Having been given a taste of all that Al had produced over the years, I could no longer be satisfied with a mere greatest hits collection. Of course, I also saved up my allowance to buy his Permanent Record: Al In A Box 4-disc set, which featured his latest single “Headline News” and was fascinated by the insert booklet giving a biography of Weird Al, which included a photo from a tour with The Monkees, another childhood favorite musical act.
After a few months I got a letter back, declaring that I was now a “Close Personal Friend of Al”, it was all I could have hoped for and I cherish it to this day. When his Alapalooza album arrived 1993, I saw an address in the liner notes for a Weird Al Fan Club and sent in my request to join. Soon the opportunity to perform at a talent show arrived, so of course I lip synced to the MC Hammer parody, “I Can’t Watch This” with my friends as back-up dancers and felt like a star. Just like the album before it, I memorized all the lyrics and besides the occasional New Kids On The Block cassette, it was all I listened to. A few years later, when his Off The Deep End album was released, I played it endlessly on a boom box in my room and laughed along with the finely crafted audio nonsense. I begged my Mom to take me to the local record store, where I bought a copy of his Even Worse album and it became a permanent fixture in the family car radio. I first discovered his brand of comedy through an airing of the “Fat” video on MTV around 1989. Luckily, that oversight has now been corrected.Ī little bit more history of me and Al (Al & I?). As much as Weird Al Yankovic has meant to me for the last 30 years, you’d think I would have been aware of this book in its first edition, but somehow that release escaped my notice. Mostly because it was the first that I was hearing of it.
Hirsch for The Retro Network came up, I jumped at the chance. So when the opportunity to review the Expanded Edition of Weird Al Seriously by Lily E. As a kid growing up in the 80’s and 90’s I didn’t admire ace Quarterback, John Elway or action stars like Arnold Schwarzenegger, instead I found myself idolizing a guy named Al, who sung silly songs and became my pop music icon. In trying to relate to others, it was clear that I always interpreted life through a different prism than my peers, finding humor in off-beat concepts and being attracted to comedy that was just a shade darker than most.
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