Howling At The Moon; Photos. More Ascender’s Photos.

A full moon; what better night to have seen the Weird Al Yankavic concert. Earlier I showed you my (favorite) Fat shots; listing some other blogs showing photos. Here is more from that concert…

This is where we were seated in the concert hall…

The majority of my shots were ruined by the big head (security) who seemed to be pacing back and forth in front of us, exactly in front of the location Weird Al was performing on stage ruining almost all my shots. (Dude, this is San Mateo, take a load off; no terrorists here. Seriously.) Let’s keep the “big head” in mind when viewing my slightly out of focus shots below.

Here Yankovic initially began with a parody of “You’re Beautiful” called “You’re Pitiful“. As he performs the song initially wearing a long-sleeved shirt, and progressively removing clothing to reveal different layers underneath. The final t-shirt is the face of SpongeBob Squarepants. Yankovic then removes his pants to reveal boxer shorts with red hearts and a pink tutu.

Polkarama

Somebody told me
You had a boyfriend
Who looked like a girlfriend

That I had in February of last year
It’s not confidential
Well, I’ve got potential
A rushin’, a rushin’ around

Canadian Idiot, a Green Day parody in Straight Outta Lynwood!

Sure, they got their national health care
Cheaper meds for prime rates and clean air
Then again, well they got Celine Dion
Eat their weight in Kraft macaroni
And dream of driving a Zamboni
All over Saskatchewan

Don’t wanna be a Canadian idiot
Won’t figure out the temperature in Celcius
See the map, they’re hoverin’ right over us
Tell you the truth, it makes me kinda nervous

“eBay”

Yeah
A used … pink bathrobe
A rare … mint snowglobe
A Smurf … TV tray
I bought on eBay

My house … is filled with this crap
Shows up in bubble wrap
Most every day
What I bought on eBay

Tell me why (I need another pet rock)
Tell me why (I got that Alf alarm clock)
Tell me why (I bid on Shatner’s old toupee)
They had it on eBay

I’ll buy … your knick-knack
Just check … my feedback
“A++!” they all say
They love me on eBay

Confessions, Part III

These are my confessions
Just when I thought I said all I can say
I came up with more secrets to tell you today

These are my confessions
Slipped my mind the last two times, silly me
So now I gotta give you part three of my confessions

More Straight Outta Lynwood; Close But No Cigar

Jillian was her name
She was sweeter than aspartame
Her kisses reconfigured my DNA
And after that I never was the same

And I loved her even more than
Marlon Brando loved soufflé
She was gorgeous, she was charming
Yeah, she was perfect in every way

Except she was always using the word “infer”
When she obviously meant “imply”
And I know that somw guys can put up with that kinda thing
But frankly, I can’t imagine why

More Straight Outta Lynwood; The title is a reference to Straight Outta Compton, the second album of rap group N.W.A, with Lynwood being a nod to Yankovic’s hometown of nearby Lynwood, California.

Yep; there’s the big head; standing almost in front of Weird Al in this set.

Parody of the song “Beat It” (Michael Jackson) called “Eat It“. “Eat It” earned Yankovic a 1984 Grammy Award in the Best Comedy Recording category

Parody of Star Wars; this one called “Y.O.D.A”. (Kudos to me for getting the waving hands within the shot.) a parody of the song “Lola” by The Kinks. It is about Luke Skywalker’s relationship with Yoda and is very much based on the events of Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. It is featured on Weird Al’s third album, Dare to Be Stupid.

The song “The Saga Begins” (a parody of Don McLean’s “American Pie“) accurately states the entire plot of The Phantom Menace, despite being written before the film’s release. Yankovic got the plot details from rumor websites. McLean was pleased with the parody, and even told Yankovic that the parody’s lyrics sometimes enter his mind during live performances. Yankovic’s parody not only replicates the music from the original McLean song, but it also replicates the multi-layered rhyming structure in the verses and chorus. Additionally, George Lucas loved the song.

Smells Like Nirvana parody of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit“. The music is almost the same although the guitar solo is replaced by Yankovic’s gargling, the entire audience humming through kazoos, and a tuba.

“White & Nerdy” parody. Chamillionaire was also very pleased, even putting Yankovic’s parody on his official MySpace page before it was on Yankovic’s own page. “He’s actually rapping pretty good on it, it’s crazy [...] I didn’t know he could rap like that. It’s really an honor when he does that. [...] Weird Al is not gonna do a parody of your song if you’re not doing it big.” In September of 2007, Chamillionaire credited “White & Nerdy” for his recent Grammy win.

One of Yankovic’s most controversial parodies was 1996’s “Amish Paradise“, based on “Gangsta’s Paradise” by hip-hop artist Coolio, which, in turn, was based on “Pastime Paradise” by Stevie Wonder. Reportedly, Coolio’s label gave Yankovic the impression that Coolio had granted permission to record the parody, but Coolio maintains that he never did. While Coolio claimed he was upset, legal action never materialized, and Coolio accepted royalty payments for the song. After this controversy, Yankovic has always made sure to speak directly with the artist of every song he parodied. On his website, Yankovic wrote of this event, “I don’t remember what we said to each other exactly, but it was all very friendly. I doubt I’ll be invited to Coolio’s next birthday party, but at least I can stop wearing that bulletproof vest to the mall.”

The Official “Weird Al” Yankovic Web Site