Subtle stuff in videos
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Dr_Dad
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QUOTE I had to watch the \"Like A Surgeon\" video an embarrassingly large number of times before I realized that there are feet sticking out from under the sheets on both ends of the gurney. :dontgetit:
I know what you mean, OE.
I'd watched it several times myself and hadn't noticed the double-footed [quatra-footed??] gurney rider, until my 7 year old daughter and I watched it for the first time together -- and SHE was the one who pointed it out to ME!! :lookround:
Al's penchant for MAD Magazines surely shines forth in these videos. The more you view 'em, the more you notice. Kinda like those movies made by his buddies, the Zucker brothers .... :biggrin:
Dr. Dad
I know what you mean, OE.
I'd watched it several times myself and hadn't noticed the double-footed [quatra-footed??] gurney rider, until my 7 year old daughter and I watched it for the first time together -- and SHE was the one who pointed it out to ME!! :lookround:
Al's penchant for MAD Magazines surely shines forth in these videos. The more you view 'em, the more you notice. Kinda like those movies made by his buddies, the Zucker brothers .... :biggrin:
Dr. Dad
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scottidog
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I am borrowing The Videos from a friend. In I Love Rocky Road, one of the pins Al has on his jacket says "I Love Lucy."
And something not so subtle: The lion in LAS. Why is there a lion? I am assuming it must have something to do with Madonna's version, but I can't remember the video. Or did Al just say "Get me a lion!"
Is LAS the only song Al ever took a request for?
And something not so subtle: The lion in LAS. Why is there a lion? I am assuming it must have something to do with Madonna's version, but I can't remember the video. Or did Al just say "Get me a lion!"
Is LAS the only song Al ever took a request for?
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QUOTE I am borrowing The Videos from a friend. In I Love Rocky Road, one of the pins Al has on his jacket says \"I Love Lucy.\" I'll have to have a look for that! Glad I've got a "zoom" button.
QUOTE And something not so subtle: The lion in LAS. Why is there a lion? I am assuming it must have something to do with Madonna's version, but I can't remember the video. Or did Al just say \"Get me a lion!\" I don't remember the video either, but this does shed a little light: QUOTE Interesting is the fact that Like a Virgin and Lucky Star are differently edited than what you would see on Mtv and other Madonna collections. The Like a Virgin on this video does not have that close-up of the lion's tongue moving in rhythm to the music just before Madonna sings the words \"like a virgin\"
QUOTE Is LAS the only song Al ever took a request for?I think so. He's got songwriters lined up outside his door, they've been waiting there since the week before, but I don't believe he's ever used someone else's concept on any other song. I do believe, however, that it's time to take DTBS out of my car CD player for a while.
QUOTE And something not so subtle: The lion in LAS. Why is there a lion? I am assuming it must have something to do with Madonna's version, but I can't remember the video. Or did Al just say \"Get me a lion!\" I don't remember the video either, but this does shed a little light: QUOTE Interesting is the fact that Like a Virgin and Lucky Star are differently edited than what you would see on Mtv and other Madonna collections. The Like a Virgin on this video does not have that close-up of the lion's tongue moving in rhythm to the music just before Madonna sings the words \"like a virgin\"
QUOTE Is LAS the only song Al ever took a request for?I think so. He's got songwriters lined up outside his door, they've been waiting there since the week before, but I don't believe he's ever used someone else's concept on any other song. I do believe, however, that it's time to take DTBS out of my car CD player for a while.
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anthontherun
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Al sorta took a request with "Girls Just Want to Have Lunch." Scotti Bros. demanded a Cyndi Lauper parody.
I'm ranking every Beatles song on my new pop culture blog. Check it out!
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scottidog
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QUOTE There is a \"royalty ceiling\" on parodies for each album (meaning there are only so many parodies I can put on each album before it starts eating into my own profits), and I needed to eliminate a song from the list, so I chose \"Girls Just Wanna Have Lunch.\" That song has never been one of my favorites, mostly because I was basically forced to do it. For some reason, my record label was dead-set against releasing the \"Dare To Be Stupid\" album unless I had a Cyndi Lauper parody on it. I grudgingly obliged them - and that was pretty much the last time they told me what to put on an album.
You know, it's a good thing that Al doesn't listen too closely to The Suits anymore. They do a good thing by letting him do his music, but I think it's fair to say that they just Don't Get him. And let's not go into the Coolio thing...
You know, it's a good thing that Al doesn't listen too closely to The Suits anymore. They do a good thing by letting him do his music, but I think it's fair to say that they just Don't Get him. And let's not go into the Coolio thing...
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Dr_Dad
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QUOTE And something not so subtle: The lion in LAS. Why is there a lion? I am assuming it must have something to do with Madonna's version, but I can't remember the video.
Yes, indeed there was. In Madonna's video, a lion is seen wandering randomly in the streets of Venice with Madonna ... and it seemed almost to have made more sense to have it wandering through a hospital [as in Al's version] than in the streets of Venice.
BTW, if you're wondering ... yes, I have SOME independent recollection of the original Madonna video, as I was indeed around when it was first released. But more to the point, since I got broadband over the Christmas holidays, I've been able to download some of the original videos Al parodied to {*a-hem*} refresh my memories, including "Like A Virgin". Lemme tell you ... if you've never seen the original Dire Straits' version of "Money For Nothing", you can't appreciate the brilliance of Al's "MFN/BH". I showed it to my 12 year old son the other day after I downloaded it -- he was STUNNED at how closely Al's version mimicked the original.
QUOTE Is LAS the only song Al ever took a request for?
Yep, so far as Al will admit publicly ... which he did in the "Permanent Record" booklet:
QUOTE \"\"Like a Surgeon\", a parody of Madonna's \"Like a Virgin\" (written by Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly) was the first single and video from the Dare To Be Stupid album. \"Oddly enough that was suggested by Madonna herself,\" says Al. \"She was talking to a friend of hers one day and happened to wonder aloud when Weird Al was going to turn 'Like a Virgin' into 'Like a Surgeon'. The person she was talking to happened to know Jay and of course word eventually got back to me. As much as I try to discourage people from giving me parody ideas, in this case I made an exception.\"
The video was shot in an actual hospital which had just gone out of business. \"We had a live lion roaming the corridors. That scared off a few of our extras after the first day of shooting.\"
But here is a trivia Q along those same lines that only the most rabid of Al's fans would know: In what ORIGINAL Al composition does Al give co-writing credit for a song?? [And no, it's NOT Wendy Carlos' "Peter & The Wolf / Carnival Of The Animals Part 2", as that could be considered a parody of the works of Sergei Prokofiev, Camille Saint-Saens, and Ogden Nash.]
[Hint -- Flip your sugar pills!]
Dr. Dad
Yes, indeed there was. In Madonna's video, a lion is seen wandering randomly in the streets of Venice with Madonna ... and it seemed almost to have made more sense to have it wandering through a hospital [as in Al's version] than in the streets of Venice.
BTW, if you're wondering ... yes, I have SOME independent recollection of the original Madonna video, as I was indeed around when it was first released. But more to the point, since I got broadband over the Christmas holidays, I've been able to download some of the original videos Al parodied to {*a-hem*} refresh my memories, including "Like A Virgin". Lemme tell you ... if you've never seen the original Dire Straits' version of "Money For Nothing", you can't appreciate the brilliance of Al's "MFN/BH". I showed it to my 12 year old son the other day after I downloaded it -- he was STUNNED at how closely Al's version mimicked the original.
QUOTE Is LAS the only song Al ever took a request for?
Yep, so far as Al will admit publicly ... which he did in the "Permanent Record" booklet:
QUOTE \"\"Like a Surgeon\", a parody of Madonna's \"Like a Virgin\" (written by Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly) was the first single and video from the Dare To Be Stupid album. \"Oddly enough that was suggested by Madonna herself,\" says Al. \"She was talking to a friend of hers one day and happened to wonder aloud when Weird Al was going to turn 'Like a Virgin' into 'Like a Surgeon'. The person she was talking to happened to know Jay and of course word eventually got back to me. As much as I try to discourage people from giving me parody ideas, in this case I made an exception.\"
The video was shot in an actual hospital which had just gone out of business. \"We had a live lion roaming the corridors. That scared off a few of our extras after the first day of shooting.\"
But here is a trivia Q along those same lines that only the most rabid of Al's fans would know: In what ORIGINAL Al composition does Al give co-writing credit for a song?? [And no, it's NOT Wendy Carlos' "Peter & The Wolf / Carnival Of The Animals Part 2", as that could be considered a parody of the works of Sergei Prokofiev, Camille Saint-Saens, and Ogden Nash.]
[Hint -- Flip your sugar pills!]
Dr. Dad
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scottidog
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QUOTE Lemme tell you ... if you've never seen the original Dire Straits' version of \"Money For Nothing\", you can't appreciate the brilliance of Al's \"MFN/BH\".
Now that is one video I do remember, and I also remember being impressed at the time how close Als' version was.
QUOTE [Hint -- Flip your sugar pills!]
Um... I don't know the answer. I am only guessing that the hint refers to the Placebo album. The originals on it are Happy Birthday, Gotta Boogie, and Mr. Frump. I am going to guess Mr. Frump, but I have no idea why, or who the other author might be.
Speaking of the Placebo LP... I was thinking of the title the other day, and it is very clever. If I'm not mistaken, it is Al's own label name for the demo he had made himself in the days before the first record contract. It was a placebo for a real record deal.
I was doing a search for Placebo label a while back and there is a company that uses that name. I wonder if Al gets a cut?
Now that is one video I do remember, and I also remember being impressed at the time how close Als' version was.
QUOTE [Hint -- Flip your sugar pills!]
Um... I don't know the answer. I am only guessing that the hint refers to the Placebo album. The originals on it are Happy Birthday, Gotta Boogie, and Mr. Frump. I am going to guess Mr. Frump, but I have no idea why, or who the other author might be.
Speaking of the Placebo LP... I was thinking of the title the other day, and it is very clever. If I'm not mistaken, it is Al's own label name for the demo he had made himself in the days before the first record contract. It was a placebo for a real record deal.
I was doing a search for Placebo label a while back and there is a company that uses that name. I wonder if Al gets a cut?
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QUOTE
QUOTE [Hint -- Flip your sugar pills!]
Um... I don't know the answer. I am only guessing that the hint refers to the Placebo album. The originals on it are Happy Birthday, Gotta Boogie, and Mr. Frump. I am going to guess Mr. Frump, but I have no idea why, or who the other author might be.
Those are the really old, SLO-era songs, so did Joel Miller get a credit on one of them?
QUOTE [Hint -- Flip your sugar pills!]
Um... I don't know the answer. I am only guessing that the hint refers to the Placebo album. The originals on it are Happy Birthday, Gotta Boogie, and Mr. Frump. I am going to guess Mr. Frump, but I have no idea why, or who the other author might be.
Those are the really old, SLO-era songs, so did Joel Miller get a credit on one of them?