Back in the days of radio – meaning, kids, when there wasn’t
\ntelevision – there used to be a program called “Can You Top This?”.
\nSomehow, I think that if the show had made it to the days of
\ntelevision, in 1985 “Weird Al” Yankovic would have been a guest.
\nSomeone would have held up a copy of his
\nIn 3-D<\/i> album and asked him, “Can you top this?”<\/p>\n
To expect him to top his most popular album (and the one that
\nshot him to stardom thanks to “Eat It”) would be asking a lot from
\nYankovic. If anything, that expectation almost forced Yankovic to
\ntake the popular songs from 1984 and 1985 and spoof them, simply
\nbecause a follow-up disc was expected.
\nDare To Be Stupid<\/i>, Yankovic’s third album, sounds a bit
\nhollow in some of the parodies, but it is the strength of many of
\nthe original songs that keeps this album afloat.<\/p>\n
I remember when I was 14 years old, I rode my bike to the local
\nrecord store and discovered “Like A Surgeon,” the first single from
\nthis album. (Not being as involved in the music industry as I am
\nnow, I had no idea that Yankovic even had a new album coming out.)
\nBut when I got it home and put it on my little cheese-box stereo, I
\nremember being somewhat disappointed in it. Sixteen years later, I
\nstill don’t consider “Like A Surgeon” in the top echelon of
\nYankovic’s parodies, but since I’ve developed a healthy distrust of
\nthe medical community, I appreciate the somewhat biting sarcasm
\nthat Yankovic works in from time to time.<\/p>\n
Other parodies just fail right out of the box. Yankovic sounds
\nlike he’s absolutely disgusted with the song “Girls Just Want To
\nHave Lunch,” delivering it almost entirely in a groan. By the end
\nof the song, you’ll be groaning too. Likewise, “I Want A New Duck”
\n– give me a break, Al! Oh, sure, the kiddies will probably laugh
\ntheir butts off at some of the jokes on this one, but they probably
\nwon’t understand the references to pate and duct tape… not that
\nadults will find them knee-slapping funny. Listening to these two
\nsongs make me wonder if Yankovic didn’t rush this album out under
\nthe pressure of the label.<\/p>\n
This isn’t to say that all the parodies on
\nDare To Be Stupid<\/i> sink like lead weights. The one brilliant
\npiece of work, “Yoda,” not only keeps the flavor of the Kinks’s
\noriginal song (“Lola”), but pretty well captures the essence of the<\/p>\n
Star Wars<\/i> theme… with a touch of humor thrown in here and
\nthere. There’s a reason this song has remained popular in
\nYankovic’s catalog – especially teamed up with “The Saga Begins” in
\nhis last series of tours.<\/p>\n
Oh – and as for the cover of “George Of The Jungle”… hey, why
\nnot? If anyone was qualified enough to cover the theme to a cartoon
\nclassic, it’s Yankovic. (He hits it dead center, as well… there’s
\na reason his version was featured in the soundtrack to the film
\nversion of the cartoon.)<\/p>\n
If
\nDare To Be Stupid<\/i> does anything, it shows that Yankovic was
\nmost definitely coming into his own as a songwriter. “One More
\nMinute” is absolutely hilarious as it captures the ’50s doo-wop
\ntheme and mixes it with the anger (relief?) of ending a
\nrelationship. “Slime Creatures From Outer Space” is just fun to
\nlisten to, while “This Is The Life” (originally meant for the film
\nJohnny Dangerously<\/i>; occasionally you’ll see a version
\nplaying with this song as the theme) has Yankovic daring to try and
\nbring the feel of ’20s music to today’s generation. In retrospect,
\nhe does a pretty good job. “Cable TV” captures both the inanity of
\nwhat the medium delivers to us and how we’re such sheep to sit
\nthere and watch it. And don’t be surprused if you’re embarrassed at
\nhow many of the songs you recognize in “Hooked On Polkas”.<\/p>\n
While
\nDare To Be Stupid<\/i> is not Yankovic’s finest album, it shows
\nthat there was still great promise in his songwriting – and,
\noccasionally, in his parodies. There’s enough on this one to
\nrecommend it, but I wouldn’t rule out calling this one a “for the
\nfans only” disc.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25944,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6172],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-37150","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-weird-al-yankovic","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37150\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37150"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37150"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}