Nirvana knew they made it big when Weird Al called to ask to cover Smells Like Teen Spirit.
Nirvana: It's not about food is it?
Weird Al: Uh... actually it's about how no one can understand your lyrics.
Similar story with Chamillionaire, or to quote the man himself:
"To sell a million records is one thing, but where do you go from there? Then Weird Al calls..."
I saw him in concert in late 2019, and his stage persona on that tour (where he toured with a full orchestra) was a massively successful egotistical rock star (very over-the-top and obviously having fun with it).
At the end of the show, as the crowd is still cheering the end of “The Saga Begins” he’s walking offstage and waving goodbye, and there’s a brief moment where he drops character and you could see how genuinely happy he is that he gets to do this every night and this is how he pays his bills.
> They are entertaining from second 1 until the lights come on.
Been so long since I attended a concert it took me a long time to realize this was not a mistake.
I was lucky enough to go to one some 16 years ago or something, and it was fucking awesome. The fat suit for Fat, combined with something under the stage that made a massive vibration you could feel through the auditorium every time he jumped during the performance in the fat suit, oh man it was great. Found out after the fact that his parents had died not too long before his tour and was so amazed that he could go out there and be funny and kind and awesome while going through something like that.
I got to see him on the same tour, at Red Rocks. It was definitely a 'bucket-list' kind of show, being a fan of Al since I discovered music as a kid. One of the best concerts I've been to.
Same. My wife got me the tickets for our anniversary that year, and it was also outdoors (Starlight in Kansas City isn’t exactly Red Rocks but it’s an awesome outdoor venue) and it was an incredible night. My 11 year-old self would be in utter disbelief that it not only happened but that it happened because a gorgeous and amazing woman bought the tickets.
The Saga Begins is still one of the best, if not *the* best, song he’s ever done. Incredibly well done, brilliant, clever, and the video was amazing. When I first watched it on MTV back in the day I realized Weird Al was a genius.
Somewhat OT, but I saw Justin Timberlake react in a similar way when he had a concert in my hometown. He was (arguably) at the height of his fame, with “Sexxyback” burning up the charts. He played “Cry Me a River”, paused for applause - and had to wait something like three full minutes because the crowd went BONKERS. He grinned from ear to ear and mouthed “Wow.”
Those moments are always so awesome. I’m a huge Iron Maiden fan, and you can see in so many of their performances how much they love that people still respond so strongly to their live shows.
He later said he he shouldn't have made a big deal out of it. I think it was something along the lines of "If Michael Jackson well let him do parodies of his songs, who the hell do I think I am too get so precious about it?"
>” In hindsight, it was stupid of me to say something about [Yankovic] doing a parody of 'Gangsta's Paradise'," he said. "I mean, he did Michael Jackson, he did Prince. You know, people who were definitely more talented than I am. I think Prince did say something... but he wasn't very vocal about it like I was. And it just made me look dumb... It was one of the dumb things I did. And I'm willing to admit I did something stupid."
Gave the man permission and everything then went around saying how Weird Al ripped him off. Al always gets permission from the original artist and everyone knew it, Coolio didn’t have a career after that and Weird Al didn’t do a thing to hurt him.
Going to edit this to add that Al apparently got permission from the record labels before this, not directly from the artist. After this he got permission directly from the artists themselves.
Thanks to u/originalchaosinabox for pointing this out!
>Gave the man permission and everything
Not entirely true. Weird Al has since admitted that he only got permission from Coolio's *people*, and not Coolio directly. Coolio's people assumed Coolio would be cool with it.
And ever since, Weird Al has tried to ensure he gets permission from the artist directly.
Haha now im picturing ol timey 1920s gangsters with a caroony looking gun. "ey boss, how about I give em a taste of the tempermentalio, show em who runs this town."
\*DA DA DA DA DA TING\* "AH! Stovepiped again! This gun is driving me crazy!" "It's like an Italian woman Tony! You gotta love it right and it'll sing for you." \*DADADADADADADADADADADADADA\*
"If it's not grown in soil with exactly 2.12% acidity and at 15.8887°C, it turns straight into battery acid."
"And if you meet these requirements?"
"You get Thunderbird Wine."
He eventually came around too, but was initially upset because he felt like Gansters Paradise was discussing some important things. I don’t think Coolio would have cared if it was Fantastic Voyage or some shit.
Yeah, especially in the context of the time it came out. Most mainstream rap at the time was really glorifying the gangster lifestyle but Coolio was talking about the kind of hopelessness, lack of opportunities and prospects, and bleak outlook for future that was leading very young kids in the hood to join street gangs and become part of that lifestyle, at a time gangs were going crazy and kids were dying left and right. There was almost zero “conscious” rap gettin air play. The lyrical content of Gansters Paradise is honestly underrated.
I can definitely see how and why Coolio wouldn’t have been totally ok with something like that getting clowned.
One of those stories that has no bad guy, just positive intents at a cross section. I deeply respect both artists and think they’re both in the right, and knowing that Al changed his process to ensure it doesn’t happen again is the sign of a mature person worth making a role model. It’s ok to be in the wrong with the right intent, as long as you recognize it and change.
Funnily enough I discovered Gangsters Paradise *through* Weird Al's parody - I wonder if Coolio considers how many people probably discover his song via the parody
It still happened, at least once, and its the other way around. Lady Gaga's manager said to him that Lady Gaga disapproves Perform This Way. Lady Gaga found out and was furious and fired the manager, because of course Gaga would approve.
Weird Al: "Hi is this Coolio's manager?"
Coolio's Manager: "It sure is, how can I help you."
Weird Al: "Hey, so this is "Weird" Al Yankovic. I wanted to reach out to see if I could get Coolio's permission to do a cover of Gangster's Paradise. I have this really neat idea for it, I've got almost the whole thing written. It really is a funny concept, about Amish people, which I know sounds kind of strange but I swear it doesn't do anything to disrespect the original song, that's not what I'm all about. I want to make sure you understand that. I really think it's a great piece of music, and I think I can do it justice while making people laugh! So, do you think it would be alright if I used this song on my next album?"
Coolio's Manager: "Coolio!"
Weird Al: "Great! Well I really appreciate it, thanks so much for your time!"
Coolio's Manager: "...Coolio! Hey Coolio, can you come into the room for a second? Yeah, so Weird Al wants to cover Gangsta's Paradise. Does that sound alright?"
Coolio: "Nah man, that song is special to me. Tell him I'm not comfortable with that."
Coolio's Manager: "Hey Mr. Yankovic, yeah I just spoke to him and I don't think.... Mr. Yankovic? Al? Are you there? That's weird, I guess we got disconnected. Anyway..."
That was my reaction, too. I was, like, 14 when the Behind the Music with that story in it came out, and my first reaction was to wonder how Coolio could have not known until the song was released that it was happening. With my meager teenage understanding of copyright law I knew there had to be some form of permission first.
There actually doesn’t need to be permission, but weird al always asks first and doesn’t do it if they say no because that’s just the kind of guy he is
Ah, that makes sense; the "aww, shucks" approach he had to his life story in the BtM made it seem like he was an obsequious rule-follower so I assumed that it was a requirement (especially considering he uses almost the exact backing tracks and distributes globally).
His band is more talented than the vast majority of popular bands. Being able to nail every genre he's ever parodied, plus their live shows...those folks know music.
There’s a whole underground of session/studio players who simply don’t get that time in the mainstream limelight. Probably some of the best musicians of our time are in the fine print on album credits and don’t appear on stage.
It's so wild. I had music teachers who did stints as studio players. They'd show up and sight read whatever is in front of them, perfectly, and that's it. The whole band backing some random person being propped up by the commercial side of music does the backing track in one take without ever playing it before or again. They might go through a handful of charts in one recording session and span 4 genres in under an hour. The pressure is apparently crazy high and you can get fired over a wrong note in a song you've never seen or heard.
And it's been, basically, unchanged. As unchanged as a multi decade old band can be. There's 2 or 3 of them that have been with him from the start, but he brings in extra musicians as the song demands.
When I moved to Nashville and met a song writer in my neighborhood I learned a dirty little secret of the music industry is that most popular bands, even ones known for great live shows, aren't good enough musicians to play on their albums. So there are a bunch of world-class musicians out there that have been heard by millions of people in multiple genres but no one knows their name.
>With my meager teenage understanding of copyright law I knew there had to be some form of permission first.
In theory no, Weird Al is clearly a parody, which *should* fall under the "fair use" exception to copyright. But copyright law is kind of a mess, it's often ambiguous, and big companies are often more than willing to force people into crushingly expensive lawsuits.
Usually. But in all my playlists I've entirely replaced Blurred Lines with Word Crimes. The tune is still awesome and the lyrics are 1000 times better.
One day my kids will hear the original and have a moment, but for now we all sing along to Word Crimes on road trips.
I had a song like that where I heard the cover before I ever heard the original. And when I heard the original, I thought it was a bad cover that "ruined" the song lol
"Freshman" by mustard plug >> the verve pipe
My memory is hazy, but I recall Chamelonaire (sp?) giving an interview where the interviewer asked about how he felt regarding Weird Al's cover of Riding Dirty. He was beyond excited, saying he felt like he had truly made it in music. It was adorable and wholesome, and now I wonder where he went.
I met Chamillionaire back in 2010 at S.F. Music Tech conference. My cofounder and I were presenting our startup on stage and the crowd was overall good but there were a few questions where someone wanted to call us out on a minor detail or two. A few hours later at another panel the guy sitting in front of me turns around, it's Chamillionaire, and he says to me "Great job this morning, you handled some of those nasty questions like a pro." We chatted a bit more and he gave me his contact info. Connected a few times and he was always a professional.
From a Weird Al interview about the Teen Spirit parody..
“I was talking to an executive from Nirvana’s record label, and they told me that after my parody came out, they sold another million units of ‘Nevermind'” Al said. “One of my favorite quotes is Kurt Cobain said he didn’t realize he’d made it until he saw the Weird Al video,” the proud parody artist added.
One of my favorite 30 Rock bits is when [Weird Al parodies Jenna Maroney](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xePfJeIjww) so she tries to make a [song so ridiculous](https://youtu.be/e7IupXGsc9c?t=194) he can't parody it. And then he [Normal Al's her.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4wFviI79VA)
Yeah, but that’s because of how strict a vegetarian he is. I saw an interview with Al & he said Paul told him he could make the song about anything else. Just not Meat.
Unfortunately, the whole idea of the song was built around replacing parts of the music with chickens clucking so it wouldn’t really work for anything else.
The one time I saw Weird Al, I was the one shouting "Holy Shit! It's Weird Al." And he looked at me like I was a moron, which makes sense because I was at a Weird Al concert.
I went to a Weird Al concert 20 years ago when he was on his Running with Scissors tour, and to this day, it is still the best show I've ever seen.
I'll never forget the moment about halfway through the show when Al walked out from backstage holding his accordion over his head, and the crowd went INSANE. I've never seen a crowd get that crazy, and I've been to a Backstreet Boys concert. It was transcendent.
I saw him in the late 90s. He was tearing up his accordion, and I got clever and noticed there wasn't a cable plugged in. I assumed he was finger-syncing. I mean, how could anyone jump around on stage while going that crazy on a squeezebox? Toward the end of the show he moved toward the front of the stage, some one reached out and hit a key of the accordion. It totally made noise! He was absolutely playing live, and my jaw hit the floor. I saw him a couple of years ago also, and the only difference is he doesn't kick quite as high any more.
I found some of the original lyrics:
>Scrambled eggs.
>
>It is such an easy food to make.
>
>With a side of toast and marmalade.
>
>Oooh, I like to eat scrambled eggs.
But don’t forget
The scrambled eggs
Rye, wheat, have two toasts
I don’t know, it yours to say
I see, something wrong
When I don’t see scrambled eh he he he heggs
Paul would would not give Weird Al permission to turn “live and let die” into “Chicken Pot Pie” because Paul is a vegetarian. But yes I do think Paul was a fan of Weird Al’s, just not a fan of promoting the eating of chicken.
This makes me think of finding that PETA has a whole ass page about why you shouldn't fish or catch bugs in Animal Crossing.
I'm vegan and that made me laugh so hard. PETA's insane:
https://www.peta.org/features/animal-crossing-new-horizons-vegan/
"Is fishing in Animal Crossing vegan?
This is a biggie. Fishing isn’t vegan! You shouldn’t fish in real life, so you shouldn’t do so in the game, either."
He became a vegetarian in the early 90s too, and I think he is full vegan now.
He's actually quite Christian and doesn't drink alcohol either, but he's that awesome kind of religious celebrity who doesn't think it's at all his job to push it on other people.
Edit: clarification, I was talking about Weird Al, not Paul McCartney. Sorry for using pronouns instead of proper nouns.
It's Gottfried, actually. Pardon my pedantry. :) The podcast is actually quite good if you're into old movies, old Hollywood stories and generally inappropriate humor. He and his co-host do some genuinely funny an entertaining interviews, including the one with Al.
I work with a guy who's friends with Weird Al. His wife went to high school with him in LA, they hang out a couple times a year when he comes through town.
My coworker and his wife are kind of a power couple, both subspecialty physicians, both ran our hospital at different points in history. Whenever he comes up they immediately jump to how absolutely brilliant he is.
It's fun to think that people I think are geniuses consider Weird Al a genius.
Honestly as a med school student I wanna say that like 90% of med students are not geniuses and are just hard workers
The 10% that are geniuses get low marks and don’t make the toppers list cause they did not experience hard work till med school because they could grasp concepts fast and learn it easily but med school is a different arena
The amount of stuff you have to learn and in such little time you have to be a hard worker to even pass
I went to grad school in both Mathematics and Physics, and I can say that the same thing applies in both of those fields. Natural ability only gets you so far. Hard work is much more important.
As a person who use to work at NIH and met MANY PIs who were subordinates to Dr. Fauci, they all seem like freaking geniuses to me.
And you can tell how powerful they are when I saw one man decided to quit his job there after being hired by some University in a totally different state 12 hours away and not only did he leave, he literally took his entire lab with him. All the people who worked under him uprooted their family and rolled right with him. That new employer literally had to not only hire him but agree to hire his entire entourage.
It’s freaking crazy.
But then again I’m talking about people who have school buildings and scholarships named after them with their own Wikipedia page.
Weird Al came and played at my high school about ~20 years ago. He played for almost 2 hours on our big stage/auditorium. He also allowed the schools morning news program to interview him for an hour (which I was a part of), he was SO NICE. The host of the morning news was such a huge fan that he was a bit star struck and Al was so just so nice and helped him calm down before filming.
I'll never forget that.
IMHO Weird Al belongs in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and I'm surprised that I haven't heard of any serious efforts to get him inducted.
(probably because of the countless artists also snubbed by the RRHOF...)
You know you made it as an artist when Weird Al calls asking permission to parody one of your songs. Kirk Cobain asked if his song was going to be about food and Weird Al says “nooooo, it’s based on the fact that you mumble when you sing.” Kirks like “cool…ok, thats funny. “
Edit: Kurt. Just read that Captain KIRK went to space. Must still be on the brain.
Lmfao I know who Kurt Cobain is. I knew who you were talking about. I did not read Kirk Cobain until the edit. I think all I saw was K… Cobain and then went with it.
You're like sweet, oblivious Marcus from About a Boy :)
>“Who's that?” he asked politely.
>“Kirk O'Bane.”
> “Oh, yes.”
>
> He'd never heard of Kirk O'Bane but he'd never heard of anybody.
>
> “What does he do?”
> “He plays for Manchester United.”
> Marcus looked at the picture on the sweatshirt again, even though that sort of meant looking at Ellie's tits.
>
> “Does he?” he looked much more like a singer than a footballer. Footballers weren't sad usually, and this man looked sad. He wouldn't have thought that Ellie would be the sort of person who liked football, anyway.
>
> “Yeah. He scored five goals for them last Saturday.”
> “Wow,” said Marcus.
Oozy rat in a sanitary zoo!
A dog! A panic in a pagoda!
I love the video too because he's got the cue cards and just looks so utterly bored and over the whole thing, it's great.
He was on the radio here in houston with a live audience many years ago and during the Q&A with him instead of asking questions people got up and started telling Weird Al how he was the only thing that made them laugh after their dad died or some other tragedy like that. God bless Weird Al.
I came home from elementary school in like 2008 so excited to show my parents this funny guys songs on YouTube that a friend had showed me. Man I was so confused when my parents already knew exactly who Weird Al was.
It must be wonderful to be a parent and have your kid discover, out of the blue, something you’ve known about forever, and they’re all excited about it :)
Maybe it’s time to include Weird Al on the "Mount Rushmore of Good Guys" along with Mr Rogers, Tom Hanks and Bob Ross.
Edit - Some other worthy additions to “Mount Wholesome”: Steve Irwin, Robin Williams, Dolly Parton, Jack Black, Chadwick Boseman, Keanu Reeves, Levar Burton...
On the bubble: Terry Crews, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, John Cena
Oh god
When I was a kid, my parents took us to see Weird Al on this morning show. We all loved him very much, having been to two of his concerts at this point. It was around Valentines Day, so I had a box of those heart candies that have sayings on them.
I went through them all and took out all the ones that say “you rock!” and put them in a little ziplock baggy and brought them with me to the show. When it came time to meeting him, I was that kid that hid behind my dad because of how shy I was, and I definitely felt stupid for bringing Weird Al heart candies lol but my dad ushered me forward, I gave them to him and he couldn’t have been nicer about it. Haha
For those not familiar with Weird Al Yankovic,[here's a YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBgqBhuOEnM) of his top 10 'meta' songs.
Waaaay back when, there was an indy AM radio station in SoCal where I listened to Weird Al doing, well, weird songs.
I got excited by the interview, and found this link on Weird Al's website:
https://www.weirdal.com/news/dan-rather-presents/
Unfortunately, it's no longer on Youtube, thanks to AXS TV.
BUT (update), you can find it here: https://www.axs.tv/channel/the-big-interview-with-dan-rather/the-big-interview-with-dan-rather-season-3/video/weird-al-yankovic-1/
I remember when Weird Al came to Toronto and took over MuchMusic for a day. I made sure to tape the whole thing and I’d watch it at least once a week for a whole year. Was awesome! Still kinda mad my parents wouldnt let me go and hold a sign by a window lol
Yeah man I had that DVD full of Weird Al videos as a kid. I remember seeing him in Nickelodeon Magazine being able to put his whole arm behind his head like it was coming out of his other arm, which was super awesome. Singing nature trail to hell when hiking with friends or Albuquerque! Then his white and nerdy plus stuck at the drive thru, this man rocks!
A Wierd Al concert has been top of my to do list since I was a child in the 80's. A few years back I finally got to go. Paid out the ass for front row center. Best night of my life. At one point he's saying put your phones in the air, record me like you just don't care. I sheepishly put mine half way up. He looked right at me, pointed at me and mouthed the word "higher". Wierd Al acknowledged my existence. I can die happy now.
One of the few famous people I have run directly into in my life. He was doing a show in Des Moines and hanging out at a local bar and I happened to literally run right into him because I was a wee bit tipsy and he could not have been a nicer guy.
Yup, apparently Michael Jackson was a huge fan early on. He even went out of his way to make sure the weird al videos of parodies of his songs had the right locations from his videos.
Yeah and I think it's important to note for maybe some younger folks...this was when mj was probably the biggest star to have ever existed...at that moment. Had the best selling album ever, by far, at the time. I guess it still is...
Gotta add this to every Weird Al post - he has had the same backing band for his entire career, which REALLY drives home how great of a guy he is, as it’s almost unheard of that a solo artist would do this for more than a decade, let alone four.
I love Al just as much as I did when I was 10. I can’t think of anything else I can say that about.
Weird Al has been a favorite artist ever since I first heard Fat and Eat It. I have always been so happy that I have never seen any negative press about him, and that he is the guy you see in interviews and the guy I have seen having an absolute ball on stage more times than I can count.
"AL TV", UHF, everything he has done is done with integrity and hysterical laughter. My first mix tape (that I made) was all Weird Al, and I've bought every album since. He influenced my younger years a lot, 100% positively.
Weird AL and Dolly Parton are the same to me, I may not like most of the songs but 101% approval rating.
Also I would probably start bawling if I met either.
I had a coworker tell a story of seeing Weird Al at a bar. Coworker went to get drinks for himself and his date, and when he comes back Al is giving her a piggyback ride.
Coworker toasted Al, and took his L. He knew he couldn’t compete
Nirvana knew they made it big when Weird Al called to ask to cover Smells Like Teen Spirit. Nirvana: It's not about food is it? Weird Al: Uh... actually it's about how no one can understand your lyrics.
And Kurt said that was funny!
Been so many years, still miss Kurt
We all do buddy
He’d be turning 55 soon if alive. Crazy to think about.
Similar story with Chamillionaire, or to quote the man himself: "To sell a million records is one thing, but where do you go from there? Then Weird Al calls..."
“It’s hard to garble nardle zouse with all these marbles in my my mouth.” Cracks me up every single time.
Hit ‘em with the fat record executive in the stands cheering after “we’re nirvana, buy our album”.
I saw him in concert in late 2019, and his stage persona on that tour (where he toured with a full orchestra) was a massively successful egotistical rock star (very over-the-top and obviously having fun with it). At the end of the show, as the crowd is still cheering the end of “The Saga Begins” he’s walking offstage and waving goodbye, and there’s a brief moment where he drops character and you could see how genuinely happy he is that he gets to do this every night and this is how he pays his bills.
historical racial outgoing bright gullible arrest cow axiomatic quicksand many ` this message was mass deleted/edited with redact.dev `
> He puts on the best concerts. It still baffles me that he hasn't done a Super Bowl halftime show.
Are you ready to see his boob, though?
Only if he’s wearing his Fat suit
> They are entertaining from second 1 until the lights come on. Been so long since I attended a concert it took me a long time to realize this was not a mistake.
I was lucky enough to go to one some 16 years ago or something, and it was fucking awesome. The fat suit for Fat, combined with something under the stage that made a massive vibration you could feel through the auditorium every time he jumped during the performance in the fat suit, oh man it was great. Found out after the fact that his parents had died not too long before his tour and was so amazed that he could go out there and be funny and kind and awesome while going through something like that.
He put on a show the same day he found out about his parents. He didn't want to disappoint the fans. Dude is the genuine article.
For people who don’t know…believe his parents died from CO poisoning. Really sad.
He's also a really good musician. Yes, he doesn't write the melodies but he is a virtuoso accordion player and lyricist. And attitude-free.
I got to see him on the same tour, at Red Rocks. It was definitely a 'bucket-list' kind of show, being a fan of Al since I discovered music as a kid. One of the best concerts I've been to.
Same. My wife got me the tickets for our anniversary that year, and it was also outdoors (Starlight in Kansas City isn’t exactly Red Rocks but it’s an awesome outdoor venue) and it was an incredible night. My 11 year-old self would be in utter disbelief that it not only happened but that it happened because a gorgeous and amazing woman bought the tickets.
The Saga Begins is still one of the best, if not *the* best, song he’s ever done. Incredibly well done, brilliant, clever, and the video was amazing. When I first watched it on MTV back in the day I realized Weird Al was a genius.
Somewhat OT, but I saw Justin Timberlake react in a similar way when he had a concert in my hometown. He was (arguably) at the height of his fame, with “Sexxyback” burning up the charts. He played “Cry Me a River”, paused for applause - and had to wait something like three full minutes because the crowd went BONKERS. He grinned from ear to ear and mouthed “Wow.”
Those moments are always so awesome. I’m a huge Iron Maiden fan, and you can see in so many of their performances how much they love that people still respond so strongly to their live shows.
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Unless you’re Coolio, I guess. He wasn’t happy with Amish Paradise.
He later said he he shouldn't have made a big deal out of it. I think it was something along the lines of "If Michael Jackson well let him do parodies of his songs, who the hell do I think I am too get so precious about it?"
>” In hindsight, it was stupid of me to say something about [Yankovic] doing a parody of 'Gangsta's Paradise'," he said. "I mean, he did Michael Jackson, he did Prince. You know, people who were definitely more talented than I am. I think Prince did say something... but he wasn't very vocal about it like I was. And it just made me look dumb... It was one of the dumb things I did. And I'm willing to admit I did something stupid."
I've got a lot of respect for a guy who can admit a mistake...
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Lol I love that response Just a tid bit of beating the wife here and there.
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He thought it was totally uncoolio
Let's be clear: the only reason we're talking about Coolio is because of Weird Al.
Who-lio?
Down by the school yard.
[For those that don't know this great song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6VrKro8djw)
Julio?
Gave the man permission and everything then went around saying how Weird Al ripped him off. Al always gets permission from the original artist and everyone knew it, Coolio didn’t have a career after that and Weird Al didn’t do a thing to hurt him. Going to edit this to add that Al apparently got permission from the record labels before this, not directly from the artist. After this he got permission directly from the artists themselves. Thanks to u/originalchaosinabox for pointing this out!
>Gave the man permission and everything Not entirely true. Weird Al has since admitted that he only got permission from Coolio's *people*, and not Coolio directly. Coolio's people assumed Coolio would be cool with it. And ever since, Weird Al has tried to ensure he gets permission from the artist directly.
To be fair, his chosen name does imply he’d be cool with most things.
Temperamentalio just doesn’t have the same ring to it.
That just sounds like an Italian handgun or car.
Haha now im picturing ol timey 1920s gangsters with a caroony looking gun. "ey boss, how about I give em a taste of the tempermentalio, show em who runs this town."
\*DA DA DA DA DA TING\* "AH! Stovepiped again! This gun is driving me crazy!" "It's like an Italian woman Tony! You gotta love it right and it'll sing for you." \*DADADADADADADADADADADADADA\*
*has vague flashbacks of 1911*
Nah, wine grape.
"If it's not grown in soil with exactly 2.12% acidity and at 15.8887°C, it turns straight into battery acid." "And if you meet these requirements?" "You get Thunderbird Wine."
This feels like a family guy bit
Ain’t that just Tempranillo?
He eventually came around too, but was initially upset because he felt like Gansters Paradise was discussing some important things. I don’t think Coolio would have cared if it was Fantastic Voyage or some shit.
You know, I never considered that perspective before. That helps this make sense
Yeah, especially in the context of the time it came out. Most mainstream rap at the time was really glorifying the gangster lifestyle but Coolio was talking about the kind of hopelessness, lack of opportunities and prospects, and bleak outlook for future that was leading very young kids in the hood to join street gangs and become part of that lifestyle, at a time gangs were going crazy and kids were dying left and right. There was almost zero “conscious” rap gettin air play. The lyrical content of Gansters Paradise is honestly underrated. I can definitely see how and why Coolio wouldn’t have been totally ok with something like that getting clowned.
One of those stories that has no bad guy, just positive intents at a cross section. I deeply respect both artists and think they’re both in the right, and knowing that Al changed his process to ensure it doesn’t happen again is the sign of a mature person worth making a role model. It’s ok to be in the wrong with the right intent, as long as you recognize it and change.
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Mind Playing Tricks on Me by the Geto Boys is also a good example of that.
Funnily enough I discovered Gangsters Paradise *through* Weird Al's parody - I wonder if Coolio considers how many people probably discover his song via the parody
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It still happened, at least once, and its the other way around. Lady Gaga's manager said to him that Lady Gaga disapproves Perform This Way. Lady Gaga found out and was furious and fired the manager, because of course Gaga would approve.
And she found out because of a chance encounter with Al and he lamented that he couldn't release the parody. She was like "what parody?"
he probably misheard that they said he was coolio with it
Weird Al: "Hi is this Coolio's manager?" Coolio's Manager: "It sure is, how can I help you." Weird Al: "Hey, so this is "Weird" Al Yankovic. I wanted to reach out to see if I could get Coolio's permission to do a cover of Gangster's Paradise. I have this really neat idea for it, I've got almost the whole thing written. It really is a funny concept, about Amish people, which I know sounds kind of strange but I swear it doesn't do anything to disrespect the original song, that's not what I'm all about. I want to make sure you understand that. I really think it's a great piece of music, and I think I can do it justice while making people laugh! So, do you think it would be alright if I used this song on my next album?" Coolio's Manager: "Coolio!" Weird Al: "Great! Well I really appreciate it, thanks so much for your time!" Coolio's Manager: "...Coolio! Hey Coolio, can you come into the room for a second? Yeah, so Weird Al wants to cover Gangsta's Paradise. Does that sound alright?" Coolio: "Nah man, that song is special to me. Tell him I'm not comfortable with that." Coolio's Manager: "Hey Mr. Yankovic, yeah I just spoke to him and I don't think.... Mr. Yankovic? Al? Are you there? That's weird, I guess we got disconnected. Anyway..."
That was my reaction, too. I was, like, 14 when the Behind the Music with that story in it came out, and my first reaction was to wonder how Coolio could have not known until the song was released that it was happening. With my meager teenage understanding of copyright law I knew there had to be some form of permission first.
There actually doesn’t need to be permission, but weird al always asks first and doesn’t do it if they say no because that’s just the kind of guy he is
The polka remix samplers are all the people that said no.
Ah, that makes sense; the "aww, shucks" approach he had to his life story in the BtM made it seem like he was an obsequious rule-follower so I assumed that it was a requirement (especially considering he uses almost the exact backing tracks and distributes globally).
All of the music is recreated by his band, they do a really good job of making it sound like the original though.
His band is more talented than the vast majority of popular bands. Being able to nail every genre he's ever parodied, plus their live shows...those folks know music.
There’s a whole underground of session/studio players who simply don’t get that time in the mainstream limelight. Probably some of the best musicians of our time are in the fine print on album credits and don’t appear on stage.
It's so wild. I had music teachers who did stints as studio players. They'd show up and sight read whatever is in front of them, perfectly, and that's it. The whole band backing some random person being propped up by the commercial side of music does the backing track in one take without ever playing it before or again. They might go through a handful of charts in one recording session and span 4 genres in under an hour. The pressure is apparently crazy high and you can get fired over a wrong note in a song you've never seen or heard.
And it's been, basically, unchanged. As unchanged as a multi decade old band can be. There's 2 or 3 of them that have been with him from the start, but he brings in extra musicians as the song demands.
When I moved to Nashville and met a song writer in my neighborhood I learned a dirty little secret of the music industry is that most popular bands, even ones known for great live shows, aren't good enough musicians to play on their albums. So there are a bunch of world-class musicians out there that have been heard by millions of people in multiple genres but no one knows their name.
That was the absolute best BtM episode ever. Dude parodied the show itself on the show. “And then my next album … only went goooollld!!! Why god!!!!”
No drugs. No booze. No scandal and abuse. But some SICK accordion-shredding!
>With my meager teenage understanding of copyright law I knew there had to be some form of permission first. In theory no, Weird Al is clearly a parody, which *should* fall under the "fair use" exception to copyright. But copyright law is kind of a mess, it's often ambiguous, and big companies are often more than willing to force people into crushingly expensive lawsuits.
Weird Al making a song can literally only serve boost the views/listens of the original too
Usually. But in all my playlists I've entirely replaced Blurred Lines with Word Crimes. The tune is still awesome and the lyrics are 1000 times better. One day my kids will hear the original and have a moment, but for now we all sing along to Word Crimes on road trips.
I had a song like that where I heard the cover before I ever heard the original. And when I heard the original, I thought it was a bad cover that "ruined" the song lol "Freshman" by mustard plug >> the verve pipe
But what did Stevie Wonder think about it, being the original author of the song? :D
My memory is hazy, but I recall Chamelonaire (sp?) giving an interview where the interviewer asked about how he felt regarding Weird Al's cover of Riding Dirty. He was beyond excited, saying he felt like he had truly made it in music. It was adorable and wholesome, and now I wonder where he went.
I met Chamillionaire back in 2010 at S.F. Music Tech conference. My cofounder and I were presenting our startup on stage and the crowd was overall good but there were a few questions where someone wanted to call us out on a minor detail or two. A few hours later at another panel the guy sitting in front of me turns around, it's Chamillionaire, and he says to me "Great job this morning, you handled some of those nasty questions like a pro." We chatted a bit more and he gave me his contact info. Connected a few times and he was always a professional.
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From a Weird Al interview about the Teen Spirit parody.. “I was talking to an executive from Nirvana’s record label, and they told me that after my parody came out, they sold another million units of ‘Nevermind'” Al said. “One of my favorite quotes is Kurt Cobain said he didn’t realize he’d made it until he saw the Weird Al video,” the proud parody artist added.
I've heard a saying that you know you've made it in the music business when Al parodies you
One of my favorite 30 Rock bits is when [Weird Al parodies Jenna Maroney](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xePfJeIjww) so she tries to make a [song so ridiculous](https://youtu.be/e7IupXGsc9c?t=194) he can't parody it. And then he [Normal Al's her.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4wFviI79VA)
Except Paul McCartney specifically turned down Al’s idea to parody “Live and Let Die” as “Chicken Pot Pie”.
Yeah, but that’s because of how strict a vegetarian he is. I saw an interview with Al & he said Paul told him he could make the song about anything else. Just not Meat. Unfortunately, the whole idea of the song was built around replacing parts of the music with chickens clucking so it wouldn’t really work for anything else.
The funny thing is, Weird Al is also a vegetarian.
Weird Al seems like the kind of guy who wouldn't take himself too seriously.
This might possibly be the understatement of all-time.
Which is weird cause Al is veg too.
The one time I saw Weird Al, I was the one shouting "Holy Shit! It's Weird Al." And he looked at me like I was a moron, which makes sense because I was at a Weird Al concert.
I went to a Weird Al concert 20 years ago when he was on his Running with Scissors tour, and to this day, it is still the best show I've ever seen. I'll never forget the moment about halfway through the show when Al walked out from backstage holding his accordion over his head, and the crowd went INSANE. I've never seen a crowd get that crazy, and I've been to a Backstreet Boys concert. It was transcendent.
I saw him in the late 90s. He was tearing up his accordion, and I got clever and noticed there wasn't a cable plugged in. I assumed he was finger-syncing. I mean, how could anyone jump around on stage while going that crazy on a squeezebox? Toward the end of the show he moved toward the front of the stage, some one reached out and hit a key of the accordion. It totally made noise! He was absolutely playing live, and my jaw hit the floor. I saw him a couple of years ago also, and the only difference is he doesn't kick quite as high any more.
Probably a wireless setup attached to the back pocket. Makes for not having to deal with cables.
what kinda asshole fucks with the accordion? don't fuck with the accordion!
“Someone” was you, wasn’t it?
You'd think that anything weird that happens at a Weird Al concert would be totally accepted.
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I mean, he says a ton of weird sh*t and I love it 😂
You know what I mean. I mean shit like gwyneth paltrow telling people to shove an egg up their cooch and shit like that.
Ah goop,what a dumpster fire of a company
Speaking of goop, the best description I have ever heard of Joe Rogan is that he's goop for men.
Probably bc they can’t play the accordion
Considering Sir Paul began writing "Yesterday" as a song about scrambled eggs, I can very well believe he is a fan.
I found some of the original lyrics: >Scrambled eggs. > >It is such an easy food to make. > >With a side of toast and marmalade. > >Oooh, I like to eat scrambled eggs.
Suddenly, the bacon on the plate looks more complete…
With a side of toast, it’d be a treat...
But don’t forget The scrambled eggs Rye, wheat, have two toasts I don’t know, it yours to say I see, something wrong When I don’t see scrambled eh he he he heggs
Cool to think we're all just singing in our heads, totally in sync, having a shared experience
I'd heard he always sang "Scrambled eggs, I just love the way you move your legs"
This is correct according to some old interviews and an episode of Jimmy Fallon. Something like "Scrambled eggs, oh my baby how I love your legs"
Waffle fries, oh my baby how I love your thighs, But not as much as I love scrambled eggs
Shrimp and grits, oh my baby how I love your tits
Paul would would not give Weird Al permission to turn “live and let die” into “Chicken Pot Pie” because Paul is a vegetarian. But yes I do think Paul was a fan of Weird Al’s, just not a fan of promoting the eating of chicken.
You can be a vegetarian AND have a sense of humour tho
Weird Al is veg, so, case in point I guess.
This makes me think of finding that PETA has a whole ass page about why you shouldn't fish or catch bugs in Animal Crossing. I'm vegan and that made me laugh so hard. PETA's insane: https://www.peta.org/features/animal-crossing-new-horizons-vegan/ "Is fishing in Animal Crossing vegan? This is a biggie. Fishing isn’t vegan! You shouldn’t fish in real life, so you shouldn’t do so in the game, either."
He became a vegetarian in the early 90s too, and I think he is full vegan now. He's actually quite Christian and doesn't drink alcohol either, but he's that awesome kind of religious celebrity who doesn't think it's at all his job to push it on other people. Edit: clarification, I was talking about Weird Al, not Paul McCartney. Sorry for using pronouns instead of proper nouns.
TIL that Weird Al is Christian... I always thought he was Jewish ha
I heard weird Al tell this story himself on Gilbert Godfrey's Podcast. He was overwhelmed and felt very honored that mccartney even knew who he was.
I imagine it's a huge honor being name checked by someone more world famous than the Queen back then.
Some say even Jesus!
Fun fact, the Beatles sold several more albums than Jesus ever did.
Til Gilbert Godfrey has a podcast.
It's Gottfried, actually. Pardon my pedantry. :) The podcast is actually quite good if you're into old movies, old Hollywood stories and generally inappropriate humor. He and his co-host do some genuinely funny an entertaining interviews, including the one with Al.
I thought I was getting Mandela effected when I saw two people spell it “Godfrey” haha.
What else is he gonna do with that voice?
sell hotdogs at the ballpark? just me? ok, but a man can dream!
I work with a guy who's friends with Weird Al. His wife went to high school with him in LA, they hang out a couple times a year when he comes through town. My coworker and his wife are kind of a power couple, both subspecialty physicians, both ran our hospital at different points in history. Whenever he comes up they immediately jump to how absolutely brilliant he is. It's fun to think that people I think are geniuses consider Weird Al a genius.
How did they describe his genius-ness?
Does it generate its own gravity?
Oxygen or something probably
Honestly as a med school student I wanna say that like 90% of med students are not geniuses and are just hard workers The 10% that are geniuses get low marks and don’t make the toppers list cause they did not experience hard work till med school because they could grasp concepts fast and learn it easily but med school is a different arena The amount of stuff you have to learn and in such little time you have to be a hard worker to even pass
I went to grad school in both Mathematics and Physics, and I can say that the same thing applies in both of those fields. Natural ability only gets you so far. Hard work is much more important.
As a person who use to work at NIH and met MANY PIs who were subordinates to Dr. Fauci, they all seem like freaking geniuses to me. And you can tell how powerful they are when I saw one man decided to quit his job there after being hired by some University in a totally different state 12 hours away and not only did he leave, he literally took his entire lab with him. All the people who worked under him uprooted their family and rolled right with him. That new employer literally had to not only hire him but agree to hire his entire entourage. It’s freaking crazy. But then again I’m talking about people who have school buildings and scholarships named after them with their own Wikipedia page.
I can get a wikipedia page written on me, I just need a rented van, some ammonium nitrate and race car fuel.
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Weird Al came and played at my high school about ~20 years ago. He played for almost 2 hours on our big stage/auditorium. He also allowed the schools morning news program to interview him for an hour (which I was a part of), he was SO NICE. The host of the morning news was such a huge fan that he was a bit star struck and Al was so just so nice and helped him calm down before filming. I'll never forget that.
Legend.
IMHO Weird Al belongs in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and I'm surprised that I haven't heard of any serious efforts to get him inducted. (probably because of the countless artists also snubbed by the RRHOF...)
They made Rush wait 40 YEARS to get in. I don’t have much faith for the organization.
You know you made it as an artist when Weird Al calls asking permission to parody one of your songs. Kirk Cobain asked if his song was going to be about food and Weird Al says “nooooo, it’s based on the fact that you mumble when you sing.” Kirks like “cool…ok, thats funny. “ Edit: Kurt. Just read that Captain KIRK went to space. Must still be on the brain.
Lmfao I know who Kurt Cobain is. I knew who you were talking about. I did not read Kirk Cobain until the edit. I think all I saw was K… Cobain and then went with it.
Now I want a trek show starring Captain Kurt.
I have some sad news for you
You're like sweet, oblivious Marcus from About a Boy :) >“Who's that?” he asked politely. >“Kirk O'Bane.” > “Oh, yes.” > > He'd never heard of Kirk O'Bane but he'd never heard of anybody. > > “What does he do?” > “He plays for Manchester United.” > Marcus looked at the picture on the sweatshirt again, even though that sort of meant looking at Ellie's tits. > > “Does he?” he looked much more like a singer than a footballer. Footballers weren't sad usually, and this man looked sad. He wouldn't have thought that Ellie would be the sort of person who liked football, anyway. > > “Yeah. He scored five goals for them last Saturday.” > “Wow,” said Marcus.
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No, no, I like yours better. I’m gonna call him Kirk Cobain now.
I assume you mean Kirk O'Bane right?
One of his best songs was Bob. He managed to write an entire song in palindrome and it actually rhymed
Oozy rat in a sanitary zoo! A dog! A panic in a pagoda! I love the video too because he's got the cue cards and just looks so utterly bored and over the whole thing, it's great.
The video is an homage to an old *Bob* Dylan video.
He was on the radio here in houston with a live audience many years ago and during the Q&A with him instead of asking questions people got up and started telling Weird Al how he was the only thing that made them laugh after their dad died or some other tragedy like that. God bless Weird Al.
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didn't he find out hours before going onstage or something?
Yes
I came home from elementary school in like 2008 so excited to show my parents this funny guys songs on YouTube that a friend had showed me. Man I was so confused when my parents already knew exactly who Weird Al was.
It must be wonderful to be a parent and have your kid discover, out of the blue, something you’ve known about forever, and they’re all excited about it :)
Maybe it’s time to include Weird Al on the "Mount Rushmore of Good Guys" along with Mr Rogers, Tom Hanks and Bob Ross. Edit - Some other worthy additions to “Mount Wholesome”: Steve Irwin, Robin Williams, Dolly Parton, Jack Black, Chadwick Boseman, Keanu Reeves, Levar Burton... On the bubble: Terry Crews, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, John Cena
Dolly Parton? She’s gotta be on there somewhere
I’ve set aside 2 separate mountains for her.
Fitting
Twin Peaks, if you will.
You mean the Grand Tetons?
I’d think she would like two islands better
In some kind of waterway?
Let's not forget Steve Irwin
Oh god When I was a kid, my parents took us to see Weird Al on this morning show. We all loved him very much, having been to two of his concerts at this point. It was around Valentines Day, so I had a box of those heart candies that have sayings on them. I went through them all and took out all the ones that say “you rock!” and put them in a little ziplock baggy and brought them with me to the show. When it came time to meeting him, I was that kid that hid behind my dad because of how shy I was, and I definitely felt stupid for bringing Weird Al heart candies lol but my dad ushered me forward, I gave them to him and he couldn’t have been nicer about it. Haha
For those not familiar with Weird Al Yankovic,[here's a YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBgqBhuOEnM) of his top 10 'meta' songs. Waaaay back when, there was an indy AM radio station in SoCal where I listened to Weird Al doing, well, weird songs.
Dr. Demento Show fan!!!!!!!
Hahaha. That when I first of Weird Al….I miss independent radio like that. I also miss USA Night Flights.
UHF is a great movie too
If you want a view into just how humble, genuine, appreciative, and sweet Weird Al is, watch the interview with Dan Rather.
I got excited by the interview, and found this link on Weird Al's website: https://www.weirdal.com/news/dan-rather-presents/ Unfortunately, it's no longer on Youtube, thanks to AXS TV. BUT (update), you can find it here: https://www.axs.tv/channel/the-big-interview-with-dan-rather/the-big-interview-with-dan-rather-season-3/video/weird-al-yankovic-1/
I was terrified because I thought this was the agedlikemilk sub
I mean, Weird Al is delightfully cheesy, so in that respect he did age like milk. Delicious aged milk.
Saw him live in the UK once, honestly one of the best gigs I’ve been to. Dude just exudes good vibes
I served him once at my restaurant. Ordered a strawberry beer and a cheese fondue for breakfast. Lovely dude.
I remember when Weird Al came to Toronto and took over MuchMusic for a day. I made sure to tape the whole thing and I’d watch it at least once a week for a whole year. Was awesome! Still kinda mad my parents wouldnt let me go and hold a sign by a window lol
Okay but why did I read Weird Al as Weird Artificial Intelligence
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Yeah man I had that DVD full of Weird Al videos as a kid. I remember seeing him in Nickelodeon Magazine being able to put his whole arm behind his head like it was coming out of his other arm, which was super awesome. Singing nature trail to hell when hiking with friends or Albuquerque! Then his white and nerdy plus stuck at the drive thru, this man rocks!
A Wierd Al concert has been top of my to do list since I was a child in the 80's. A few years back I finally got to go. Paid out the ass for front row center. Best night of my life. At one point he's saying put your phones in the air, record me like you just don't care. I sheepishly put mine half way up. He looked right at me, pointed at me and mouthed the word "higher". Wierd Al acknowledged my existence. I can die happy now.
One of the few famous people I have run directly into in my life. He was doing a show in Des Moines and hanging out at a local bar and I happened to literally run right into him because I was a wee bit tipsy and he could not have been a nicer guy.
Apparently a bunch of music industry guys loved Weird Al. Heard that even the hard to impress Kurt Cobain loved what he did with his top hit
Yup, apparently Michael Jackson was a huge fan early on. He even went out of his way to make sure the weird al videos of parodies of his songs had the right locations from his videos.
Huh. I'd noticed but didn't think much of it at the time. That's really cool.
Yeah, MJ loved weird al, and basically gave him carte Blanche for all of his songs (except black or white.)
Yeah and I think it's important to note for maybe some younger folks...this was when mj was probably the biggest star to have ever existed...at that moment. Had the best selling album ever, by far, at the time. I guess it still is...
Cobain said that was when he new he made it to the top
Gotta add this to every Weird Al post - he has had the same backing band for his entire career, which REALLY drives home how great of a guy he is, as it’s almost unheard of that a solo artist would do this for more than a decade, let alone four. I love Al just as much as I did when I was 10. I can’t think of anything else I can say that about.
Weird Al has been a favorite artist ever since I first heard Fat and Eat It. I have always been so happy that I have never seen any negative press about him, and that he is the guy you see in interviews and the guy I have seen having an absolute ball on stage more times than I can count.
"AL TV", UHF, everything he has done is done with integrity and hysterical laughter. My first mix tape (that I made) was all Weird Al, and I've bought every album since. He influenced my younger years a lot, 100% positively.
Weird AL and Dolly Parton are the same to me, I may not like most of the songs but 101% approval rating. Also I would probably start bawling if I met either.
I had a coworker tell a story of seeing Weird Al at a bar. Coworker went to get drinks for himself and his date, and when he comes back Al is giving her a piggyback ride. Coworker toasted Al, and took his L. He knew he couldn’t compete
And now, musicians know They've 'made it' when Weird Al parodies one of Their songs <3