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.
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