scottidog @ Nov 30 2004, 08:12 AM wrote:
As long as you realize, that I wasn't giving a verbatim quote.
Yes, yes, I know. I fully admit I'm responding to a secondhand account of what was said, regardless of how much I trust this second hand.
But still, the impression is quite clear that he was claiming some kind of responsibility for whichever song was in question. Otherwise, why would he bring it up during a discussion of what does and does not make a good song parody? It just seems like it would be such a non-sequitur if he didn't have some personal interest in bringing that up.
scottidog @ Nov 30 2004, 01:38 PM wrote:
It's an interesting problem that I suppose all Dementia artists have, because like it or not, Al is the 800 lb. gorilla in the room. We all know that his name is synonymous with Parody or Comedy music. It's tough to escape the comparison, and I can see where the people who started out as Al fans, and still are Al fans find it tough to escape and find their own voice.
Oh sure, Al has become the gold standard, at least as far as commercial and mainstream success goes. I don't know why that does create such contempt from some comedy enthusiasts, but I guess that's going to happen in every form of specialized pop culture.
I think I mentioned over in the Rock Hall thread how one comedy radio show wasn't going to mention our campaign unless I was somehow able to justify helping out Weird Al when there were so many other comedy artists out there. I really felt like responding with "Uh, because nobody outside of fourteen people, you and I included, has ever heard of the Duck's Breath Mystery Theatre," but I played nice.
But anyway, my big problem with this whole Luke thing isn't that it's a fan wanting to follow the footsteps of someone they admire, it's more the insinuation part of it. It would be like if I sent some of my comic strips over to Bill Watterson to thank him for being an inspiration, and then I turn around and say I inspired some new work of his. I dunno, maybe I'm just too modest or realistic to think I'm that important.
Any fan knows that Al does not accept outside song ideas, so why would he now? And all that just goes back to my original point about ego, but I digress.
Unless of course, you're Joey Fatone, who seems to think he invented the genre. (Whatever happened to that album? Was it never released? Or was it released and went down in flames?)
Yeah, I was thinking about that, too. Boy, did the buzz around that die quickly. I don't want to draw any conclusion, but I notice one didn't hear too much about it after this year's Grammy Awards. Hmm...
But yes, let's move on from this unpleasantness. I think I posted a similar feeling long ago, but I agree that BNL is a great group to become interested in. There are only a few really big groups out there that still try to inject some "early Beatlesesque" fun into their music...BNL does it, as do Foo Fighters, Weezer, and some others. These artists understand that rock and roll can be light and fun and still be good music.
Well, there are two reasons for me to bash this: 1) Just what Cathra said about the same wavelength of feeling what's funny; 2) Please name this ultimately serious label where Bob released it. Oh, and yes, 3) I seriously don't think that Bob's parody is a lot funnier than Al's.
