New "Weird Al" Yankovic album 2006-07-30 by Rage_Against_The_System | 19 Comments | The new album "Straight Outta Lynwood" is coming out on September 26th.
http://www.weirdal.com/
"Weird Al" Yankovic, the king of pop parody, has a brand-new song out, available for free on his Web site. Music Producer and Song of the Day Editor Stephen Thompson gives us the scoop:
In a career spanning more than 25 years, pop-music parodist "Weird Al" Yankovic hasn't exactly ranked among the music business' fiercest iconoclasts: He doesn't release his song parodies without the consent of the artists being parodied, and he's rarely used the Internet as more than a tool to promote his projects and connect with his fans. But a music label's efforts to block a (relatively tame) parody of James Blunt's ubiquitous hit "You're Beautiful" has Yankovic fighting back publicly, and using his Web site as a tool to do so.
According to Yankovic, Blunt himself gave his blessing to a song called "You're Pitiful", which was to appear on Yankovic's now-finished but as-yet-unreleased new album. But after Yankovic finished recording the parody, Atlantic Records, Blunt's label, told Yankovic that he couldn't release "You're Pitiful." Though Yankovic has encountered resistance from artists before -- after a miscommunication involving permissions, Coolio publicly objected to a released parody of "Gangsta's Paradise," while Prince has always turned down Yankovic's requests to parody his hits -- he says this is the first time a label has stepped in to squash the release of one of his parodies. (Quoth an Atlantic representative: "We have no comment on this matter.")
So how, exactly, does a music label have a say in whether one of its artists can be parodied?
"The legality in this case is somewhat moot," Yankovic writes when contacted via e-mail. "James Blunt could still let me put it on my album if he really wanted to, but he obviously doesn't want to alienate his own record company... and my label could release the parody without Atlantic's blessing, but they don't really want to go to war with another label over this. So really, it's more of a political matter than a legal matter."
Of course, it's not hard to circulate a song these days, and Yankovic has helped that process along by making an MP3 of the track available for free download on his Web site.
It may not appear on Yankovic's new album, but "You're Pitiful" will still swirl around in cyberspace long after Blunt's original recedes from memory.
"I have a long-standing history of respecting artists' wishes," Yankovic writes. "So if James Blunt himself were objecting, I wouldn't even offer my parody for free on my Web site. But since it's a bunch of suits -- who are actually going against their own artist's wishes -- I have absolutely no problem with it."
Link: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5482774
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Tagged: Weird Al Yankovic
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I will be psyched for this, with my poodle on my head and scissors in my hands!
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Ah, awsome! I had a great laugh listening to his other albums!
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taht song is actualy really good
ah well
atlantic probably wont back off
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I'm glad this guy is still around.
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I doubt I'll buy the CD but he does put out some hilarious stuff.
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ive never bought any of his stuff, but hes pretty damn funny. anyone know why the album is called "Straight Outta Lynwood"? thats minutes from my house, must be a different lynwood
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Sounds like it's making fun of "Straight Outta Compton"
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sounds funny as hell
atlantic really should back off i agree
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Most of the songs he does don't even make fun of the artist who wrote the original, he just changes the lyrics to a funny subject. They should learn to take a joke.
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Why a record label would turn down a parody when the actual artist supports it is beyond me.
Anyways, I'm really looking foward to this album.
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His Piano Man parody of the Spider-Man movie is sheer brilliance.
[quote=Albert]Now Harry the rich kid's a friend of his
Who horns in on Mary Jane
But to his great surprise it seems she prefers guys
Who can kiss upside down in the rain[/quote]
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The labels obviously just pissed off because they think a parody of a song under their label being released as a pardoy would hinder sales.........greedy bastards. Who buys James Blunt anyway??This Message Edited On 07.31.06
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^^redundant ftw
yeah his stuff is genious
like Yoda
its incredible
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Hopefully this will bring back the glory that is "Weird Al". Poodle Hat was alright and Running With Scissors did get me into him, but it had a few crappy tracks. I want another Off the Deep End, and I'm praying that this will kick ass. Either way, I'm still getting it.
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I have a hard time picturing Weird Al "fighting back using his website". Nice to know that after years of brilliant parody he has all the power of a LiveJournal subscriber.
I wonder if Atlantic Records realizes Al's next parody will be about them? LOL.
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awesome.
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Well you should listen to Enter Napster (Enter Sandman parady) that makes fun of the original artist:P
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He should parody Limp Bizkit's "Break Stuff" with something like "Bake Stuff" or "Rake Stuff".
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Sure I've never bought one AL-bum(get it?) But he has some funny shit.
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