Slashdot Mirror
Weird Al Says 'Don't Download This Song'
Kazzahdrane writes "Known geek and comedy singer/songwriter Weird Al Yankovic has released the first song from his new album 'Straight Outta Lynwood' for free on his MySpace page. The track is entitled 'Don't Download This Song' and tells of the dangers of illegally downloading music from filesharing sites." His MySpace page is most excellent. "Hi. Al here. No, really, it's Al. Seriously. What, you don't believe me? Go ahead, check weirdal.com. Hit the MySpace link. See if it brings you right back to this page. Go ahead. I'll wait. See? It's really me. I should point out... this means that conversely, all those other people on MySpace who are claiming to be me or implying that they are me... are definitely NOT me. I'm sure they're very nice people... they're just not 'Weird Al' Yankovic. I assure you."
I look forward to the music video that is supposed to air on Yahoo music at 10:00 PM Pacific Time tonight (August 22nd).
Enjoy one of the last artists that is still concerned about his fans and music no matter how hilarious and campy it may be. He has the sense to realize that he's very well off compared to his fans and jokes about solid gold humvees and diamond studded pools.
My work here is dung.
I wonder if SCO has licensed his "Dare To Be Stupid" song yet?
I Am My Own Worst Enemy
WTF man....? i mean seriously...
Hi, I'm part of the reality squad. I feel it is my duty to inform you that you did not get p1st fr0st. Sadly, you recieved the far less prestigous p1rd th0st.
If this signature is witty enough, maybe somebody will like me.
Joke: ->
/|\
You: O
/ \
EVERYDAY IS CATURDAY
The RIAA begins researching ways to silence this insolent artist who seems hellbent on allowing people to access music (even if it IS his music) for free. They've been cheated out of their share. The following were just decided on by the super secret RIAA meeting on financial vengeance. Step 1. Get Angry Step 2. Talk about how you're cheated. Step 3. Sue Wierd Al and anyone who downloads the song (it says explicitly do NOT download the song,. it's in the title!) Step 4. ???? Step 5. Profit!
The words 'kettle', 'pot', 'black' and 'calling' come to mind but not necessarily in that order.
Weird Al and MC Lars should have a rap battle about music piracy. They'd sell millions of records. Or have millions of downloads. Or soemthing.
Really if you don't like Weird Al then you must have been unloved as a child.
Dare to be stupid, from the Transformers Movie (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092106/) wasn't bad. Never liked much of his other music though.
That's odd, I had no problem whatsoever ripping my Poodle Hat CD into MP3s. Did this happen only in certain regions or something?
Or how you assume everyone has the same opinion as you? Some of his songs are funny, some are not, but Amish Paradise, Fat, and the Saga begins are fantastic, not to mention the music videos.
"I may be full of crap about this game, and I may be wrong, and that's fine." -Jack Thompson
His MySpace page is most excellent.
Was this summary written by Keanu Reeves?
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
Hmm, I've never had any problems playing Poodle Hat on anything. I've ripped the CD and have been listening to it on my computer and mp3 player for years now... *shrug*
Two fish swim into a wall, one turns to the other and says, "Dam".
Pfft, yeah. He only has 6 platinum records, and 3 gold. You told him!
Looks like his actual site server is getting trashed, but the last time I was there you could download another song, "You're Pitiful".
:o
It's pretty app when thinking about the steretypical Slashdot person.
From what I can remember, he put it online because some copyright/trademark thing kept him from using it on the next album. Not sure what it was, though. It looks like you can at least listen to it on his MySpace page.
One thing I love about Weird Al's songs is that he does his research. In the song from this "article", he mentions such things as Kazaa. In "All about the Pentiums", he throws out a lot of technical terms.
Weird Al is one of my favorite people ever. He's pretty good to his fans, he fights the true fight, and is hilarious to boot. I can't wait for this next album.
Particularly since his web site doesn't offer a direct link, but instead flat-out doesn't work on my system. Nice.
Weird Al doesn't tag his MP3s when he rips them. For shame.
Somebody please tell me that got Slashdotted...
Took me a few minutes to find it, but just go here:
http://www.dontdownloadthissong.com/
Hmm, maybe it is a fake.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
I'm reminded of MC Frontalot's Charity Case, where he's "begging ya'll to believe his CD isn't free!"
[o]_O
I think MC Lars had it better:
Download this song
I'm not finding anything to support the OP's claim. Care to back up the statement that Poodle Hat contained DRM?
Is there heaven? Is there Hell? Is that a Tuna Melt I smell?-Primus
like the other commenters, i too had no trouble with Poodle Hat.
in addition, as for Al's supposed anti-downloading stance, it should be mentioned that he is in a somewhat unique position: literally hundreds of songs that AREN'T his are constantly attributed to him on file sharing systems, just because they're (ostensibly) "funny". Al maintains a relatively innocent, upbeat personna, but many of the songs misattributed to him are stupid, mean spirited, or far raunchier than anything Al would want to be associated with. it's a significant problem for the guy that goes much deeper than simple lost royalties.
that said, every time i've heard him asked about file sharing, that is how he has framed his response. he doesn't want people to think he wrote "smoke a bowla"
i could live a little longer in this prison
Everything you know is wrong.
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/06/15/ 0030209
Back in 2000, Spinal Tap (sorry, I don't have a n-umlaut key on my keyboard) borrowed the domain tapster.com from some sort of brewery interest web site to put up a parody of Napster. Contrary to Nigel's
#naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
He's not stupid. He's well aware that the music people are most likely to download free of charge rather than pay for is the stuff they have no intention of keeping long-term. (If you really like a song, and are still going to like listening to it five years down the road, you'll happily shell out for a CD).
That category covers Weird Al's entire catalogue rather nicely, though. Really, his songs are mildly amusing for the first few times you hear them - maybe a couple dozen at most. They're not particularly well played / sung / recorded, the lyrics aren't amazingly incisive and won't stick with you in any meaningful way - they're just a source of a quick chuckle. Weird Al more than most is probably feeling the pinch as his bottom line fades away. Really, when was the last time anybody around here listened to "Eat It" or "Like a Surgeon"? The songs he parodied live on much better than the parodies do, and even the originals are getting a bit long in the tooth.
I'm not shedding a tear or excusing him though - he needs to find a way to market his product that caters to its short-lived nature. Realistically, that probably means he needs to be making his money from things like non-stop live performances in small venues around the country, where fans can get up close to him, for a period of several months after he releases a new album. It's hard work, but it is a lot more honest work than expecting to make a mint off sales of an overpriced product people were forced into buying because you don't give them a pricing option that befits the lack of replay value.
Step 4. Settle out of court with Gradma.
Quick, say you know he isn't into beastiality or something!
I have very mixed feelings about [Napster]. On one hand, I'm concerned that the rampant downloading of my copyright-protected material over the Internet is severely eating into my album sales and having a decidedly adverse effect on my career. On the other hand, I can get all the Metallica songs I want for FREE! WOW!!!!!
He's previously said that his biggest problem with internet downloading is that many files on the internet are incorrectly labelled with him as the artist, some of these being much more offensive than his actual material.
On the MySpace page, you can also click on the word Download underneath the song name and download it directly to your PC. Not sure if you need your own MySpace login for that or not, but it worked for me.
Oh, you mean that singer guy...
for a second there I thought someone wrote an A.I. program to download songs for you.
LISP is dead. Long Live LISP!
It's All About The Pentiums. By Al Yankovic
"some are not, but Amish Paradise, Fat, and the Saga begins are fantastic, not to mention the music videos."
...lacks.
I'm sure he must have asked for permission to turn the "Saga" video into an over the top visual Star Wars spoof extravaganza like he did with "Jurassic Park", but a stinge at Lucasfilm said no. The video...
Where were you when the voynix came?
Everything you know is wrong. :(
Yeah, I know.
Try turning off your flashblocker -- it's played as a flash file, with the actual mp3 being available at http://www.dontdownloadthissong.com/tracks/DDTS.mp 3
I of course searched for the word 'download' (that was the first thing I did), and excluding user comments, it occurs ONCE inline, in the part that says: The video for "Don't Download This Song" - directed and animated by the great Bill Plympton [...].
Here's how I'd do it:
But that's just me. I guess the leave-people-scratching-their-head approach is just as valid in Weird-World.
Since we're already spending so much time here and acting like junior high kids, I want myspace style slashdot profiles. Imagine what this would do to the community. When you read a post and think to yourself "Overweight, Undersexed Wow junkie" you can click the link and see their photos to confirm your suspicions. Plus, think of the fun we'd all have writing the CSS code to design our pages. Instead of harping on people for their grammar, we could point out how their profile page isn't XHTML compliant.
Taco would be everybody's friend by default, but if you're friends with the real CowboyNeal (or a girl) you would totally put that in your top eight.
Our mail system would be IMAP though
Lynwood CALIFORNIA, not Lynnwood Washington
Because I sure had no problem ripping that with Exact Audio Copy, maybe you should get a better ripper/CD-Rom drive!
Thought a new album was due from him soon... I am going to be buying this since I prefer to have a CD copy and to rip/encode/tag/etc the stuff myself.
has the slashdot effect failed? or not kicked in yet? seriously, weirdal.com is toast, but myspace is still chugging along.
will nothing slay this horrid beast?
"Really if you don't like Weird Al then you must have been unloved as a child."
I dunno, the songs are universally less interesting than the originals, and his voice is grating. They're usually good for laughs the first listen through, but I can't imagine owning an album.
In Capitalist America, bank robs you!
Maybe he chose to give it away for free rather than let the RIAA screw him and us by snagging an extra 85% of the money we throw down.
Yeah but "smoke a bowla" is actually really hilarious, and pretty well done. Have you heard it? The dude even sounds a lot like weird al. He should totally take credit for that.
For those without flash: http://www.dontdownloadthissong.com/tracks/DDTS.mp 3
AL YOU DA BEST! :)
:)
world better place because of you!
Thank you for bringing smile to my face since I was a kid!
Not like Weird Al? You must be Communist. Or live in Oregon. Or both.
"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
Stupid safari wouldn't let me save the mp3... I wonder what I'm doing wrong?
Oh well.
As the subject line suggests....
Also, according to myspace TOS, myspace is now free to do whatever it wants with his song. He got owned hard.
Because it's not possible he has a different agreement with myspace than you do.
Thank you. Would it have been so hard for him to just link to that file to begin with? Sheesh.
Though now that I've listened to it, I find that this enterprise was pretty much a waste of time. That wasn't very good, was it?
For the record, I don't have a flash blocker.
(I also don't have flash installed)
"... "Art Must Be Free" is the decree. The finale
..."
g /MC_Frontalot_-_Nerdcore_Rising_01_Charity_Case.mp 3
is my lecture on the evils of the R-I-double-A,
how they gonna sue you every single time you hit play.
they're lame! must revolt! what's that you say?
kids are pirating the frontalot? oh no, I got betrayed!
it's true
frontalot's destitute
I need you
to buy my CD so I could buy food
http://frontalot.untimelydeath.com/nerdcore_risin
I have a lot of those songs but I've correctly tagged mine. Smokabowla is from the Technohippies. Incidentally I own and have ripped for my own personal use every one of Weird Al's albums. I remember that I did have a slightly hard time getting one of the tracks to rip but it could have been my burner.
Weird Al is distributed under a faux independent label, Volcano Records, which is owned by Sony BMG, who brought us intrusive DRM and is a proud part of the RIAA intellectual "property" lawsuit cartel. Now I have to get a new goddamned movement for my irony meter!
I too have felt the cold finger of injustice.
this is the kind of stuff needed to counter the IFPI/RIAA and what you not BS PR spin about "stealing music". We have to keep making the point that it is the big digital wrongs management companies who are actually the biggest theives - they rob us of our culture, kill the public domain, subvert copyright laws to perpetuate monopoly, which was granted with the opposite goal in mind, and, last but not least, ruin the future by getting force-feeding junk-food quality music. :)
Woosh!
I've purchased every weird al album ever released. That comes out to roughly 120+ tracks and they're in high rotation on my mp3 player. I sing along like a crazy git to all those songs. For some reason they never get old. I think what it comes down to is some people like the parody part of his music where others like the whole package. His crazy voice, the awesome accordian etc.. If you're only in it for the parody it will definitely get old fast. Also, some of his best songs arent straight parodies, they're either style parodies (Twister!) or completely original tunes(I was only kidding). Don't forget the polkas! There is always 1 polka on each album and I cannot wait to hear the next one!
Colbert, is that you?
Too bad I'm not CowboyNeal, otherwise I'd ask you to prove your identity?
-ed
So you see what had happened was....
Running with Scissors did have some kind of DRM attached. When you browse to the CD drive there's nothing but a text file explaining that because of the special multimedia on the CD, you could not play them or rip the songs to your computer.
The (semi-ironic) twist here?
The album, according to Amazon, is being released as a DualDisc, and that means that some computers and players won't be able to handle the album. Of three computers in my dorm room last year, none of them could play the newest Springsteen album.
Because of the format choice, there might be some people that don't have any choice but to download the song, either legally (assuming iTunes sells it like they do some of his other albums) or through other means.
Goo goo g'joob.
Ah, but you clearly bought the "Made especially to irritate shaze" edition, which was a one-off production.
No other person on the planet shares your problem, but hey! It's clearly our fault!
I own all of them, actually. Anywhere from 1-5 songs per album is an original that parodies a genre or a particular musician without mimicking any single song.
I like to sing. Because Al has jokes in his lyrics, he usually does a really good job speaking clearly so the listener can get the jokes. I could sing along with Smells Like Nirvana the second time I heard it. I still don't know all of the words to Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit, and I've heard that dozens of times. Weird Al is one of the only musicians whose lyrics I never need to look up after hearing a song.
I also have a taste for really bad puns and silly jokes. That's a help too.
If you have a less silly sense of humor, I can respect that. If you don't like the voice... I have many friends who go berserk for Rush, and I can't listen to their lead singer without wanting to shove a pencil through my ears. So I can respect that too.
Hey! I live in Oregon, and I like Weird Al just fine!
$x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
$x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
Will someone just post the lyrics and the guitar tab already?!
I'm sure this song is funny, but the music is absolutely unbearable. I suppose that's the point, but I still couldn't listen to it.
--- What?
I like this song a lot. So much, in fact, that I am going to be purchasing Weird Al's CD. Oh, the irony.
There is no right to feel safe thru security vaudeville at the expense of everyone's freedom, privacy and tax money.
Our story begins with a skim over the day's Slashdot headlines. The regulars are all present: Government X adopts OSS/ODF, Mr. Nobody gives a loose overview of security problem Y, and SCO does transparently underhanded deed Z. Yet one topic in particular grabs my attention...
Being a Weird Al fan, and well-aware of the problems he has collecting from his label, my mind registers the topic both as a must-Read-More and as another chapter to take note of in the long saga of digital music rights. With significant anticipation, I add it to my other fifteen or so open tabs and proceed to work my way through my article reading queue.
I (grudgingly) visit myspace, but something's amiss. There is no download link! Nothing in the navigation menu, the news posts, or the comments make mention of where I can obtain the song, yet visitors proceed to comment on how much they enjoyed it. Looking for an alternate link, I return to Slashdot, only to find more reactions without mention of any download difficulties. And so I begin to worry irrationally: "I'm the only one in the world who can't listen to Weird Al!" I've had usability issues with myspace before, but normally after a minute or so of misguided clicking I'm able to stumble upon something that hints at actual content. I try two other domains, weirdal.com and dontdownloadthissong.com, only to find the former hopelessly slashdotted and the latter unusable. My frustration continues to build.
I reflect that perhaps it is a browser compatability issue - I am using Konqueror after all - and try my luck with firefox. After configuring it to *not* attempt DNS queries over IPv6, that I might reach the content I so desperately seek this century, I find that myspace persists to mock me. It is as if some divine administrative force knows my IP address and has modified the web server specifically to torment me.
I search for torrent files - first through links from kind slashdotters looking to boost their karma, and when that fails, via KTorrent's integrated search plugin. Bittorrent.com? No matches. Isohunt.com? Nada. Mininova? Bytenova? Torrentspy?! My heart races as I continue to exhaust the list of built-in known search engines, until... Aha! The Pirate Bay has found one match, uploaded a mere twenty-two minutes ago.
But to use a torrent from the most infamous peer-to-peer site in existence, what would that make me? Is the torrent legal? Just because Weird Al chooses to distribute it on his webpage doesn't mean he releases that right to others. I'm sure under these circumstances he couldn't possibly mind, but not having heard of the song's existence prior to reading Slashdot, I simply do not know the record label's stance on the matter, or whether they even have partial rights over this particular mp3. But it does not matter - I must have the song!
The irony - that I am bittorrenting a free-as-in-beer song that possesses a satirical name mocking filesharing litigation, and am potentially committing a copyright violation in the process - is not lost on me. My idealistic side taunts the RIAA, "I just DARE you to try to sue me over this, my only infringement!" My pessimistically pragmatic side notes that the unusual circumstances would make no difference, as I would be forced to settle, and never see my day in court anyway.
I emerge from my digression to the present.
No peers or seeders. For the moment, the music industry and other enemies of Peer-to-Peer breathe a sigh of relief.
Then it occurs to me that the song might be unreachable to those who have not installed the dreaded Flash Plugin. But why? A slashdot commenter mentions that the song is indeed in the mp3 format, so it is not as if my lack of such a player could possibly prevent me from obtaining this song. For what kind of sick madman would consign a publically-downloadable mp3 to the clutches of a proprietary system and that system alone?
As a rule, I have abstained from using Flash on my desktop's Gentoo installation. This self-denial is due to a combination of fac
Evidently, the key to understanding recursion is to begin by understanding recursion. The rest is easy.
Actually, I would argue that his parodies live on much better than the originals usually do. Especially the two you mentioned, as the originals were very much fad pop songs. Usually how he works is, he has the straight parodies, which are, as you said, much more poppy and fad-ish. However, the originals that he writes are usually much more lasting, at least for me, in terms of both music and lyrics. I can see myself listening to 'Yoda' (I know this is a parody, but it's still a classic), 'Bob', 'Christmas at Ground Zero', etc, pretty much forever.
I also have a taste for really bad puns and silly jokes.
Of course we might have gathered that from your username.
Two things.
One, I listened to "Eat it" just a couple weeks ago when I was playing it for my 2-year-old grand-daughter trying to get her to eat her dinner. It's been ages since I heard "Beat it".
Two, he does make money that way. I've been to see one of his live performances at one of my favorite local small venues. It was a blast!
There is some fine irony in that statement.
* I found out about Weird Al in 8th grade or thereabouts, when a friend of mine made me a copy of his cassette of Bad Hair Day, Al's most recent album at the time. Not long after, Napster became big, and I downloaded every Weird Al song I could find (despite not having dsl yet; I was working off a 56k connection). Then I went out and bought a bunch of cds. * I wasn't sure whether I was going to bother preordering it, or wait to hear the opinions of others' before buying it (not that I should really have any doubt in Weird Al's talent, but it's always nice to be sure). But, after downloading this song, and loving it, I immediately went and preordered the cd. * The other factor leading me to really want this cd: I read that it contains instrumental tracks of all of its songs. I enjoy messing around with song sampling, and I've wanted to mix a Weird Al song for *ages*. One would assume he'd have problem with that, but his label might... * On that note... the track is hosted on a server owned by Volcano Records, which is owned by Zomba Music Group, which is owned by BMG.
I live in Oregon and love Weird Al- you're right about the rest of the Oregonians though, they're all Weird Al hating communists... they started out as tree-huggin, crystal-rubbin' hippies, and I was OK with that, but when the commi-weird-al-hatin' came along I said to myself "now if the slashdot crowd ever goes commi-weird-al-hatin' I'm just gonna hang myself"... now, I just don't know what to do.
Wow! This must be a PERSONAL letter, just for me!
I don't know... some stuff could be considered art, in a way... For example, book covers, in a way they are a cocoon for an author's coveted masterpiece... and they help a lot when it comes to catching the glimpse of a potential customer.
Art, on the other hand, sometimes could use more gum.
However,... comedy IMO is art. When design meets art... stuffed animal toys copulate.
Liability and contract don't end when a firm is bought by another one. So by refusing to honor a previously signed up contract with scrotti brother that they bought on, sony would not only open themselves to liability, but likely void the contract freeing to sell the CDs.
C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
visit randi.org
Did you see that? that was me placing my thumb to my nose with my fingers in the air and wriggling them sarcastically. "won't stick with you in a meaningful way"? I don't know about you but the "wierd al show theme song" has played in my head whenever i have needed to get a more annoying song ("Locomotion" anyone?) out of my head and i have never forgotten the words or tune despite not having heard it for several months. Nya!
Weird Al has lost it. He should've stopped after Amish Paradise. That song is beyond awful. I actually couldn't listen to the whole thing.
In between the lawsuits against dead war veterans, flooding the USENET alt.binaries groups with Russian child porn (DIAF, you sick commie bastards!), and making Paris Hilton and Kevin Federline CDs--which will make great clay pidegons when it reaches to dollar store next month--RIAA's taste in music is about as bad as the food in an unplugged fridge in Phoenix.
This song was not long enough.
On the other hand, Al points out the fallacies that have been used to discourage downloading such as a slippery slope, threats of damnation, and treatment worse than violent criminals. Al would win a Grammy for this song if the people at RIAA weren't evil.
The Rapture is NOT an exit strategy.
I see a trend here...
Wierd Al
MC Lars
Cruisbox http://audiopium.typepad.com/thatpodcastsong/
Can anyone else out there imagine a Live Aid style gig to raise funds to pay lawyers to go up against the RIAA...
"If it's lost, it'll turn up. Things always do" "I love it when a plan comes together"
As a rule, I have abstained from using Flash on my desktop's Gentoo installation. This self-denial is due to a combination of factors: Flash's outdated linux versions, its tendency to make my browser unstable,
Get flashblock, a firefox extension. Won't load the flash unless you specifically ask it.
Only browser troubls I have are with very comments on popular slashdot stories with the new interface
Can you imagine the irony, if this was released as a single and it went to Number 1 ...then again, everyone would download it anyway, so it would never get anywhere. But, just for a moment imagine that...
"If it's lost, it'll turn up. Things always do" "I love it when a plan comes together"
I feel compelled to reply.
/., myspace, yahoo, and bam, media player extension isnt installed right. Fine fine. I start iexplore (I hate this more than myspace... this is the only thing I hate more than myspace), /., myspace, yahoo, media player.... BAM, sorry, pop up blocker is blocking this page. Simple to click off, no problem, try again, bam. same thing. wtf? Sorry weird al, guess you really didn't want me downloading that song. But guess what, I'm not gonna buy it either.
First, I read this on my mac... I click onto his myspace page, finally find the real link to yahoo, and use that. Then guess what... No macs allowed. Fine, restart, boot into windows. Start up firefox, back to
end rant
Now back to Mrs. Crazy's math homework (ok, now end rant)
Me too!
Never had any problems ripping it. I keep all my CDs in crates, so I would know if I couldn't rip a given album.
My blog: http://www.seebs.net/log/ --- My iPhone/iPad app: http://www.seebs.net/seebsfrac/
I swear on my life that I won't download this song.
So that no one has to suffer again link.
Yeah, it's not too great. But at least it carries a message, for those who understand irony.
But the lyrics are not very hard hitting either. I get the feeling that his heart's not really set on bucking his paymasters.
Weird Al, How could you? An MP3 encoded at 96 kbs at 22.05 kHz...
Today a piece of my inner audiophile died.
Nothing sucks like a Vax, nothing blows like a PowerMac G4
You gotta love the guy, no matter what is happening in the world, he stays on the bright side and takes the piss. Great song, great album, great guy.
You've gotta see some of his Celeb interview spoofs, the Eminem one is hilarious.
P.S Today my captcha is "emolish", is this some kind of gruel like food, resembling goulash, but made from emos? Cos i'm sold!
You feel sleepy. Close your eyes. The opinions stated above are yours. You cannot imagine why you ever felt otherwise.
Baaaaaaaaaaa!
You obviously understand nothing about music.
Al's musicians (himself included) are an extremely talented bunch. Differences you hear between his parodies and the original songs are intentional, usually adding some whimsical element (acordians) or speeding up the song.
Al's guitarist, Jim West, is amazing at being able to emulate the sound of virtually any artist out there. In fact, when recording for Beverly Hillbillies/Money For Nothing, his rendition was closer to Mark Knopfler's orignal than even Mark Knopfler could do! The story is, Mark Knopfler gave permission for the parody as long as he was allowed to play guitar on the track... when he came in to record it, he'd been playing that song on tour for years and it had evolved somewhat. Jim's version was dead-on like the album version. Being able to mimic so many styles and artists is an amazing talent.
Before anyone suggests that Jim is not an artist in his own right, I'd encourage you to check out his slack-key recordings - when he's not touring/recording with Al, Jim records/performs in a Hawaiian style of guitar that is also quite impressive.
No, irony would be a piece of Weird Al's good advice that you just didn't take. Don't you think?
Weird Al is probably one of the best artists out there currently. He is at least knowledgeable and caring about the industry. This is why the only CDs I have bought in the last decade are his.
I realize that many people have already posted direct MP3 links to higher versions downloadable elsewhere. However like you I got to MySpace and was annoyed that there was no download link on the page. One thing that pisses the hell out of me are the asshats who dislike the facts of technology and reality, and who insist in living in a delusional fantasy land with the insane notion that if they just BELEIVE something hard enough and if they fight against reality long enough, that eventually what they would LIKE to be true will magically become true. In particular the crazy notion that they can magically transmit a "stream" rather than transmitting a "download", in order to prevent people from getting a "copy" of something. The brain damaged people who simply do not WANT to accept the facts of reality that it is physically and technologically impossible for there to be any difference between sending a "stream" and sending a "download". The only difference between them is what the receiver chooses to do after receiving the transmission. They simply want to insist that they they can somehow transmit a "stream" that is not and cannot be be a "download". It is a simply fact of reality that it is physically impossible for any sender to do that. People who simply refuse to accept the fact of reality that the choice of "stream" vs "download" physicaly lies in the hands of the person they send the file to.
And of course MySpace attempts to only use a "streaming" Flash media player to request the download-that-shall-not-be-a-download. So I went and downloaded some advanced Geek level software and used it to capture the download address that the "streaming" Flash player calls. Just on principal.
So for anyone else who is on principal irritated by that kind of "streaming-only" website nonsense, here is the direct MySpace MP3 link. The direct link to the MySpace download-that-shall-not-be-a-download.
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- - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
Does anyone know some email addresses for the RIAA lawyers? I'd love to send it to them.
Notice the tag 'weird'. I think Slashdot should strip spaces instead of just cutting off the tag from the space on. I'm assuming a lot of people tried putting in 'weird al'. -1 Offtopic...
nothing
Or how you assume everyone has the same opinion as you?
"most people" != everyone
Problems with Weird Al:
- He's not funny
- His music, for the most part, is unlistenable dross.
Other than that, I'm sure he's a fine person. In the spirit of his hilarious use of reverse phsychology, ("Don't Download" when he actually really wants you to download, do you see what he's done there?!?) I am going to make the joke even funnier by not downloading what he says he doesn't want me to download and not buying his new CD. It's irony piled upon irony! How can that fail but be riotously funny? With just one inaction I have reached a peak of humour beyond anything Al's managed in decades of trying.
Once in a while maybe you will feel the urge
To break international copyright law
By downloading mp3s from file-sharing sites
Like Morpheus or Grokster or Limewire or KaZaA
But deep in your heart you know the guilt would drive you mad
And the shame would leave a permanent scar
'Cause you start out stealing songs, and then you're robbing liquor stores
And selling crack and running over school kids with your car
So don't download this song
The record store's where you belong
Go and buy the CD like you know that you should
Oh, don't download this song
Oh, you don't wanna mess with the RIAA
They'll sue you if you burn that CD-R
It doesn't matter if you're a grandma or a 7-year-old girl
They'll treat you like the evil, hard-bitten criminal scum you are
So don't download this song
Don't go pirating music all day long
Go and buy the CD like you know that you should
Oh, don't download this song
Don't take away money from artists just like me
How else can I afford another solid gold Humvee?
And diamond-studded swimming pools, these things don't grow on trees
So all I ask is, everybody, please...
Don't download this song
Even Lars Ulrich knows it's wrong
Go and buy the CD like you know that you should
Oh, don't download this song...
Don't download this song
Or you might wind up in jail like Tommy Chong
Go and buy the CD like you know that you should
Oh, don't download this song...
Don't download this song
Or you'll burn in Hell before too long
Go and buy the CD like you know that you should
Oh, don't download this song
Brian: I should ask you the same question. Lois, you're in an auto parts store stealing mufflers. This is worse then that Winona Ryder thing.
Lois: Whaa, are you saying I'm a klepto?
Brian: Uh, actually I was talking about The Age of Innocence.
(The Age of Innocence)
Newland: It is settled, May. Our parents have consented and you and I shall be married on the first warm sunny day of Spring.
May: (stiffly and in an obnoxious voice) That would be most good, Newland, most good.
Newland: (sighs) I'm sorry, but she is just awful, is there any way we could have like a topless scene or something?
Camera Guy: Uh... yeah.
Newland: Really?
Camera Guy: Yeah.
Newland: Oh, great, all right, we got a movie.
A community-oriented lyrics site
Bingo! I'm pretty sure Greg Kihn got tired of people coming up to him and singing "I lost on Jeopardy, baby" I agree that alot of parody artists are hacks, but there is real genius to Weird Al's stuff. Right now I'm currently listening to "Bohemian Polka".
Al's probably aware that he's the luckiest guy in the world to have started off/continued his career by taking others works and remaking them in his image. If only Weird Al was in control of Hollywood...maybe some of these hack remake films would be entertaining.
Some people are like slinkys. They're useless, but it puts a smile on your face to push them down the stairs.
"Please Play This Song On The Radio" - NOFX
We wrote this song, it's not too short, not too long
It's got back-up vocals in just the right places (in just the right places)
It's got a few oohs and ahhs (oooh aaah)
And it takes a little pause
Just before I sing the F word
Please play this song on the radio
Almost every line is sung on time
Almost every verse ends in a rhyme
The only problem we had was writing enough words
(oooh aaah)
But that's okay, because the chorus is
Coming up again now
Please play this song on the radio
Please play this song on the radio
Please play this song on the radio
Please play this song on the radio
Please play this song on the radio
Please play this song on the radio
Please play this song on the radio (please play this song)
Please play this song on the radio (please play this song)
Right about this time
Some shit head will be drawin a fat fuckin' line
Over the title on the back sleave
What an asshole!
So Mr. DJ I hope you've already made your segue
Or the FCC is gonna take a shit right on your head
Can't play this song on the radio (can't play this song)
Can't play this song on the radio (can't play this song)
Weird Al has to be the most creative and talented musician on the face of the planet! At times, he will take a song that just plain sucks and turn it into a parody or joke that makes it ROCK! From the the time he started his career to now, Weird Al has been embellishing the music industry. Al, yet another hit! I want that album now...
"To err is human, doing it again is downright stupidity!"
I know the comment was made as a joke, but in all seriousness Weird Al is a decent musician.
Saw him play live on his Running With Scissors tour. The man can play an accordian and sing and dance doing high kicks all at the same time and not miss a beat. Kinda reminded me of Steve Martin, back when he used to do his bit with the banjo. It was honestly a hell of a show.
BTW, the concert t-shirt I got from that show gets more comments than any other piece of clothing I own. "Hey, is that a Weird Al t-shirt you're wearing?"
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
- Download Slax
- Boot up with slax copy2ram
- Login as root, password toor
- Swap Slax CD with music CD
- Navigate to some writeable directory under
/mnt/. Useful commands {this is by no means a full unix primer}: ls to list contents of directory. Blue is a directory, green is executable, red is compressed, cyan is a shortcut, magenta is a media file, yellow is a device, white is a boring old file.cd to change directory, cd .. to go to parent directory, mkdir to make a new directory. TAB key auto-completes a filename after typing first few chars, cursor up/down to go back/forward through command history. Remember there are 52 letters in the alphabet. - # cdparanoia -B
This procedure is believed to get around all known DRM, even on PCs infected by the Sony Rootkit.Je fume. Tu fumes. Nous fûmes!
eom
Pi Ran Out
If Weird Al were Luke Skywalker, then the RIAA would be the Empire and Sony would be the Emperor. Yes, the analogy's riddled with flaws, but you get the jist of it, right?
Before the DRM wars, Weird Al was one of about 4 artists whose every album I would purchase. The Sony relationship really pisses me off; it's getting harder and harder to avoid funding them these days. Someone else mentioned downloading songs & sending money directly to the artists -- an odd option, but perhaps worth considering. I like my MP3s at 320kbps though, so more likely I'll wait 'til I can find the album used, but still send Al at least the price of the CD.
Weird Al is an incredibly talented artist, and his attention to detail has gotten keener and keener over the years. Parodies and impressions get so much more punch when the artist catches some subtle detail of the original that you missed, then amplifies or caricatures it as a way of pointing it out to you. Yankovic is a master at this, so Poodle Hats off to him for his lifetime accomplishements in general, and for his spirit with stuff like DDTS in particular.
Pi Ran Out
You didn't happen to notice the "Download" link in the Flash streamer thing did you? You know, that link, with the word "Download" on it, that links to the MP3 so you can download it? I guess not.
By summer it was all gone...now shesmovedon. --
Chuckle, nope. I searched all over the normal page, but I guess I didn't search inside the Flash box closely enough. I'm so sick of having to fight for real links from YouTube and every single other Flash-based player that I just got annoyed and didn't expect it to be there.
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- - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwxutLMCnls For those without IE.
When modding "Informative", please make sure it both has a source and IS actually informative.
Is that a song about golf?
My company doesn't speak for me, nor do I speak for my company.
And how did you discover that URL? Because there's only one link on the home page: "http://dontdownloadthissong.com/DDTSecard.html", and that takes me to either a blank page (konqueror) or a flash-plugin dependent page (firefox). So you can see how skimming that site for clues, especially as it was being slashdotted, didn't really help me.
Although that's no excuse for my totally missing the AC who posted that direct link originally. Unless he wasn't modded up by the time I was looking for it.
Evidently, the key to understanding recursion is to begin by understanding recursion. The rest is easy.
Graph from Alexa.com showing myspace traffic vs slashdot traffic over 6 months. I don't think they need to worry about us.
Warning: Apple/Nintendo fangirl. Likes her electronics cute & cuddly. May be rabid.
True, some of his parodies are timely and don't hold up well over time... When I listen to "Headline News" now, I'm like, oh yeah, some kid got caned for chewing gum in... Singapore, was it? Was that really big enough news to write a song about? Huh. I honestly think his originals are overall better quality than the parodies and stand the test of time better (because you don't have to remember the song they're based on to enjoy them) - but unfortunately, they don't get radio play so many people don't even know they exist. But I'll be listening to "Melody" or "You Don't Love Me Anymore" or "Frank's 2000 Inch TV" decades from now.
Btw, do you think he doesn't tour? I've only gotten to see him once (Running w/ Scissors), but I plan to catch the SOL tour. He does tend to play in smaller venues, where even the cheap seats are only a few yards from the stage, and it's terrific.
Warning: Apple/Nintendo fangirl. Likes her electronics cute & cuddly. May be rabid.
No weird al fans here apparantly.
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
Slashdot complains that tabs are redundant and have too much whitespace, even if you say they're code.