World of Weird Al Yankovic

I really hope I like this one. I really enjoyed Albuquerque, Genius In France I could pass on, Trapped In The Drive-Thru holds my attention up until maybe a bit into the second verse of the song, and (even though it isn't really a LONG song) I really did not like Stop Forwarding That Crap To Me.

Jackson Park is frightening in the dark
All the passengers are running wild
What a crummy road trip this has been
Well I think I lost my contacts
I think my wallet's gone
And I think we're stopping to let more freaks get on

Oh noooooo

So, the Jackson Park Express is a bus in Chicago. Patton Oswalt mentioned that '90's artist style parody. I highly doubt it, but my mind keeps coming back to the possibility of a Wesley Willis style parody, or a song about Wesley in the style of someone else, maybe another 90's Chicago act (Wilco?). Wesley was well known for riding the CTA all the time, and he had a bunch of songs about it too.

What about a long jam song...Dave Matthews Band?

Some guesses: the band Chicago (leaning toward this now), Grateful Dead, Springsteen.

HAAS wrote:What about a long jam song...Dave Matthews Band?

That would be neat.

Hmm, Springsteen seems like a pretty good candidate for this. Before we got a title and Bermuda said that it was definitely not 90s alt-rock, my mind immediately went to 70s or possibly late 60s, since that seems to be a time of a lot of excess and really long songs and there's a good chance that whoever this is based on probably has some lengthy stuff in their catalogue. And then when the title was announced, it still seemed like something that could definitely fit in that time period. However, I have started to rule out the possibility of it being on the "proggier" end of things like Rush, Yes, or even Pink Floyd and more towards either the more folky,bluesy,or jammy type stuff like Allman Brothers, Crosby Stills and Nash, Lynyrd Skynrd or Gordon Lightfoot. And then when I looked up to learn that the Jackson Park Express was a busline in Chicago, Chicago started seeming like a good choice as well.

Of course the other direction that popped into my head was that could be a lengthy disco number, or more specifically an old school disco rap song like Sugarhill Gang's Rapper's Delight. And that got me thinking about how Rapper's Delight was based on Chic's Good Times which was also the inspiration for Queen's Another One Bites the Dust, which of course provided the basis for a previous Al song about a bus line. Though I don't know if that would make it more likely or less likely to happen.

For some reason the first thing that came to mind was the folk song "Casey Jones", about the train conductor determined to get to his destination on time despite all the obstacles that come his way and --spoiler alert-- dies in the process. JPE could be a modern (and of course, funnier) retelling of that song. Someone already mentioned JPE could be sung from the POV of the bus driver, so I definitely think that's possible. (ARTB was already done from the POV of the bus RIDER, so why not a song through the driver's eyes?)

If Al goes that direction, I initially thought a Pete Seeger or a Johnny Cash-style would work, but not sure if that style would sustain for almost 10 minutes. However, the aforementioned Springsteen theory could totally fit. Bruce's musical heroes are guys like Seeger, and I could see a song styled after something one might have found on his Nebraska album. On the other hand, the band Chicago makes logical sense considering it's about a bus line in that city, but something about the Springsteen guess feels right. (Unless Al feels he already covered Bruce with PATLC).

I actually keep thinking it might be Chicago, which would be incredible. After all, their original name was Chicago Transit Authority before changing it. Why wouldn't Al write a song in their style about a CTA line?

Call me crazy, but what if this is a song about a bus... but not just any bus...

The bus from "Another One Rides the Bus." What if Al has gone completely full-circle?