not guilty: "weird al" yankovic

i try, whenever possible, to keep these "not guilty" posts somewhat timely, whether responding to some of the chatter around this little corner of the internets, reflecting on a vacation, or wishing my niece well on the anniversary of her birth.  as a result, certain artists i've had a mind to feature for some time may get bumped for one more appropriate to the events at hand.  "weird al" is one of those artists.  and to be honest, i had somebody else in mind even for today in light of my plans for the evening.  but slate's assessment of al's twenty-five years in the music business makes today as timely as ever.  and i've been watching "weird al" videos on youtube for about an hour and a half and giggling incessantly.  so today's regularly scheduled artist can wait another week - unless something else comes up.

the very first record i ever bought was "1984," by van halen.  the second was def leppard's "pyromania."  the third - which was actually a rare non-birthday and non-christmas present on the occasion of my very first goal in pee-wee soccer (i played defender, so i didn't have a whole lot of opportunities.  oh, and i sucked.) - was "in 3-D" by none other than "weird al."  and i played the shit out of it.  it didn't surpass van halen, but i'm not ashamed to admit now that i more frequently listened to "weird al" than def leppard.  al stayed with me on through the rest of elementary school and most of junior high, and gradually was pushed aside in favor of late eighties hair metal, then classic rock, and eventually indie rock.  undaunted by my neglect, al soldiered on just left of the dial, as he does to this day.  it amazes me, actually, that a man who makes his trade in novelty songs has managed to carve out a career spanning a quarter-century.  but then, many of those songs are pretty damned funny.  that's not too shabby for a guy who started out playing his accordion into a urinal in the bathroom of the architecture school at cal poly san luis obispo.  he claims that's where the acoustics were best.  i think there's a lesson in there somewhere.

choosing a video for this week was no small task.  youtube is rife with "weird al" material, and there are so many good videos to choose from.  in the back of my mind had been 'the saga begins' because, frankly, it's better than what george lucas did with the same material.  but then i saw 'bob,' which was new to me and jumped right toward the top of my list.  it's really more of a pastiche than a parody, but al does pretty well by those too.  and i love a good attack on a sacred cow.  enjoy.