Girls Just Wanna Have Lunch

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scottidog
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Post by scottidog »

And I maintain that any problem someone has with the music, the problem is with the original author and not any of our boys.
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Bruce the Duck
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Post by Bruce the Duck »

scottidog @ Jan 13 2004, 02:40 AM wrote: And I maintain that any problem someone has with the music, the problem is with the original author and not any of our boys.
Don't you think that's a pretty closed minded view of things?

Think of it this way, taking Al and the band completely out of the equation in order to make you think more objectively:

Suppose a great songwritter, say Dianne Warren, wrote a song. She gives one copy to a truly great artist, let's say Sting. She gives another copy of the EXACT SAME SONG to Pancreas Joe and the Eskimo Leftists.

Would you expect those two performances to sound the same? No. Would you expect that Sting's version would be A LOT better? Yes, most likely.

The moral of the story is, any song, no matter how well or how poorly written, can be performed well or poorly by different artists.

Need another example? I present: "American Pie" by Madonna An excellent song, performed horendously.

Therefore, your statement is wrong. Personally, I actually LIKE the song "Girls Just Want To Have Fun." I think it's very catchy and fun. But I think Al and the band performed it at a lower quality than they could have. Again, though, I am not putting Al down for that, as I believe it was intentional.
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Post by algonacchick »

I agree that Al's vocals on the song were not up to his usual standards, but I actually think the music was good. Especially Mike Keifer's hand noises, that were supposed to sound like the funky keyboard sounds in the original song. I've heard the theory that Al performed the song that way on purpose before. No one really knows for sure but Al and TBITB.

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Bruce the Duck
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Post by Bruce the Duck »

I would submit a question to "Ask Al" about it, but....uh...yeah.....hmmmm...what's the point? :P
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scottidog
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Post by scottidog »

Bruce the Duck @ Jan 13 2004, 07:03 AM wrote: Don't you think that's a pretty closed minded view of things?
No more closed minded than being the only one allowed to have a valid opinion on what is a very subjective matter.

I've heard the original, and I think that musically our guys did a great job. This may not be Al's best ever song, but it's certainly not his worst.
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Bruce the Duck
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Post by Bruce the Duck »

Nobody ever said it was his worst song. This was just a topic that I felt was worth discussing. Obviously, others thought the same as I do and they expressed that. A few disagreed and they expressed that as well. Everyone's entitled to their own opinions. Please don't get offended or become defensive because others disagree with you, Scotti.
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Post by weird_el »

I agree that this song is substandard, and I can see that part of that may have been caused by Al harboring some resentment for *having* to do it.

So, if for argument's sake, this is the case -- how do you explain Toothless People? Nobody made him do that.

Of course, this is all subjective opinion.
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Post by Genius in Maine »

weird_el @ Jan 13 2004, 10:18 PM wrote: So, if for argument's sake, this is the case -- how do you explain Toothless People? Nobody made him do that.
I think TP was in a movie, and Al got to do it because the movie didn't do as well as expected. I kinda wish it did. 8)
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Post by Manda »

I have listen to this song and its not his best but its not his worst by any means. I thought the music was really close to the original but like Al said himself its hard to do female vocals so that could be why he dident sound that great. From what I have heard he was forced into doing this song. Maybe I'm wrong maybe he dident want to put as much effort into it for that reason.

My feeling on this song is that its not my favorite, and I dont really listen to it a lot. But I have heard some of his earier stuff that sounds a lot worse.
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Bruce the Duck
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Post by Bruce the Duck »

"Toothless People" was a last minute attempt to finish the album. Al only had three parodies and he needed to finish the album quickly. He knew that Mick Jagger was doing the title song for the movie, "Ruthless People." So, he did a parody of that song quickly to finish the album. Unfortunately, the movie and the Mick Jagger song were quickly forgotten. Many Al fans, including myself, didn't even know TP was a parody until the Internet came along.

BTW, although it's not his best song, I actually like TP. I believe a similar thing happened with Alapalooza, where Al had the rest of the album done, but needed one more parody, which became "Livin' In The Fridge." Fortunately, "Livin' On The Edge" was a much more successful song than "Ruthless People."
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