South Beach Sessions - Weird Al Yankovic
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Who is Weird Al Yankovic and what makes his career legendary?
Kings Network. I'm sure this man hears this a lot. Welcome to South Beach Sessions. I'm Dan Levitard, and this is Weird Al Yankovic, somebody I feel like has been in my life since childhood. You get a lot of that, I imagine, right? From you, yes, all the time, yeah.
Don't shut up about it.
The biggest selling comedy recording artist in history. That still has to be crazy for you to hear.
I'm impressed by that.
No. You're more famous for it than anybody else.
That's nice of you to say, but obviously I didn't invent the concept of song parody. That's been around since, I mean, our national anthem is basically a song parody. It's, you know, it's an old English drinking song with different words. So the concept of song parody has a rich history. But I guess I helped bring that back in a way when I started out in the early 80s and popularized it. But no, I grew up on Alan Sherman and all these people that, you know, that song parody was their bread and butter.
How did Weird Al get started with Dr. Demento and radio influence?
Well, the thing, though, that sort of grabbed you by the claws was radio, right? Sure. Was the idea of radio, and it was... What can you tell us about the original Dr. Demento show and where and how it grabbed you?
Dr. Demento, he's still doing a show, by the way. It's just not on terrestrial radio anymore. He's online behind a paywall, but he's still doing the show every single week. But when I was... 11, 12 years old, one of my friends in school turned me on to the Dr. Demento show. Hey, there's this guy on KMET Los Angeles every Sunday night that plays all these crazy records. And I listened, and I was immediately smitten. I thought, oh, you know, these are my people. This is my music. Like, you know, who is this guy? And I would listen religiously every single Sunday night. And some of the songs he played were... a little risque, had some double entendres, and my parents were very protective, and my mother particularly did not like me listening to that kind of music.
And when she heard one of those songs on the radio, she forbade me from listening to the Dr. Demento show. And it turned out I had to continue listening in bed with a little alarm clock radio next to my ear with the covers pulled up over my head.
Oh, wow.
So that was my Sunday night.
Well, you were otherwise a good kid, right? Oh, yeah, sure. But what was she walking in on that was so scandalous that it had to be banned?
I think the one that really got her offended, there was a song called Baby Let Me Bang Your Box. But it was about playing the piano. And she thought, fuck, it was horrible. And her young, innocent child should never listen to this kind of music.
How would you explain your childhood to a stranger?
My childhood, it was a lovely childhood. My parents were very supportive and loving. My dad used to call me their miracle child because they were trying to have a child for a very long time. And I just kind of got in under the wire. So I'm an only child. And probably because of that, they were very protective.
What was Weird Al’s childhood like and how did it shape him?
I told a story that got used on Behind the Music and has been repeated a few times about how my high school was directly across the street from our house. And during PE class, my mother used to watch me through binoculars out the window to make sure the other kids weren't playing too rough with me. You know, that kind of thing. And I was not allowed to really go to friends' houses to hang out. If they wanted to see me, they had to come to me. uh or come to my house because uh i don't i don't know my mother had some sort of like fantasy that i'd be kidnapped or something horrible would happen to me if i was ever out of her sight uh so and again very loving but i i wish the leash had been just a little longer well i was going to say when you say very protective too protective probably right and uh uh sheltered
Yeah, I would say in a way. I mean, again, the thing, like my mother, we subscribed to TV Guide magazine back in the time, and I remember whenever the magazine would come in, my mother would go through it with a felt marker, and if there were any ads with women in bikinis, she would cross out the naughty bits and just sort of censor them so my innocent eyes wouldn't see more flesh than I was supposed to see, I guess.
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Chapters
10 chapters
1
Who is Weird Al Yankovic and what makes his career legendary?
0:04–1:34
2
How did Weird Al get started with Dr. Demento and radio influence?
1:34–3:46
3
What was Weird Al’s childhood like and how did it shape him?
3:46–12:22
4
How did Weird Al embrace the nickname 'Weird Al' and make it his own?
12:22–15:28
5
What are some of the greatest compliments that validate Weird Al’s work?
15:28–19:53
6
When did Weird Al realize he could turn music into a career?
19:53–21:48
7
How did Weird Al’s record deal and album production evolve over time?
21:48–26:02
8
What is Weird Al’s approach to creativity and touring today?
26:02–27:03
9
How did Weird Al’s education in architecture influence his career?
27:03–33:06
10
How does Weird Al get permission to parody popular songs?
33:06–1:03:31
Speakers
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