Really. Al has never outwardly labled a song a "style parody" on the liner notes or what have you (unless he names the song Bob, or he has Ben Folds, you know, playing on the Ben Folds style parody ), so why would he start now?
If you're just finding this out now, I guess it's because no one ever brought it up in somewhere obvious like Ask Al, like with EYKIW (Which, by the way, I had no idea was a TMBG style parody until I saw it in Ask Al...and I'm a huuuuge TMBG fan)
You have quickly thought up such matchless phrase?
I've heard "Dick's Automotive", too, and yes, the songs are very similar, but there are some differences, too. I like "Albuquerque" much better. I don't know. DA has some kinda creepy lyrics in it. It doesn't sit right with me. But, yeah, "Albuquerque" is a style parody, and for once, of a band I had never heard of before there was some discussion about them in a different topic, maybe a year ago.
One thing people need to remember though, I don't think anyone praises "Albuquerque" for the guitar riff. It's the lyrics that make it such a fan favorite, and even though there are some similarities, only Al could write those kinds of lyrics.
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I think I might be partially to blame for this, since I recently brought it up in another thread and provided a link to a sample of DA. . .so I'd better chime in, I guess:
I wouldn't go so far to say that I've lost respect for Al over this, but I do admit feeling a tad let down when I heard DA and realized that "Albuquerque" was pretty much just a knock-off. Not that I dislike "Albuquerque" now, but I was kinda disappointed to find out that it wasn't as original an Original as I thought.
As far as it being a style parody, the genius behind most of Al's style parodies is that the best ones recall the overall style of an artist's body of work, with a line or two or musical portions that borrow from a number of recognizable songs to make up the complete Al tribute. For example, EYKIW lifts from a smorgasboard of They Might Be Giants songs (from the TMBG Wiki: "Besides sounding like a TMBG song--including an evolving chorus a'la 'Sensurround' and 'Till My Head Falls Off'--it contains several giantisms such as a reference to prosthetic lips, 'St. Peter', 'Evil Twin', Death and a disembodied head. The title is a take on 'Everything Right Is Wrong Again'." With GIF, Al echoes a laundry list of Zappa songs, such as "Dancing Fool", "I'm the Slime", "Don't Eat the Yellow Snow/Nanook Rubs It", etc.
With "Albuquerque", however, it's basically just taking The Rugburns' concept (musically and lyrically) for one song and putting wackier lyrics to it. Since the original song is just a rambling story, Al doesn't have to stick to the "meter", as it were. . .he just has to come up with his own crazy story and plug it in. The original song was just kind of strangely surreal, but Al took their idea and made it funnier. To me, that makes it closer to being a parody. . .but it isn't. . .it's odd.
In the end, Anth is right. Al's song is funny, so we should be happy to have it. Still, I think I would have felt better if Al had included The Rugburns in the "Special Thanks" section of the credits, or at least acknowledged them somewhere. No one knows who The Rugburns are, so 99% of the people who listen to "Albuquerque" will just think it's a 100% Al Original. Seems wrong.
But I guess the good thing is that this whole mess introduced me to The Rugburns, who turned out to be a pretty cool band. So it all works out.
Meadows
PS: Interestingly, here's an article from the San Diego Reader with The Rugburns' guitarist where he mentions Al. (Warning: the bit about Al contains a "PG-13"-rated phrase, if that sort of thing bothers you):
SD Reader
This article is from 2005, and it doesn't sound like he's even aware of Al's song. Or if he is, he doesn't think to mention it.
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The thing is, Albuquerque is a funnier song. It probably would have been nice if Al had given a tip o' the hat to the Rugburns in the CD notes, but the story Al's telling is entirely his own. The plot isn't even similar. And although the bit about the donuts seems to kind of follow the bit about the kinds of cars the guy couldn't fix, Al actually had that donut joke in a much earlier song (was it Stupid Blues?) and was recycling his OWN material there.
"Weird Al" has a charisma that's all his own. The awkward, the misshapen, the socially inept flock to his banner.
This has been said ad nasuem, but I dont understand how some of Al's most hardcore fans dont even understand what Al does. He's one of the most cynical, witty, and intuitive artists that exist, but the only thing most of the people on this forum care about is that he's "so respectful OMG!"
"Everything You Know is Wrong" has been discussed plenty, so I wont go into it any more. But as briefly mentioned earlier, "Germs" is a good example of what Al has been doing almost his ENTIRE CAREER. The opening sequence to the song is almost a direct take from NIN's most popular song, "Closer", as is its eerie keyboard ending. If you want another example, try listening to Prince's "Little Red Corvette" and then Al's "Traffic Jam". Not enough? Listen to the Oingo Boingo song "Grey Matter" before listening to "You Make Me". And while you're on that album, listen to bascally any Beastie Boys song if you ever want to understand what the heck "Twister" is all about.
I remember Al even mentioning in an interview pre-Scissors that he wanted to really do a song that was really avant garde and story telling-esque for the next album...what better thing to do than to find an artist suitable for such a genre and do a style parody for it? You know...that thing he's been doing for 20 years.
Good comparisions with the songs, Weird Alan, except "Traffic Jam" is a lot more like "Let's Go Crazy" and almost sounds like a parody at times.
I totally get what Al does, and I haven't lost respect for him due to the similarities between "Albuqueque" and "Dick's Automotive". Sure, it's a little disappointing to find out it's not a *total* original, but I still like "Albuquerque" better.
), so why would he start now?
