The Gaga Saga.

[Tawmis]

So ironically was reading Weird Al's twitter, where he wanted to parody "Born This Way" to "Perform This Way" (which would be a song about Lady Gaga and her crazy outfits) - and how she made him not only send the lyrics, but actually put the entire song together - before she would approve. She replied back when he did as asked with only "no."

http://alyankovic.wordpress.com/the-gaga-saga/

Then ironically suddenly Lady Gaga finds herself under fire for copying Madonna's song.
http://new.music.yahoo.com/blogs/amplif ... re-broken/
http://new.music.yahoo.com/blogs/amplif ... BQPt9hyCUv
http://www.people.com/people/article/0, ... 64,00.html
http://www.pinkisthenewblog.com/2011/02 ... e-account/

But Lady Gaga is denying it...

Weird Al ended up releasing the song as a free download since he did it anyway. Which he is legally allowed to do since it's parody.

[gumby]

When I first read this I thought it said 'The Galaga Saga'.

[Datadog]

I was reading that this morning and it made me so angry. When the King of Parody offers to immortalize your song, don't deny him - and especially don't make him produce the whole song before you can...

Hold it! New update!!!

Well, this was a strange day.

After putting my Lady Gaga parody on YouTube this morning – and announcing that it wouldn’t be on my next album because Gaga didn’t approve it – there was a huge outpouring of disappointment from the Internet.

Apparently the fact that she didn’t approve it was news to Lady Gaga herself!

Gaga’s manager has now admitted that he never forwarded my parody to Gaga – she had no idea at all. Even though we assumed that Gaga herself was the one making the decision (because, well, that’s what we were TOLD), he apparently made the decision completely on his own.

He’s sorry.

And Gaga loves the song.

I’m thrilled on many levels to hear this, because 1) I truly respect and admire Gaga as an artist and it pained me to think of her as having less than a great sense of humor, and 2) it means I GET TO PUT OUT MY ALBUM!

As promised, all my proceeds from the song (and the MUSIC VIDEO… I can’t wait…) will go to the Human Rights Campaign.

Thank you, Gaga. And thanks to everybody who had my back.

Whew!

Your pal,
Al

Phew! That saves me a few hours of ranting!

Now I can go back to sheepishly admitting I like her music.

[Tawmis]

I bet she heard it.

I bet she said no.

I bet the bad press (I linked) also had a lot to do with it. She's looking for good press, and hoping her "well natured behavior" towards Weird Al will help quell the fires that are currently raging in Camp Gaga.

[Datadog]

Yeah, I'm getting a big "blame the manager" vibe from it too, but I feel all warm and cozy inside knowing that Weird Al has a backing big enough to scare even Lady Gaga.

[Tawmis]

Yeah, I'm getting a big "blame the manager" vibe from it too, but I feel all warm and cozy inside knowing that Weird Al has a backing big enough to scare even Lady Gaga.

That's cuz really, he's awesome. Whether you like his music or not, he's a pretty awesome person all together. His parodies are tasteful, and often more clever than the original songs because there's a ring of truth to them.

[BBP]

[rant mode on]
Oh dear... Those big stage characters are basically puppets on their manager's strings. Recall Britney "I'm a virgin" "I'm a little naughty" "I'm dating Justin Timberlake but I'm not sleeping with him even if he gives me furry handcuffs for my birthday" "I've broken up with Justin after he blabbed that I'm not a virgin" "I'm lesbian" "I get married" "I divorce a day after my marriage" "I marry a guy who is already a married father" "I have two kids with him" "I divorce him and go insane" "I do something really embarrassing at some stupid TV show" "I'm now completely back and good as new bringing you the exact same annoying pop everybody else does"?
Anyway you can bet your life the whole Lady Gaga thing is just as fake. Probably a lot of that Madonna stuff too ("I adopt a not-so orphaned orphan from a country that doesn't allow adoptions because I'm so caring while I design and advertise for a store chain that is the biggest trader in child labour clothing on the globe").
[rant mode off]

I really should stop watching Duckman.

[Rath Darkblade]

I've just read this entire thread... and I'm not commenting on the Al-Gaga spat/non-spat.

All I'm saying is... YAY!!!!! NEW AL-BUM!!!!

I went to see Al in concert two weeks ago. 'Twas my second time to see him in concert. Weird Al ROCKS. He's one of the only artists whose CDs I buy, rather than borrow from friends and stuff.

(The other CDs, if you're interested, are (in no order) stuff by Bill Hicks, George Carlin, Tom Lehrer, Stan Freberg, and Noel Coward).

Anyway... looking forward to the new CD/DVD!!! *runs down the street, waving a little flag*

[Datadog]

High-five, Rath!

I've seen Al in concert twice myself - and would see him again and again. And just the other weekend, I bought five of his older CDs (title album to "Even Worse) because HMV was having a sale. He's one of the only singer whose CDs I all buy. I even bought "Don't Download this Song." So I still can't wait for a new album.

(Along with my CD purchases, I also bought best of Iron Maiden and Gordon Lightfoot. I also got the DVDs "The Brave Little Toaster" and "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" which got me a very strange look from the clerk.)

That's cuz really, he's awesome. Whether you like his music or not, he's a pretty awesome person all together. His parodies are tasteful, and often more clever than the original songs because there's a ring of truth to them.

I have to agree on his tastefulness. The guy can sing about butchering Santa's reindeer, make crude sexual references, burp repeatedly on tracks, even throw in the odd nod to marijuana and incest - and still be family-friendly enough for people to call him tasteful.

I hear some people complain about his lack of originality, but I'm going to argue that it takes a whole other kind of rare talent to make parody/satire work like Al does.

[Rath Darkblade]

I hear some people complain about his lack of originality, but I'm going to argue that it takes a whole other kind of rare talent to make parody/satire work like Al does.

If you hear one more person argue about Al's lack of originality, there's two arguments you can make:

1. Weird Al writes MORE original songs than he does parodies (it's TRUE!); and
2. Writing parodies of original songs is an original art form in itself. You need exceptional attention to detail on the music - listen out for all the little nuances (a guitar lick here, a barely-audible word or two there, etc). Then you need an original idea to fit into the music, original lyrics to write... and you MUST make it funny as well as tasteful. (OK, lots of people write parodies that aren't tasteful, but you know what I mean).

I'm in awe that Al's kept going for as long as he has. I've written some 500 parodies over the years (possibly more), but I can't play a musical instrument to save my life, so... Oh well.

[Datadog]

I like to think of parody as being one step up from originality. With originality, you're working with bare materials to create something new. With parody, you're working with that new thing created from bare materials to create something newer. Maybe even... awesomer.

Of course, much like originality, parody is also prone to becoming a complete disaster if done wrong. I've seen many, many, many people try it, and very few ever pull off it perfectly.

1. Weird Al writes MORE original songs than he does parodies (it's TRUE!)

It is true, but in many of those cases, he's actually parodying the style of another band - not just one of their songs. But being able to parody a band's style itself is still pretty impressive. I wouldn't even know how to begin parodying "They Might Be Giants," but Al figured it out.

[Rath Darkblade]

I like to think of parody as being one step up from originality. With originality, you're working with bare materials to create something new. With parody, you're working with that new thing created from bare materials to create something newer. Maybe even... awesomer.

Of course, much like originality, parody is also prone to becoming a complete disaster if done wrong. I've seen many, many, many people try it, and very few ever pull off it perfectly.

True. Some of my earliest parodies were... well, not bad, but by no means perfect. (They got better over time).

1. Weird Al writes MORE original songs than he does parodies (it's TRUE!)

It is true, but in many of those cases, he's actually parodying the style of another band - not just one of their songs. But being able to parody a band's style itself is still pretty impressive. I wouldn't even know how to begin parodying "They Might Be Giants," but Al figured it out.[/quote]

Hey, you're right. Here's a pretty good example, in which Al parodies Jim Morrison (in a song about Craigslist).

How does Al do it? I don't know, but I think I can hazard a guess. It involves:

1. A really good ear for rhythm and rhyme (which any skilled musician can pick up over time);
2. Reading up on, listening to music by, and watching videos by, the artist that you want to parody (to get the musical style, clothing style, hair style etc.) right;
3. And there's probably more, but that's all I can think of for now...

I'm lucky, I just write new lyrics to existing music and leave it at that. I don't actually dress up as John Lennon (complete with Lennon glasses) and sing (to the music of "Tax Man"):

"Because I'm Batman!
Ye-e-eah, I am Batman!"

(I actually wrote a parody of "Tax Man", called "Batman" - here it is!) *lame plug*

[Datadog]

And things only get better!

[Collector]

I always suspected that Weird Al was one of the Four Horsemen.

[Rath Darkblade]

"O Fortuna" always makes things more awesome.

However, I checked it out on wiki... and the track list looks very similar to the EP that Al's already released, Internet Leaks.

I hope that track list for Alpocalypse is incomplete - I already know all these songs! Rats.