Wierd Al...or Rodney Dangerfield?

Back in the summer before my eighth grade year, I was a kid going to summer camp. This would be the year that I would have a crush on a girl named Michelle, learn how to really play foosball, and have a councilor named Russ to whom we'd show our respect by thumping our chest whenever we'd greet him, much to his chagrin. It was also the year that I met the guy who would be my best friend throughout high school and most of college. His name was A.J., and like me, he was a bit of an odd duck. A.J. was the guy who taught me how foosball was to be played. He's also the guy who first introduced me to the music of Weird Al Yankovic. Well, at least he introduced me to the lyrics of Weird Al. We couldn't have any sort of CD or tape player at this camp, but that's all another story. A.J. taught me all of the lyrics to "I Love Rocky Road", Al's parody of the "I Love Rock 'N Roll" made famous in America by Joan Jett. I loved this concept: take a song that everyone knows and change the lyrics so that it's funny. It's simple but beautiful, and Al was able to pull it off fantastically. Later that summer, I bought my first CD player from Sears off the clearance rack. The first CD that I bought to play in it was, for some inexplicable reason, Aerosmith's Greatest Hits, but the second CD was Weird Al's Food Album. I listened to that CD as much as I could. It contained many of Al's early hits that involved some form of food or food product: "Fat", "Eat It", "Spam", "Addicted to Spuds", and "I Love Rocky Road". I had found one of my favorite artists. Little did I know that my love of his music would last as long as it has. Here I am, over a decade later, and I'm still buying new music from Al. I'm watching his latest music video several times a week. I'm also having to make the same defense of his music now that I had to make then to people. There seems to be an attitude held by people outside of Al's fan-base that Al is really little more than a "hack." That he's someone who mooches off of the hard work of others and makes money just by changing some lyrics and putting out a CD. Nothing could be further from the truth.

First of all, when an artist is able to have a career that spans four decades (so far), he must be doing something right. Al's parodies first started appearing on Dr. Demento's show in the late '70's before Al put out a CD. The amazing thing, though, is the fact that even though Al's been around this long with so many recognizable songs (for his lyrics, not just the music) he's only recently had a top-ten hit with "White and Nerdy". Al has been working hard putting out an album every couple of years along with regularly touring. One year, for my birthday, my brother purchased tickets for us to go see Al when he was coming to a town near us. This was during his "Touring With Scissors" tour. If there was one thing that I took out of that whole experience, it was that Al puts on an amazing show. It would have been nigh-impossible to leave the arena that night without a smile on your face. One of the reasons that Al has had such a long career is that he's a fantastic entertainer. However, he, along with his band, are also fantastic musicians.

I know what some of you are saying right now: "Weird Al is a musician? You've got to be kidding me! What did I do with my chips?" Sorry, we got some run-over with your off-topic thoughts. Anyway, the answer to your questions are "Yes" and "On top of the refrigerator," respectively. I know that for many of Al's song's he's "merely" copying the musical styling that someone has already done. One would think that all of the hard work is done. However, look a little bit deeper. For his parodies, Al and the band are mimicking a huge variety of musical styles. They do different types of rap (M.C. Hammer, emminem, Chamillionaire), classic rock (Joan Jett), boy band (N*Sync), grunge (Nirvana), hip hop (Puff Daddy, or whatever he's calling himself these days), and bad '80's music (New Kids, Gerardo, Milli Vanilli) straight-up rock (Aerosmith, Presidents of the United States of America), and iconic (U2, Billy Joel, Bob Dylan). To be able to play in the styles of such a wide variety of artists requires a musical dexterity from all of the members of the band from the vocalist to the drummer.

I have talked with some people in the past who rail against Weird Al because he's "stealing music." Nothing could be further from the truth. I'll let Al's website do the talking for this question:

Al does get permission from the original writers of the songs that he parodies. While the law supports his ability to parody without permission, he feels it's important to maintain the relationships that he's built with artists and writers over the years.

The Fair Use Act allows for a copyright-holder's work to be parodied without asking for permission, but Al asks anyway. That's because he's such a nice young man.

I know this probably didn't convince many people to give Al the respect that he deserves, but I thought it important to make the points that I made. His longevity in the music business is testament to his genius. He's lasted over thirty years in the music business, and he'll probably continue to be popular (with at least a certain segment of the music audience) for many years to come. I'm not expecting people to become huge Al fans out of this, but you could at least give him a shot. All I'm asking is that you try.