to a Superhero",
"The Saga Begins" ("American Pie") and "Amish Paradise" ("Gangsta
Paradise") are some of my favorites.
So,
anyway, trivia time: Weird Al changed his trademark looks of mustache
and glasses around 2000. He got LASIK eye surgery and shaved his
mustache so now he looks pretty normal. He actually looks creepily
strange because I'm too used to his geek look.
Weird
Al is also one of the few artists that understand and have adopted to
the series of tubes that is called the internets. He released a song
called "Don't Download this Song" (which is legally available for download) which poked fun at the RIAA... but also brings up the trouble of the digital era.
I leave you with this Q&A with Al for June 28, 2006:
Tim
Sloane of Ijamsville, MD asks: Al, which of these purchasing methods
should I use in order to make sure the most profit gets to you: Buying
one of your albums on CD, or buying one of your albums on iTunes?
I
am extremely grateful for your support, no matter which format you
choose to legally obtain my music in, so you should do whatever makes
the most sense for you personally. But since you ASKED… I actually do
get significantly more money from CD sales, as opposed to downloads.
This is the one thing about my renegotiated record contract that never
made much sense to me. It costs the label NOTHING for somebody to
download an album (no manufacturing costs, shipping, or really any
overhead of any kind) and yet the artist (me) winds up making less from
it. Go figure.
DISCOGRAPHY
[1983] "Weird Al" Yankovic
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[1984] "Weird Al" Yankovic in 3-D
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[1985] Dare to Be Stupid
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[1986] Polka Party!
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[1988] Even Worse
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[1988] "Weird Al" Yankovic's Greatest Hits
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[1989] UHF
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[1992] Off the Deep End
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[1993] The Food Album
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[1993] Alapalooza
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[1994] Permanent Record: Al In The Box
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[1994] Greatest Hits Volume II
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[1995] The TV Album
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[1996] Bad Hair Day
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[1999] Running With Scissors
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[2003] Poodle Hat
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[2006] Straight Outta Lynwood
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discography courtesy of wikipedia.org
|
vu 
Links: www.weirdal.com | www.dontdownloadthissong.com
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