I remember when I first discovered “Weird Al” Yankovic, way back
\nin grade school. He dared to parody the “King Of Pop”, Michael
\nJackson, with his song “Eat It,” and Yankovic (or his song, anyway)
\nbecame the talk of the playground. While I fell out of the habit of
\nbuying each of his albums as they came out, I still occasionally
\nchecked in on Yankovic to see if his style was still as sharp as
\nthe way I remembered it. Sure enough, this generation’s Spike Jones
\nwas just as good as I remembered him.<\/p>\n
After a three-year hiatus, Yankovic has returned with a new
\nlabel and a new album,
\nRunning With Scissors<\/i>, and he quickly proves that his satire
\nis still sharp and cutting, but there is more of a sarcastic edge
\nto his work, reflecting a newer, more daring Yankovic. With one
\nnotable exception, this works, creating what could possibly be
\nYankovic’s best album.<\/p>\n
The highlight of the disc is “The Saga Begins,” a parody of both
\nthe recent “Star Wars” prequel and Don McLean’s “American Pie”.
\n“Star Wars” is not new territory for Yankovic; “Yoda” on
\nDare To Be Stupid<\/i> was a great take on The Kinks’s “Lola”.
\nBut to take on one of the hallmarks of ’70s rock is a dangerous
\nthing, especially to those of us (like myself) who love the
\noriginal.<\/p>\n
Fortunately for Yankovic, the song succeeds on many levels.
\nMusically, he keeps things very close to the original song, even
\ndown to the rhythm of the lyrics. And while I haven’t seen “Star
\nWars: Episode I” (and don’t plan to – sorry, George Lucas), his
\ntake on the tale sounds like a perfect plot summary. (Warning: if
\nyou haven’t seen the movie, this song will give away a lot of
\ndetails.) By staying so close to the original while injecting his
\nown voice into it, Yankovic proves that parodying popular music is
\nserious work.<\/p>\n
One note for the purists: yes, Yankovic’s version cuts two
\nverses from the original “American Pie”. While I would have liked
\nto have heard what Yankovic would have done with the full song, you
\nreally can’t fault him. McLean had a decade’s worth of news for his
\nsong; all Yankovic had was a two-hour movie.<\/p>\n
The other parodies on this disc often will have you laughing,
\neven if you have the lyric sheet in front of you and you know what
\nis coming up in the song. “Jerry Springer,” a wonderful take on
\n“One Week” from Barenaked Ladies, goes so far as to slam the
\ntelevision circus freak who makes wrestling look like
\nMasterpiece Theatre<\/i>. This more sinister edge to some of the
\nmusic actually frees Yankovic up to say what’s on his mind.
\n(Parents, don’t worry, the content is still G-rated.) Likewise,
\nYankovic (who’s supposedly very computer-literate) attacks the
\ntechno-weenies like myself on “It’s All About The Pentiums,” a
\nparody of Puff Daddy’s “It’s All About The Benjamins”.<\/p>\n
Other groups feeling the cut of Yankovic’s jibes are Cherry
\nPoppin’ Daddies (“Grapefruit Diet,” another of Yankovic’s “food”
\nsongs) and The Offspring (“Pretty Fly For A Rabbi” – a song which
\nmight offend some people). And, of course, there’s the inevitable
\npolka medley, “Polka Power!”, featuring snippets from Backstreet
\nBoys, Hanson and Marcy Playground, among others.<\/p>\n
But
\nRunning With Scissors<\/i> is not just a parody album; as on most
\nof his records, Yankovic mixes parodies with originals evenly.
\n“Germs” is heavily influenced by Nine Inch Nails, but still has
\nenough originality to make it on its own, while “Truck Drivin’
\nSong” and “My Baby’s In Love With Eddie Vedder” (with a touch of
\nzydeco thrown into the mix) are genuinely funny. Also included here
\nis “The Weird Al Show Theme” from his short-lived children’s
\nprogram. Some may question its inclusion, but it’s only 73 seconds
\nlong, and it’s a lot of fun to listen to. (I have to wonder how
\nYankovic delivered the rapid-fire lines without pausing for
\nbreath.)<\/p>\n
Yankovic makes only one mistake on
\nRunning With Scissors<\/i> – the 11-minute
\nstream-of-consciousness piece “Albuquerque,” which takes far too
\nlong to get to the moot point that Yankovic hates sauerkraut. While
\nthere are a few funny moments on this track, it’s about seven
\nminutes too long. Still, one mistake does not ruin the album.<\/p>\n
If you have a multimedia computer, Yankovic includes a Quicktime
\nvideo featuring portions of a Disney Channel special he recorded a
\nfew years ago – though it may throw some people for a loop to see
\nYankovic with his trademark glasses (which, thanks to laser eye
\nsurgery, are no longer needed) and moustache on the video, and
\nlooking kind of like Ted Nugent in the album art.<\/p>\n
There is no doubt that Yankovic is a master of the art of
\nparody, creating many laughs while still showing reverence towards
\nthe original songs he bases his jokes on.
\nRunning With Scissors<\/i> is further proof of his mastery, and
\nis a welcome return from one of the true kings of comedy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27066,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6172],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-39230","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-weird-al-yankovic","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39230","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=39230"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39230\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39230"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}