Pledge Music (2017)
Over the next several weeks, we're going to celebrate Weird Al Wednesday as I go through each of the 15 albums in the Squeeze Box accordion box set. There are many albums in this set that were hugely influential to me as a young kid and there are no shortage of incredible songs throughout. Weird Al and The Blues Brothers are definitely the building blocks for my earliest appreciation of music.
Off The Deep End came out in 1992 and by that time I was in high school and pretty locked in to listening to hip hop. This album totally snuck up on me at the time as I had heard nothing about it until I stumbled across a cassingle of "Smells Like Nirvana" at Sam Goody one day. When I finally picked up the album I enjoyed it, but this was the first time where I didn't really know a lot of the songs that were being parodied. I can't say I was particularly familiar with New Kids on the Block ("The White Stuff") or Milli Vanilli ("The Plumbing Song") at the time.
"Smells Like Nirvana" is outstanding and I do like the "Rico Suave" parody "Taco Grande," but the Al originals really were the highlight of Off The Deep End for me. "Trigger Happy," "I Was Only Kidding" and "You Don't Love Me Anymore" are among the strongest songs on this album along with the excellent polka medley "Polka Your Eyes Out."
This was a definite transitional record as it was released when I was really trying to figure out what I wanted out of music. It's a great record, but it doesn't hit me quite as strongly as the ones that had come before it.
"Weird Al" Yankovic - "Smells Like Nirvana":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FklUAoZ6KxY
"Weird Al" Yankovic - "I was Only Kidding":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAOJ7EAoF14
"Weird Al" Yankovic - "Smells Like Nirvana":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DC-sb54mkU
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