World of Weird Al Yankovic

Still too early for me to vote. I haven't even listened to Craigslist enough to learn all the words yet. I'll vote in a another month or so once the fervor has died down a bit.

So far, I still prefer eBay. Al's vocal on that song is so sweet.

The music on Craigslist is superior though. RM on keyboards

that is a hard one i voted for craigslist but ebay is still good

i voted for craigslist, becasue im a BSB fan,and i just dont like Ebay.

I'm kind of perplexed at the idea that an original is inherently better than a parody or that being "strictly confined to what fits rigidly to the tune of someone elses' composition" is necessarily a mark against a song. That restriction makes the parody lyrics generally more impressive IMO, especially since the originals tend to be less thematic and more over-the-top (not that I'm criticizing either type though).

Anyway, musically "Craigslist" is definitely better but "eBay" is better overall. The lyrics are more clever and even though I'm not even a huge Doors fan, I don't think anyone can really replicate Jim's voice or aura quite perfectly. The keyboard is what makes the song. All that said, "Craigslist" is infinitely superior to WYL.

I don't get the anti-parody bias either. I find it amusing though that when I went blogsearching for reactions to Craigslist, a bunch of people thought it was a parody, not an original, and about 3 or 4 different songs were named as the supposed source material for the tune. Which I guess makes it a thoroughly successful style homage.

Orthography Enthusiast @ June 16, 2009 09:00 pm wrote: I don't get the anti-parody bias either. I find it amusing though that when I went blogsearching for reactions to Craigslist, a bunch of people thought it was a parody, not an original, and about 3 or 4 different songs were named as the supposed source material for the tune. Which I guess makes it a thoroughly successful style homage.

Oh not anti-parody at all Helen!!


I just prefer Al to the BSB

Al's lyrics for Ebay are genius, and very funny and his singing is lovely, but he's still working with an insipid and cringeworthy tune nevertheless..

whereas

Craigslist is a genius parody of a lifetime favourite band devised by my all time favourite artiste... and Im not bothered that its darker and not full of belly laughs

There's really no contest IMO

I voted for Craigslist. I'm not even SURE why!

(This is not a valid reason but I guess eBay just got kind of old for me. Again, not a good reason.)

anthontherun @ June 16, 2009 12:01 pm wrote: I'm kind of perplexed at the idea that an original is inherently better than a parody or that being "strictly confined to what fits rigidly to the tune of someone elses' composition" is necessarily a mark against a song. That restriction makes the parody lyrics generally more impressive IMO, especially since the originals tend to be less thematic and more over-the-top (not that I'm criticizing either type though).

I like the parodies, too...that's what Al is best known for, obviously...I'm not saying that originals are better than parodies (even though these days, the source material for the latter tends to be a little weaker) I'm just saying that, yes, Al usually does strike gold with certain really inspired parodies while some may be a bit weaker than others (regardless of mainstream media attention...) but Al does tend to go a little more far out with the originals...sometimes it works and they're enjoyable and sometimes it doesn't and those songs are quickly forgotten, but most originals are just as funny as the really good parodies...

It's strange that there are still people out there who know of Al who still think he only does parodies.