World of Weird Al Yankovic

TMBJon wrote:yes, this song has been confirmed as a style parody of Nirvana and lithium/come as you are are the closest matches to this song that i can think of

nice to know I'm not the only one who instantly thought of "Callin' In Sick" when I heard the opening riff of "Come As You Are!"

I didn't even think that this song was supposed to be a style parody. I thought that there were just short moments that sound similar to a couple different Nirvana songs, thought it was totally original. Unless the song being influenced in any way by Nirvana makes it a style parody, I know Al really liked Nirvana, him or Jim could have just had some of those riffs in their heads when they were writing the music for this song, and not have noticed till after that it sounds similar.

Is anything Al makes completely original? Is any music completely original?

No thats what I mean, in my band we write riffs and parts which sound similar to other metal riffs but you wouldn't call them style parodies, you would just say it was influenced by say Slayer, Cause I was listening to them alot when I wrote that riff. Obviously something like Craigsist would is a style parody of the Doors because the whole thing is like an homage to the band. There is alot of music that is pretty original, like "Mr.Frump In The Iron Lung" is a pretty original concept for example. But no it is hard to find anything completely original these days, however I just don't think Callin' In Sick should be noted as a style parody, IMO.

That beginning riff is a dead give away.

Callin' In Sick is quite definitely a style parody of Nirvana, in the strictest of definitions. The way Al sings throughout the entire song is clearly a reference to Kurt Cobain's singing, and his attempt to rip off the Pixies' style. The instrumentation as well sounds a lot like Nirvana.

Remember though that, while we tend to refer to all of the originals that sound like other artists as style parodies, Al has been much more varied with his terminology, referring to some songs as pastiches and others as homages.

So its an homage.

TMBJon wrote:Remember though that, while we tend to refer to all of the originals that sound like other artists as style parodies, Al has been much more varied with his terminology, referring to some songs as pastiches and others as homages.

I don't see a difference between those two concepts, though. They both utilize imitation, at least when Al's doing them.

I think they are all very similar, if not outright synonymous. But each word has its own connotations and Al has a wide range from which he samples a particular song. On one end of the spectrum, you have something like Skipper Dan, which uses a couple elements from two Weezer songs, but otherwise is rather original. On the other end, you have Albuquerque which is for all intents and purposes a direct parody of Dick's Automotive. Callin' In Sick is somewhere in between, but I would argue it's a rather faithful Nirvana style parody, specifically of Lithium, Come As You Are, and In Bloom.

I really only see Come As You Are in the first (4) guitar notes of the song. In Bloom is only a few chords and has much less to it than this song. So The Night Santa Went Crazy would be a style parody of Ozzy Osbourne's "Mama I'm Coming Home" because the entire intro sounds the same except Santa Went Crazy is on Keyboard and Ozzy's is guitar. Then the song becomes totally original.