Album Review: 02 "Weird Al" Yankovic Jumping Off The Deep End

 Album Review: 02
"Weird Al" Yankovic Diving Off The Deep End

This review was originally posted on rateyourmusic. It was one of the reviews I was assigned in the "Go Review That Album" game on their community forums. This version of the review has had some editing and corrections.

"Weird Al" Yankovic Off The Deep End

1992 Scotti Brothers Records 72392 75256-2

*****

"Now I'm mumblin' and I'm screamin'

And I don't know what I'm singin' 

Crank the volume, ears are bleedin'

I still don't know what I'm singin'

We're so loud and incoherent

Boy, this oughta bug your parents

Yeah"

This is one of those "Weird Al" albums that I'm not sure where to place in my favorites order. I really enjoy it but there are a few of his albums I like even more. My personal record for listening to an album multiple times on consecutive days (when I put a CD in my car player and keep listening to it whenever I'm driving around) is for 4 to 5 weeks and actually for Poodle Hat. Pat Benatar's - Go! comes in second with something like 3 1/2 weeks.) I feel like doing a track by track short semi-analysis here, which is something I should do more often but don't have nearly the time to do for every review.

The first track and I think first single from this album is Smells Like Nirvana and of course the album cover art work parodies the Nirvana album that Smells Like Teen Spirit was off of. Catch the video for it if you can, Al even got the old janitor from the original Nirvana video to appear. Next we have original song Trigger Happy which is a terriffic Beach Boys/Surf Music style parody that the NRA should really enjoy. For track 3 we have one of my all-time fave Al songs. I Can't Watch This the token TV song and a cleaver parody of MC Hammer's Can't Touch This. Then we have Al's token Polka song (where he takes the real lyrics of songs he couldn't get permission to parody or just wants to take a small jab at, and puts them in Polka style) for the album Polka Your Eyes Out I love the Ice, Ice Baby finale on it. A good chuckle comes from the next original song I was Only Kidding. Track 6 The White Stuff Parodies the New Kids on The Block You Got It (The Right Stuff) by talking about Oreo cookies. Next track is original song When I Was Your Age (I think it is a parody of Don Henley's song style) this song of course is about the old cliche of the older generation telling the younger generation not to whine about your so called difficulties and frustrations, because the older generation had greater difficulties and more frustrations [Insert reference to Monty Python sketch about living on the street/in a box/in a shoe box etc... here.]. Ah another fave and The token food stylings song Taco Grande gets indigestion by poking fun at Rico Suave by Gerardo. The next original song Airline Amy we join the Mile-High-Club with a stewardess. Perfect example of one-hit-wonder career dies but Al lives on with Plumbing Song which backs up the waterpipes of two songs from those non-singers Milli Vanilli - Baby Don't Forget My Number and Blame It On The Rain. We conclude this ALdult Swim with the original song You Don't Love Me Anymore which is in the styling of James Taylor and is perhaps Al's biggest original hit.

This is not the greatest "Weird Al" Album, but it is up slightly under the top dogs of Poodle hat and Straight Outta Lynwood. In other words no "Weird Al" Yankovic album collection is complete without it.

Update: Oh I forgot to mention that my copy of this CD is one of the original releases that has a hidden track at the very end, ten minutes after the end of You Don't Love Me Anymore. According to good old reliable (Not, well OK sometimes) Wikipedia later pressings of Off The Deep End deleted the hidden track (titled Bite Me!) and the 10 minutes of silence between the last listed track and it.

Note: I over-rate "Weird Al" Albums, because he is one of my fave acts. It is fun to hear his twisted version of an overexposed song that America's Youth are eating up. I get a kick out of the one-hit-wonders that he has parodied. They are no longer in the business, but Al is still going strong. I first Heard Al on the Doctor Demento Show, back in the MY Bologna days, been a fan ever since. Saw him once at a record signing for Even Worse, he signed my copy of The Authorized Al book. I asked him if It's Still Billy Joel To Me would ever be officially released, and he gave me a bizarre grimace that only he could make, and explained he was slightly embarrassed by it and apologized to Billy Joel over it, he never asked permission for it and probably never will. That song then will never have an official release.

Album Review: 01 "Weird Al" Yankovic Having A Bad Hair Day

ALBUM REVIEW: 01

"Weird Al" Yankovic Having A Bad Hair Day

This review was originally posted on rateyourmusic. It was one of the reviews I was assigned in the "Go Review That Album" game on their community forums. This version of the review has had some editing and corrections.

"Weird Al" Yankovic - Bad Hair Day

1996 Scotti Brothers Records 72392 75500-2

****

"Everything you know is wrong

Just forget the words and sing along

All you need to understand is

Everything you know is wrong"

OK so this "Weird Al" Album is not among my fave ALbums, after listening to this for review, I dropped my original star rating of 5 down to only 4. There were not as many songs that I really really liked than I had thought there were. Don't get me wrong I still enjoy them, but just not as much as I thought I did. I do like some of the songs that others have said they absolutely despise. Lets see Amish Paradise I really enjoy, as well as the video for it. I won't talk about the Coolio thing because others have done that at length. I absolutely love Everything You Know is Wrong, The Alternative Polka (I love all the token polkas, I think a compilation of polkas should be made with all of them linked together as one long marathon polka). I also like, but not necessarily love Gump, and Phoney Calls.

For the final track The Night Santa Went Crazy I understand that there is an alternate version. One of them is more tame than the other. I forget the exact details of that. Also there are three different designs for the CD disc itself depending on the pressing. I have the version that is the Alapalooza CD Al's face looking cross-eyed at the CDs center hole in red. Here is the different CD info from the FAQ page (by specific album) at the website http://www.al-oholicsanonymous.com/faq/ :

"Why does my friends copy of "Bad Hair Day" have Al sitting, while mine has a red picture of his face?"

Added: 7/17/00

There's three different versions of what's printed on the "Bad Hair Day" CD. The first 500,000 have Al sitting cross-legged with his hands on his head, and this is in color. After that, to try and save a few pennies, the record company printed the next batch in black and white. Then Scotti Bros. ceased to exist and the people at Al's new label made a mistake and put the "Alapalooza" picture on the "Bad Hair Day" CD. There, now go collect 'em all! "

Pictured is the CD of Alapalooza that was used for later versions of Bad Hair Day like I have. Image is from a listing for Alapalooza.

Ah so I have the most widely spread third version, hmmm I guess I should look for the older, other two.

Update: While looking for online images of the variants I came across an Ebay listing for the color Al sitting variant. I bought it and have received it.. I am also currently watching a listing for a black and white version. What The? It looks like there might be some even newer reissue versions with a one color image of Al Leaning backwards, bending over like a backwards "C". A full color photo of that image is behind the disc in the case.

Note: I over-rate "Weird Al" Albums, because he is one of my fave acts. It is fun to hear his twisted version of an overexposed song that America's Youth are eating up. I get a kick out of the one-hit-wonders that he has parodied. They are no longer in the business, but Al is still going strong. I first Heard Al on the Doctor Demento Show, back in the MY Bologna days, been a fan ever since. Saw him once at a record signing for Even Worse, he signed my copy of The Authorized Al book. I asked him if It's Still Billy Joel To Me would ever be officially released, and he gave me a bizarre grimace that only he could make, and explained he was slightly embarrassed by it and apologized to Billy Joel over it, he never asked permission for it and probably never will. That song then will never have an official release.

Back To The Swing Of Ebay Selling

Lately I've been getting back into the swing of listing and selling on Ebay. I have been a member of Ebay for both buying and selling since their early days (my profile start date is marked as 30 April 1998) when they were just an online auction house. For the first 6 months or so I was just sort of idle. I had signed up and checked out what they were and then had temporarily forgotten about them. I forget what my first winning auction bid was for. I know some of the early bids I made were for of all things Beanie Babies. Some theatre acquaintances of mine were into buying Beanie Babies on Ebay that is how I discovered the site. I Never won any of those back then I didn't know you were supposed to bid your max bid and my max bid was usually under $20 when those things were selling for at least $25 every time. Eventually I would get into buying trading card stuff. Now I get all sorts of stuff from there. I try to avoid big or heavy items though due to the shipping expenses. I don't dare sell anything that is too huge to ship normally.

Probably about a year after I had first signed-up I started trying to sell. I started with some books some VHS video tapes, trading cards, and pinback buttons. I always would have to relist stuff. At the time as I said Ebay was just auction listings the basic time was 7 days there were 3 day listings and 10 day listings. I think the 3 day listings were more expensive to list, but could be profitable. The auctions would end and I'd have to "relist" them, of course Ebay charged a relisting fee (having an Ebay store got rid of the relisting fees) I think the first thing I sold has also been one of the biggest sales I have ever had. It was $20 or $25 for a lot 4 (I think it was 4 maybe it was 2 or 3) VHS tapes of the Animated Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Cartoon TV show. The bidder was getting them for their grandkids. Eventually I sold some other stuff some trading cards here and there, some books, buttons (pinback collector type not shirt type) and an occasional odd and end. $25 is the most I have listed one individual item for. Once I sold a package of some lanyards I had gotten from Staples that I didn't recall actually buying. I think they had been left on the counter by someone else and my pile of stuff had mixed up with those things. It was a pack of 5 that I sold for $10 max.

I have been paying for an Ebay store for many years. I forget when I first started it, but it was at the time when selling stuff at a "Buy It Now" fixed price was fairly new at Ebay. Having a store saves on the individual "listing" fees for making a single listing. In order to have it actually pay off however you need to have a minimum of 15-20 items for your items to get seen fairly regularly. Of course you actually need to get your items to sell for it to really pay off. You really need to be regularly "listing" items to keep your items at the top of the search lists. Back in the early days of Ebay stores you had to have at least one active Auction listing for your "In Store" fixed price items to be seen. Since at the time Ebay had no way to search for the fixed price items. That was many years ago and now most Ebay sellers and resellers rarely list any auctions. They list fixed price with "Best Offer" options. The more you list the more you sell. It isn't just a saying it is a cold fact. When I rarely listed anything I would rarely have anything sell. Only the occasional button, the supply of which I had gotten from a big lot of buttons that were about  7 different designs with multiples of each design, some only 5 or 6 buttons but most being about 12 buttons with the Express Start buttons being about 50 I think. I have 10 left of those but sold the other designs individually years ago.

For many months and a couple of years I have been meaning to add more listings and get back into actively selling on Ebay but kept putting it off. Partly due to the whole Photobucket changing the conditions on their free memberships and how much memory your albums can take up. It used to be at Ebay you needed an outside website for photo hosting, now you don't need an outside storage site unless you want to have more than 12 photos and use html for your listings.

At the beginning of February 2020 my store was at it's stale 6 items that I have had there for a few years. I then started adding some newer listings and I started getting more views on my previous items for sale. I added 2 listings then a couple days later 2 more listings then 4 or 5 listings and then I get a sale or two. Over 2 weeks I had gone from 6 items listed w/ very few sales per month. To 30 listings and now 5 sales during the month. As of this posting I have had those 5 sales in Feb (2 books, 3 orders of single packs of trading cards 16 packs total) and now have 27 items listed in my store. The Express Start pinback buttons (10 count), Some trading cards: a oouple of individual card lots, some packs and a few individual card lisitngs.

On YouTube I have started a series of videos called "Up On Ebay" where I mention recently listed items and try to show them as well. I also mention recent sales. I need to make some more listings before I do a new video and I will have to mention the last 4 sales all of which have shipped out now.

Related Links:
"Weird Al" Yankovic - The Ebay Song (fan made video there is no "official" video)
A version with a Boy Band acting the song out.

My Ebay Store: CaptKirk42's Federation Trading Post
My YouTube Channel: klandersen42
Up On Ebay Videos: Episode 01 | Episode 02

Some books recently bought June Edition

I've got some books that I recently read that I have to sit down and write reviews for, they are making a nice little pile for me to think about. This post is not about that. It is about a few books I recently got, most of them from Quality Paperback Book Club. Two of them were kids books of those two one of them I had as a kid the other one is a recently published one.

So the kids books I got (wow this one I got at the end of April.)

When I Grow Up by Al Yankovic
Yep that book was written by "Weird Al" Yankovic the parody musician. This is his first attempt at kids books and it is pretty good. It has that strange wacky humor of Al's so you know he wrote it, or someone was channeling the spirit of Shel Silverstein (and cleaned it up). Somewhere online there is an interactive version of the book that you can purchase or download. I haven't tried that although I thought about it.

Next a book I had, or rather my family had, when I was a kid. I think it was eventually either handed down to my nephew (who is now 24), given away or donated. But the version I got is a special anniversary edition of the book. I figured "Why Not?". Um it was actually May when I got this one. (So much for this being only books I got in June).

 

The Story of Ferdinand: 75th Anniversary Edition by Munro Leaf
As I said my family had this book when I was growing up. Like many of the books in our family library from my childhood this book was probably a 1950s or 1960s edition. I don't know how many times I read it or had it read to me. I think the original copy we had may have been defaced with crayon by either the 5 year old me or one of my older siblings at that age. Aren't most kids books defaced by the kids at a young age? Who then in their Adult life find the childhood memories in a trunk in mom's attic or basement when they are moving out for the final time or many years later when they are packing up the estate.

Growing up in the suburbs of Washington DC, in the small city/town of Wheaton, MD there was an Italian restaurant that was named "Ferdinand's". They had excellent food, and a fantastic salad bar. The restaurant was family owned and seemed like it would last forever, even though many times there would be barely a soul in the place. Sadly they closed down a few years ago.

The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown

This is the third book in the Robert Langdon series by Dan Brown. I haven't had a chance to read this one yet. I'm sure if they are making a movie of it I will read it before seeing the movie as I did with the previous books from this series. I'm not sure what the full synopsis of this story is at the time of this writing (I plan on starting it soon after composing this post). All I know is with the picture of the Capital on the cover and from the first stirrings I recall from hearing about this book some of it takes place in Washington DC.

And Another Thing... (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy)
by Eoin Colfer
This book is on my list of books to read (although I haven't added it to my goodreads list yet. So I don't know when I got it exactly.) It is sort of officially unofficially the sixth book in the Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy by Douglas Adams, except it's written by Eoin Colfer the author of the Artemis Fowl series. I plan on re-reading the first five books of the H2G2 series before starting this one to get back to wherever it is that Arthur Dent has gotten to since then.

Another Google Verification word.

"Hunes"

 

Every once in a while something you read in another blog will stir up your own creative juices, or just plain remind you of something you did a while back. This is one of those times when I read a blog and it reminded me that it was something I do every once in a while myself. 

Adam (aka: Spankee) who writes the trading card blog "My Cardboard Mistress" reminded me of this word verification game on his post "Word Verification Fun". For those of you not familiar with this when you go to post a comment to someone's blog at blogger.com or one of the other Yahoo/Google owned blogging networks you get a nonsense word to verify to make sure you are making a legitimate comment and are not planning on sending that person spam, or trying to steal someone else's identity. I've played that word game a couple of times on this blog and now I am doing it yet again. Some people would say it is something to do when you are board. I say it is fun and if the word is strange enough it stimulates the imagination and you can come up with some very interesting things sometimes.

Here is my comment I made in response to his post. The word I got for it was "hunes".

"Yes that is fun. A couple of times when I couldn't think of anything to say on my regular blog I did that here is a link to those times:
http://klandersen.blogspot.com/search/label/Yahoo 
 
Hmm for this post I have a boring "hunes" guess that is the lesser known sand dunes on the outskirts of Hollywood. Or hey I came up with a more interesting one. Songs that have no real words like the Crash Test Dummies "Mmmm mmmm mmmm mmmm" song.

Thanks for this post I'm going to save my comment here and make a post out of it myself since I thought of an interesting definition for my word right now. "

Crash-Test Dummies and "Weird Al" Yankovic

Whenever I think of that Crash Test Dummies song I always picture "Weird Al" Yankovic with his parody of that song "Headline News". So there you have it folks a game you can play with junior and all the kids. While reading and responding to a few other blogs I got the following words:

inglo - Hmmm I guess that is a trendy ice made hut on the Alaskan Tundra.

I also got the cousin of one of  Rowan Atkinson's television characters. The word was "Adder" yes it was in green lettering so it was The Green Adder.