My Son, the "Weird Al" Super-Fan
I may not be able to offer my sons much in the way of economic security or stability. Unless the Weird Accordion to Al book does REALLY well, they certainly won’t have what many of their classmates will have growing up in terms of summer homes and vacations to Europe or trust funds or multiple cars or fancy clothes. But I do have something that I’m guessing none of their classmates’ rich friends have: a longstanding personal and professional relationship with beloved American entertainer “Weird Al” Yankovic.
I may not be able to drive a car or tie a tie or get a job with benefits or function as an adult in society in so very many ways but I’m a wiz at writing great books about preeminent pop culture parodists. If you have a question about some element of Al’s life and career, I am unusually, if not singularly, qualified to answer it.
I’ve written previously about the joy I experienced introducing my now five year old son Declan to the music of “Weird Al” Yankovic, and the parental bliss of taking him to his first “Weird Al” Yankovic concert. I’m pleased to report that in the intervening months/years Declan has made a deeply predictable but deeply satisfying transformation from a “Weird Al” Yankovic fan to a “Weird Al” Yankovic super-fan.
You can only imagine how much nachas it gave me when my five year old was to able to point out Dr. Demento in the background of a video! The idea that I will able to leave my modest, tasteful “Weird Al” Yankovic shrine to someone who will regard it as a sacred inheritance rather than clear-cut evidence that his father wasted his life on weird nonsense thrills to me no end.
Declan’s Al obsession has given me a new appreciation for some of Al’s songs. I’ve always appreciated “Jurassic Park” more than I’ve loved it. Al’s Movie 90s, where a lot of his singles and parodies were rooted pragmatically in the biggest blockbusters of the day, has never been my favorite era of Al but watching the look of pure delight in Declan’s eyes when he watches people get eaten by Claymation dinosaurs made me realize that the song, and other parodies like it aren’t for me, necessarily: they’re for children like my son and the child I used to be when I fell instantly and deeply in love with Al’s music
The same is true of “The Saga Begins.” When you’re trying to interest a five year old with ADHD in a favorite artist it sure does not hurt if their life’s works overlaps extensively, and joyously, with plenty of other things they’re already obsessed with, whether that’s Star.Wars (“Yoda”, “The Saga Begins”), Jurassic Park (“Jurassic Park)”, Spider-Man (“Ode To a Superhero”), Christmas (“Christmas at Ground Zero” and “The Night Santa Went Crazy”) and, of course, painful medical ailments (“Living With a Hernia”, “Toothless People”).
“The Night Santa Went Crazy” and “Christmas at Ground Zero” both fall under the decidedly small but notable category of “Weird Al” Yankovic songs that are too dark and violent for children, particularly since Declan already has an issue not discussing subject matters like Krampus or a figure he knows as “Jason Borghees” but that the rest of the world fears as the villain of the Friday the 13th franchise with his friends.
Binge-watching “Weird Al” Yankovic videos has also given me a new appreciation for Al’s mastery of the form. Take something like “Bedrock Anthem”, for example. That would not make my list of my top 100 “Weird Al” Yankovic songs but so much thought and care and craft went into making the video as funny and as close to the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ original as humanly possible that you can’t help but admire it.
When I talked to my dad for the first time after he got my book he said that he liked it because I was applying rigorous intellectual analysis to something that didn’t necessarily deserve it. I obviously did not agree with my father’s assertion. Part of the reason I wrote The Weird Accordion to Al is because I feel like Al’s discography merits that kind of deep dive just as much as traditionally “important”, “serious” artists like The Beatles or David Bowie. But I got what my father meant.
I feel like I am doing, with the Weird Accordion to Al book what Al was doing with songs like “Bedrock Anthem:” taking apart something people might consider silly to see how it works, what makes it special and why it endures when so much in this fickle world of ours fades almost instantly.
As a dad and a geek I can’t imagine anything more fun than having Sunday morning dance parties with my sons to In 3-D or Dare To Be Stupid or watching video after video after video as Declan familiarizes with Al’s extensive back catalog, one Youtube clip at a time. The last time we did a deep dive on Youtube Declan said to me, “After “Bedrock Anthem” can we listen to something funnier?”, which means that not only is Declan becoming a huge “Weird Al” Yankovic fan, but a discriminating one as well.
They grow up so fast!
Help ensure a future for the Happy Place and get sweet, sweet “Weird Al” Yankovic merchandise like tee-shirts, posters, mugs and stickers by pledging over at https://www.patreon.com/nathanrabinshappyplace/merch
AND, more importantly, y’all not only can but SHOULD buy my new book over at https://www.amazon.com/Weird-Accordion-Al-Obsessively-Co-Author/dp/1658788478/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=weird+accordion+to+al&qid=1580168089&sr=8-1