Funny Music

Nuclear war is a heavy topic, so to lighten things up this week, I thought I’d focus on novelty songs.   By this I don’t mean comedians such as Steve Martin, Adam Sandler, or Jimmy Fallon who love to show up with a banjo or guitar and show off how multitalented they are.  I mean actual musicians who either focus on parodies (Weird Al Yankovic), parody an entire genre with original music (Spinal Tap & Steel Panther) or simply inject a certain heavy threshold of humor into their music (Frank Zappa).   Because life is too short to be serious 24/7, and we all know too many musicians take themselves way too seriously – even Zappa himself.

Dr. Demento (Barry Hansen).  This man is still active!  His radio show persisted, in some form or other, from 1970 to 2010, specializing in humorous, offbeat, novelty and comedy songs.  We had a compilation tape of the songs he played on his show, heavily dosed with “Weird Al” Yankovic, of course, but also lots of others.   Hansen is definitely a connoisseur of novelty songs. 

Frank Zappa.   Zappa was never a novelty song guy by design, but humor and sarcasm were so prevalent in his music, that he became one by default.  It’s reached the point that only actual Frank Zappa fans seem to understand that he’s a musician, while the general public – or less informed music fans – consider him just a novelty artist.  His own son, Dweezil, is a very talented guitarist in his own right, though his music career was never able to emerge from under the shadow of his father.  Resigned to this, it seems, now he plays his  father’s material – faithfully and well – as Zappa Plays Zappa, and emphatically focuses on the MUSIC and pushes the humor off to the side. 

“Weird Al” Yankovic.  Arguably the reigning king of novelty songs and/or parody, WAY has been active since the late 1970s and continues today – finally getting a #1 album, Mandatory Fun.  He started off doing parodies of popular songs – which remain his bread & butter – but eventually started writing original – though humorous – songs and also does a few songs which parody a band’s style though no song in particular.  This final category shows him at his most creative.  Excellent examples: “Genius In France” (Zappa), “Dare to Be Stupid” (Devo), “I’ll Sue Ya” (Rage Against the Machine), “Bob” (Bob Dylan – a song consisting solely of palindromes sang nasally) and my favorite, “Pancreas”, which parodies the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds and later material brilliantly.  It was “Eat It” (Michael Jackson’s “Beat It”) which really primed him.  The attention to detail on the video parody was fantastic.

            Although the courts have ruled that a parody of a song constitutes fair use and does not require the original artist’s permission, WAY as a super nice guy adopted a policy of asking for permission anyway, although he will play the unauthorized versions live in concert.   Prince, Jimmy Page, and Paul McCartney have all refused permission to parody their bands’ songs. 

            If I have one big problem with WAY, it’s that he focuses on Top 40 material, with almost no classic rock songs thrown in, even material we’ve known for ages.   On the other hand, he’s a big Star Wars fan – he’s clearly a self-professed geek – and I prefer “Yoda” to the original by the Kinks, “Lola”.

            Finally, Ted Mosby (Josh Radnor) on “How I Met Your Mother”, claims that WAY is his favorite band.

Spinal Tap.   Before there was Steel Panther, there was Spinal Tap:  David St. Hubbins (rhythm guitar & vocals) (Michael McKean), Nigel Tufnel (lead guitar) (Christopher Guest), and Derek Smalls (bass) (Harry Shearer).   Like the Grateful Dead & their keyboardists, the running joke is that Spinal Tap’s drummers invariably suffer freak fatalities.   The band spoofs 70s hard rock acts, and appears in the mock-documentary “This is Spinal Tap” (1982).   The “original” material includes such gems as “Big Bottoms”, “Sex Farm”, and “Christmas With The Devil”.  The movie is very funny – and many of the rock musicians who recognize themselves or their misadventures as loosely depicted in the movie give it major kudos – as do I.   The “band” has several albums of material, This Is Spinal Tap (1984), Break Like the Wind (1992), and Back From The Dead (2009).

Steel Panther.  Starting out as Metal Skool, a glam band cover band, this L.A. band decided to take its tentative steps at full-out parody to the next level and became Steel Panther.   Michael Starr (Ralph Saenz) (vocals), Satchel (Russ Parrish) (guitar), Lexxi Foxx (Travis Haley) (bass) and Stix Zadinia (Darren Leader) (drums).   Albums: Hole Patrol, Feel The Steel, Balls Out, and All You Can Eat.  They parody Motley Crue, Poison, Warrant, etc. all the most egregious hair metal bands of the 80s, though with original material.  The lyrics are deliberately as obnoxious, sexist and over the top as possible, again the point being humor rather than being taken seriously.  Like WAY, it’s not material you can endure nonstop or even on a regular basis, but it is funny, particularly if you’re familiar with the hair metal bands they’re making fun of.  Follow up “Rock of Ages” with one of their albums.