Dare to be Stupid: A Deep Dive - Hooked on Polkas - Beer‘d Al Podcast

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Hello everybody, and welcome to get another episode of The Bird,
a podcast, the podcast about two of the greatest things
in the world, Beer and weird al And I have
a beer that I'm going to open, but it's a bottle,
so I'm not going to get that cool uh sound
effect with you.

Speaker 2 (00:48):
Taking the time shake it up a lot before shake
it up. First of all, they would have got a
better pop sound like the pop sound A. Second of all,
there would have been the sound of pure chaos as
we get clean up everything, everything.

Speaker 3 (01:01):
Clean up on ile me.

Speaker 2 (01:02):
Yea, let's put right in front of the computer and
pop it right there, and then the next sound would
have been the sound of starting a gofund me to
replace all the equipment. Yeah. Yeah, sounds to me like
you just didn't try hard enough.

Speaker 4 (01:14):
Well it's for a good sound.

Speaker 3 (01:16):
Yeah, maybe I'm just a little too cautious. But you'll
notice that.

Speaker 5 (01:19):
There's there's other people in this room, and literally in
this room. Russ had the kindness to roll in here
as he does.

Speaker 3 (01:25):
Thank you. Hello.

Speaker 2 (01:26):
Yeah. I don't think a lot of people will understand
what I go through to get here. I have to
go to my office and roll my chair over here.
And then go back and get other things and come back.

Speaker 4 (01:36):
It's so much.

Speaker 2 (01:37):
Let me ask you this, Bob, did you go here
and then back and then here? No, just one trip
for you trip? Oh fun? Interesting, that's nice. Then speaking
had a chair here for him?

Speaker 3 (01:46):
We did have a chair here for him.

Speaker 5 (01:47):
Yeah, he did, I know, look at that. Yeah. And so,
speaking of other voices in this room, Bob is back.
Bob has been here before.

Speaker 2 (01:55):
Bob.

Speaker 3 (01:56):
We all know Bob. Bob was on the first episode
of this year. Welcome back, Bob.

Speaker 2 (01:59):
Hey.

Speaker 6 (02:00):
I like that. That is a nice ring to them.
Welcome back. Yeah, thank you for having me back.

Speaker 3 (02:05):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:05):
So I would like to say real quick, you said
there are other voices in this room. There are a
lot more voices in this room. You guys just can't
hear the ones that are in my head.

Speaker 3 (02:12):
Oh that's true.

Speaker 2 (02:13):
I just like to make that clear, like there's more
than just the three of us.

Speaker 5 (02:16):
And there's two other bodies in this room because the
dogs happened. When Russ and I record ourselves, the dogs
will be in the living room doing whatever it is
that they're doing. But there's a new person in the house.
There's another person in the house. So our recording studio
my office is not huge, but we have three human

(02:37):
beings and two large dogs, and so we're all here together.

Speaker 6 (02:40):
And the dogs have made sure that I know that
they like me.

Speaker 3 (02:43):
Yeah, oh that's good.

Speaker 5 (02:46):
So before we get too far into this, because I
actually had a thoughtful pairing with my beer this time,
it's unusual. A couple of weeks ago, we were at
a restaurant that was next door to a Polish market.

Speaker 2 (03:00):
And there we were at an Italian restaurant that was
next to a Polish market. Yeah, diversity market, Yeah we.

Speaker 3 (03:09):
Do, we do.

Speaker 5 (03:09):
It's over on San Jose for those of you in
Jacksonville that may want to know that. But anyhow, we
went into this Polish market. Because I'm half Polish, I
was like, oh my gosh, this.

Speaker 3 (03:21):
Is so cool.

Speaker 5 (03:22):
So we ended up they have all this beer from Poland. Really, yes,
so I picked up this but I'm I think it's
pronounced perva p e r L with the thing A
if I had to guess, I think that's a V
in Polish looking L with the thing. My Polish people
are gonna know what the L with the thing means.
But yeah, this is a beer with honey added, and

(03:44):
it is literally from a brewery in Poland, and now
it is in my face and a beer with honey added,
This tastes exactly like that. It's like a it's like
a pilsner with honey. It's like a sweet pilsner. So
I'm I probably is a sweet pilsner.

Speaker 3 (04:00):
But anyway, I dig it.

Speaker 5 (04:01):
And the reason I picked this is because it's Polish
and we're talking about a polka, which is one of
the fine Polish arts.

Speaker 2 (04:08):
I love a polka. I know you love a polka.
Thank you for having me for the polkas. I love
a polka.

Speaker 5 (04:16):
I did ask Bob before we hit a record on
this today. I said, Bob, will you be my polka guy?

Speaker 3 (04:23):
Okay?

Speaker 5 (04:23):
So yeah, yeah, Bob's gonna be the polka guy because
I don't think anybody loves the polka as much as
you do.

Speaker 6 (04:28):
I love the polkas, and we'll talk about that. I'm sure, Yeah,
I love the polkas.

Speaker 5 (04:32):
So we are at the end of the Dare to
be Stupid deep dive, which means we are on the
hooked on Polka's polka, and that's we're going to be
here to talk about today.

Speaker 3 (04:41):
Just some fun facts about this.

Speaker 5 (04:45):
This is the first polka to feature shaven a haircut
during the outro, which is a thing that Al did
quite a bit. Moving forward from this, uh, the title,
of course, as we all know, is a play on
hooked on classics, right, which that makes so much.

Speaker 2 (04:59):
Sense, which I like a lot of them are like that,
like the one the only pokem before this, I think
I told you this. A lot of people don't know this,
but the one before it was called pocus on forty five.
And that's because at the time there was this like
I don't know how they got away with a copyright wise,
but there was this big thing in the music industry
and you've heard them on the Casey Casem Countdown now

(05:23):
called Stars on forty five or these people would do
like like exact covers of other people's hits and then
they would have a hit with it again, okay, and
to the point where if you were listening to it
on the on the countdown you would be like, why
are the Beach Boys on the countdown in eighty two?

(05:43):
But it wasn't the Beach Boys. It just sounded exactly
like them. And but that there was like a whole
rash of those in like eighty one, eighty.

Speaker 4 (05:50):
Two, eighty three.

Speaker 2 (05:52):
Some of them are, some of them are some of
them are just playing straight covers of the song straight through.
But anyways, that's why Pokason forty five was called focus
on forty five And then when so when this one,
I have another story that I'm gonna sare later about
me being done well with the spoke it. But when
I after I listened to it, I was like, oh,
that's going to hook down stars. I got it, like
you know, so yeah, right, yeah, you know.

Speaker 6 (06:15):
I love a good cover song, but I prefer it
when a band takes a song that's not theirs and
they make it their own, right, right, much prefer that
to doing a straight cover of Yeah, sound like them.
It's a weird thing.

Speaker 2 (06:28):
I've done a lot of episodes of my own show,
and we've done a lot on the YouTube channel about covers,
and there's definitely a sweet spot because if somebody does
something and it's exactly like the original, I'm like, well,
I'll just listen to the original. But then if people
go too far, I'm like, that's not even the same song, right,
you know. So like there's there's definitely a sweet spot
for me. But yeah, what those people were doing at

(06:49):
that time was like just straight up there's some sort
of copyright law loophole found by someone. Uh and then
and then they must have either lobby to get a
law change or whatever, because it all disappeared quickly after
like two years of it. So but anyway, so yeah,
this is something else entirely anyways.

Speaker 3 (07:09):
Yeah, yeah, hooked on classics.

Speaker 5 (07:11):
They were compilation records featuring medleys of classical pieces rearranged
with disco beats.

Speaker 2 (07:17):
I think the most famous of those is the Star
Wars one. Like most people have heard that, and if
you haven't, if I played it, you'd go I have
heard that, Like it's and it's literally just John Williams
theme with a disco beat.

Speaker 5 (07:32):
And I'm sure a fifth of Beethoven made them think that,
oh this is how we can there's a market for
this now.

Speaker 2 (07:39):
Yeah, I've heard that, and then six degrees of that stuff,
and I think I've played this for you before, way
before anybody else knew who Robin Thick was. They tried to,
like I'm talking way before blurred lines, like fifteen years
before that, they tried to launch him with a whole
different sound and look way back. Remember I played this

(08:01):
song for you. So there's a song by Robin Thinkets.
I actually like it as much or more than Bloodlines.
But it's called when I Get You Alone. I can't
believe you get to say this phrase. It's based on
a sample of a fifth of Beethoven, which is a
remix of a classical song. So but you know, I've
played it for you before. When it kicks in, you're like,

(08:21):
oh wow, it's a great song. But it's just funny
to me that, Like there's somebody was like, hey, classical
music is public domain. We can put a beat behind that,
and you know, and then when the statute ran out
on that, somebody else was like, hey we can sample
that now.

Speaker 3 (08:36):
It's a Nevan made the circle be unbroken.

Speaker 2 (08:38):
Yeah, but I love that song as much or more
than anything else by Robin Think. They just didn't. It
wasn't a big it wasn't the game. A lot of
time off cut his hair gave him a different set
of songwriters, and boom he had it until he choosing
his wife co On.

Speaker 5 (08:52):
Anyway, another fun fact about Hooked on Polka's is unusual
for a pokem medally, this was was actually released as
a single in Japan.

Speaker 2 (09:03):
Okay.

Speaker 5 (09:06):
The only other Polka medley to receive a release as
a single was Polka Power, the one from the Running
with Scissors album, which was released as a single only
in Germany, probably because it loves the Polka Power.

Speaker 2 (09:18):
Yeah, I want badly to do a parody commercial now
of like like, because Japanese commercials are very distinct, I
want to do a commercial.

Speaker 4 (09:28):
For that, like you know, oh gosh, well there's.

Speaker 2 (09:33):
I'm not going to even remotely try to and to
impersonate that right now, because I think that would be
walking a line of getting canceled. But like, well, I
feel like if I put it, if I work shopped enough,
I could make it ineffensive.

Speaker 5 (09:44):
Well, it's been done because in the mockumentary The Complete Al,
which came out in nineteen eighty five around the same
time as the release of the Dare to Be Stupid album,
there is a bit in the mockumentary where he goes
to Japan to promote his music.

Speaker 3 (09:58):
So that is probably this got released as a single
in Japan because weird alb went.

Speaker 2 (10:04):
I think Polka you think Japan?

Speaker 6 (10:06):
Yeah, I do, maybe.

Speaker 2 (10:09):
Not or not.

Speaker 5 (10:12):
One final fact the the ninety nine Red balloons in
this polka is he sings the German version, but apparently
he mixes up some words and syllables and some of
it comes out as complete nonsense.

Speaker 2 (10:27):
Yes, that's okay, this is real. So when I was
a kid, I had both versions memorized of that tracks
for you ninetyons and when I heard this is not
my fun fact about me being dumb, but when I
heard this polka, I was like livid that I couldn't

(10:47):
do the words along with it, and I because no,
I thought it was user error, like I thought I
was wrong, and then and then years later I figured
out that. And I don't like saying this phrase out loud,
but I found that whirred awl was wrong and it
made me feel indicatives.

Speaker 3 (11:01):
As it should it should.

Speaker 6 (11:03):
Now one more fun fact is this is this the
only poka that finishes an album?

Speaker 3 (11:09):
Yes?

Speaker 6 (11:10):
Yeah, so this is this is the last So obviously
the last song on an album holds a special spot
in the hearts. For us, we'd out fans because I mean,
it gave us Albuquerque after all. But the polka, to me,
it feels like this was supposed to be special, even

(11:34):
though we already had a poka that this poka was
was planned to be special. And we'll get into that.

Speaker 2 (11:41):
But the I think I agree of.

Speaker 6 (11:45):
The album and I did. No other poka closes out an.

Speaker 3 (11:49):
Album, No no other poka does close.

Speaker 2 (11:51):
It actually ties into my fact about I've been telling
Lauren all day. She loves when I share facts on
our show about when I was a child and I
got into weird now and how I was stupid things
like things that I thought wrong or whatever, you know,
And I told her, I said, whatever happens tonight, you
got to remind me to tell you the story, because
I got a good story about me being an idiot. Okay,
revolving around this, but we can get to it.

Speaker 3 (12:12):
And we'll get to it in time.

Speaker 2 (12:15):
But with it, the fact that it closes the album
ties into me being dumb. I can't wait to hear.

Speaker 5 (12:20):
So speaking of this. This is me kind of of
planning this show in my brain. When we hit the
midway point of There to Be Stupid and I had
Insane and on to do the kind of recap of
side one.

Speaker 3 (12:36):
I kind of kicked around.

Speaker 5 (12:37):
I was like, you know what I need to re
sequence there to be stupid because I have so many
problems with the sequencing of the album, not least of
which is the fact that it ends with the polka Right.

Speaker 3 (12:51):
So the next thing that's going to happen on this
show is insane.

Speaker 5 (12:54):
Ian and I are going to do a recap of
side two of this, as we have been doing so
far with these albums, and before I get into Polka Party,
I really am kicking around the idea of doing an
episode wherein we resequence there to be stupid.

Speaker 2 (13:09):
Okay, I would just make sure make it clear to
folks that you don't intend for that to be a
serious because I think this is off the step my head.
I think this is the only record with sequencing issues.

Speaker 3 (13:20):
That's that's right. Oh no, it wouldn't be a series
of finished.

Speaker 2 (13:24):
If you screw around with any other weird l album,
you're going to be messing around with perfection. I feel
I don't like I feel like this is really the
only one that if you I think you can take
what you're talking about. I'm sure people know when they're
listening to your show, but resequencing is basically taking a
album with a bunch of great existing songs and rearranging
it to make the album listening experience more enjoyable. The

(13:47):
reason why I phrase it that way is because there
are people who will be like, well, yeah, but if
you took this song from this album put it on there, No,
you're making a different album at that point.

Speaker 3 (13:56):
Right yeah, Oh no, I wouldn't be changing.

Speaker 2 (13:58):
There's another I've done this actually on mixed CDs before
with There's I think it's their fourth album. There's a
Pearl Jam album called No Code, where if you play
any single song from that album for me, I will
be like, man, this song rules, but if you start
playing them in a row out from the record, I

(14:18):
will be like, please stop doing that. It is the
worst sequenced album I've ever heard in my entire life.
I like every song on it, but not in the
order that they put it. It's like hard to listen to.
So when CDRs became a thing, I was like one
of the first things I was like, Oh, I'm fixing
No Code, you know. So I literally like burned it
in the order that I wanted it to be. And

(14:39):
I was so bummed because years later they finally reissued
it on vinyl and I didn't even think about it
until I got home, Like I ran out to buy
it and I got home and I was like, Oh,
it's going to be in that confounded order. I won't Yeah,
I won't be able to fix it. So yeah, can't
exactly burn a vinyl at home.

Speaker 6 (14:55):
So Laurene, what I do need to know? And if
I have to listen to the future episode I will.
I have to know what you'd close the album with.

Speaker 5 (15:05):
Probably slime Creatures, okay, but I haven't fleshed that out
completely yet. This is something that if if it is done,
I'm gonna sit in noodle on it and maybe Russ
you do it and I do it and we compare notes.

Speaker 6 (15:19):
Sure s I love slim Creatures. I do too, love
slim Creatures, And okay, I can see that. I honestly
think Dare to Be Stupid is the closer.

Speaker 2 (15:29):
Go with that.

Speaker 3 (15:29):
That's something to kick around.

Speaker 6 (15:31):
Too, because to me, one al has used the last
song to name an album before. M hmm, and it
would It makes sense. It's so different than anything else
on the album. I could see that as a closer,
it would stand up with other closing songs.

Speaker 3 (15:49):
That's a good point.

Speaker 5 (15:50):
I will take that under advisement Bob Okay. Oh, So
to the to the matter at hand, we're talking about
once again hooked on Polkas and I'm going to start
just kind of have a free form, positive conversation about
this track. But I feel like I'm just going to
start by listing off the the songs that make up

(16:11):
the Polka and just so everybody's on the same page,
and we'll go from there. So it opens with twelve
Street Rag and then it goes into a State of
Shock by the Jackson's and Mick Jagger with Sharp Dressed
Man by zz Top, Then What's Love Got to Do
with It by Tina Turner, then The Method of Modern
Love by Darryl Hall and John Oates. Then Owner of

(16:31):
a Lonely Heart by Yes We're Not Going to Take
It by Twisted's Sister, ninety nine, Luft Balloons by Nana,
Footloose by the Honorable Kenny Loggins, The Reflex by Duran Duran,
Bang Your Head Parentheses and Metal Health by Quiet Riot,
and Relaxed by Frankie Goes to Hollywood with the finisher

(16:51):
of the Earbooker Polka. So that is hooked on Polka's
and the tracks that we have on it.

Speaker 3 (16:57):
So where do we want to begin?

Speaker 2 (17:00):
I feel like I might be stepping on what Bob
was talking about earlier with the polka. He's you were
kind of talking about. There's a couple of things that's
special about it, so hopefully I'm not going to take
Hopefully I'm not going to start with what you were bringing.
But there's a For me, there's a lot of things
that are special about this polka, but one of which

(17:20):
is this to me is the first time that it
was the recap of current pop culture, because the one
before it is like, uh, Hendricks and you know what,
like in a Gottadavida and all that like, and this
is the other. This was the first one that was like,
uh oh, hey, these were all hits over the past
whatever ye half yeah, year and a half, two years,

(17:43):
so that was cool. The other thing that's special about
this one for me is this was the first weird
Al album that I bought when it was new, Like
in three D I had been a thing by the
time I got onto weird Al, Whereas this was the
thing that I've like waiting for this to be released,
and well we might as well cover my my where

(18:05):
are you down? So I bought it on Vinyl Giant Surprise,
and if you get an original pressing, and I say
original pressing because it's not like this on the squeezebox
repress of a Dare to Be Stupid. If you get
an original pressing of Dare to Be Stupid and you
flip it over the side too, it's got the list
of the songs, and then the last song is hooked

(18:25):
on Polka's and then in that it lists on the
actual label all the songs. So the first time I
looked at that, of course, because I was you know,
I'm me, so I'm looking at all this stuff before
I play the record for the first time. Right, So
then it's getting to the end of the album, and
I was like, how are all these songs going to
fit on this? Still? Like I thought, because it said
all those songs, it lists all the songs on the label,

(18:48):
so I thought he was still going to be doing
like the whole State of Shock, the whole Sharp dress Man,
because I was a kid and I did know any better, right,
So I remember, I remember, I have a clear memory
of like seeing the album get close to that and
being like, how are all these songs gonna fit on
this still, and then when the poka kicked in, I
was like, oh no, it's just it's gonna be a polka.
I get it now. But yeah, I just felt like

(19:09):
such an idiot, like uh, because I don't know. You
look at the record and it's got all these songs listed.
I was like, all right, all these songs are gonna
be on the side. It turns out they were not.
So I have thoughts on each of the songs that
are included in this, but all lots of other people.

Speaker 6 (19:25):
Yeah, well I was gonna say, what's what's different? So
I feel there's two reasons that al includes a song
in a polka. There is the first one is he
likes to take songs that have that are a little
bit subversive and put them to a pop the polka

(19:49):
medley poka sound and upbeat it. And then you've got
this this dirty lyric for another word, and then you
don't and but at this nice fun tempo, right, I
mean candy Shop would be a great example, yes, right, right, So,

(20:11):
but if you listen to the first if you listen
to his first polka, he does that. There are some
very subversive lyrics in that one that I mean uh
in that that polka, This one not so much. This
one stayed of shock a little bit, but after that

(20:33):
you don't really have that.

Speaker 2 (20:36):
It's all popular.

Speaker 4 (20:37):
Songs until relax.

Speaker 6 (20:39):
Until Relax, right, Well I would it is until relax
it is all popular songs, well, all current, very popular songs.

Speaker 2 (20:50):
A counterpoint I can make to that as to why
like lyrics like that might have been missing from this
polka is because at the time, to my memory, you
know people with pop hits that were explicit in any
way was Prince and Rick James. Prince we know for
sure never let we now do any of us any

(21:12):
of his music at all. And I could be wrong,
but I don't think Rick James let him either, So
I think it was for a lack of There wasn't
anything else explicit out at the time that he could
have even included in this to be funny, unless he
was going to just include Prince in the medley, but
we know he wouldn't do that.

Speaker 6 (21:30):
So theory number two is this is the reason to
see album closer is he's using popular songs, he's using
current songs, and so the thought is is, hey, because
these are popular current songs, will close the album with it.
So I think that may play into why it's the
album closer now because I'm listening to it. I remember,

(21:51):
so my first album was even worse, right to record slatter, right, Yeah,
so my first album was even worse. And uh so
immediately I go to the record store and I'm looking
for of course I was a cassette guy, no accounting
for what happens next, but I was a cassette guy,
and so i'm i'm I'm looking for cassettes, and immediately

(22:13):
I see the self titled and I see there to
be stupid, and so those were the ones that I had.
Very quickly after I had even worse. And so this
was the first polka I heard, Yeah, and so it
was like for me, it was like, oh my goodness,
what's happening.

Speaker 5 (22:32):
Yeah, I mean it was because there's no polka on
even worse.

Speaker 6 (22:36):
No poka even worse, there's no polka on the self titled.
So at the time, the only polka I had was
this polka.

Speaker 2 (22:45):
And so this is so I didn't know. I didn't know.
I didn't have anything to compare it to.

Speaker 5 (22:54):
It's such a unique thing that he does that, like
if you're a fan enough of weird how you just
take for granted that a polka is going to be
a thing, right right.

Speaker 2 (23:03):
Well not even the whole concept is. I can't think
of another I'm certainly exists, so hopefully the Internet doesn't
come down on me about this. But like like other
people who do musical parody, I can't think of anybody
else who even does like medleys of other things like
the only one that comes to mind right now, and

(23:24):
I'm certain that I know there's been many, many many before,
But like like the Lonely Island with they do a
lot of parodies of style parodies, like pastiches of things
that are around very you know, a couple of very
famous songs of theirs through US and now right, But
on their records, they never do any like direct parodies,
and they certainly don't do any medleys of other things around.

(23:46):
So like before you even take the polka into this,
it's a unique idea in the first place that no
other comedian musical comedian's ever done.

Speaker 3 (23:54):
Yeah, it's one of those. So when.

Speaker 5 (23:58):
The most recent poll came out, I remember being very
excited about the whole situation, and I was teaching one
of my college classes, and I was using it as
an example for something I don't even forget what I
was trying to explain, but the layers that I had
to peel back to explain to the class of college
students what a weird al polka actually is. I was like,

(24:20):
I think I may have gone too far. We've been
talking about this for twenty minutes, would make us very
small point.

Speaker 2 (24:26):
So of those things where you tell a joke fits
entirely too long and then you get to chuckle at
the end and you're like, well it was much funnier before.
Like you know, you're like, boy, if you understood anything
of what I was just talking about, this would make
total sense.

Speaker 6 (24:37):
You know, Like a polka is an onion, There's no
doubt about it.

Speaker 2 (24:41):
It really is.

Speaker 6 (24:42):
You've got your you are peeling back to really get
to what the core of what he's trying to do.

Speaker 5 (24:47):
Yeah, for sure. And like one of the things I
like about this polka is you see notes of it
in Polkason forty five, which came before. But he is
getting better and he's starting to lay the groundwork for
more of those sound effects that so perfectly mirror the lyric,

(25:09):
like in sharp dressed. Man, you hear enough of like
a ting like because it gets sharp, you know, and
every little sound effect, like all of the funny sound
effects make the every single one serves a purpose and
it's done, in my opinion, more artfully on this than
on Polka's on forty five.

Speaker 3 (25:28):
And it just keeps getting better and better and better
and better and better.

Speaker 6 (25:32):
Yeah, this one is feels the first one feels very
intentional for the first Polka. This Polka feels like, oh,
we're gonna have fun with this.

Speaker 3 (25:45):
It was like Pokas on forty five proof of concept, right, yeah.

Speaker 6 (25:48):
I think it was. And in this one it's like, hey,
I got popular songs. I've got permission. These are songs
that have all just come out. These are songs everybody's
gonna recognize. And when I got there to be stupid,
I was like, I know all these songs. I don't
know German, but I know all.

Speaker 2 (26:02):
The rest of the right.

Speaker 5 (26:05):
So do you have like I feel like I need
to make sure that we talk about some of our
favorite little parts of this because when we were listening
to it earlier today, I was like, oh man, I love.

Speaker 3 (26:15):
That he did that. Oh man, I love that he
did that.

Speaker 2 (26:16):
What do you have a schedule for the second half
of the episode, because we could. I would like to
go through each song that's in.

Speaker 4 (26:22):
We could do that.

Speaker 3 (26:23):
I mean, how about it.

Speaker 2 (26:25):
No, I'd love to do that.

Speaker 5 (26:26):
So let's do that, and I'm going to throw it
to an ad breakdown, so it's earlier on in the show,
because what might as well we're you know, twenty seven
minutes into.

Speaker 2 (26:34):
Like Lornoi says about the ads, don't complain at her
about them because they're based on your browsing history. So
if you doom scroll all day every day, you are
now going to get a bunch of ads about how
it's the end of the world and all your everyone
you believe in political parties is wrong. And if you
don't spend your day doom scrolling and you just spend
time on your phone like trying to be positive and
look up fun things, those are the ads you're going

(26:55):
to get. So yeah, we'll see you in a minute,
and you're going to face the actions of your own
cont consequences of your own actions right now.

Speaker 7 (27:29):
Hey, I'm Hansel Sarin from the bfytw podcast here with
my buddy Stevie.

Speaker 4 (27:33):
Hey, what was up and Aggie, Hey, and we're.

Speaker 7 (27:36):
Here to first of all, categorically deny the rumors going
around that all we've been doing lately is copying other podcasts.
This is categorically untrue and we deny it completely. Having
said that, please continue to enjoy the beard Al Podcast,
but when you're done, please check out our new project,
the weird Ale Podcast, where we pair an ale with

(27:57):
a weird l song. Pretty sure that hasn't been done before.

Speaker 2 (28:21):
And we're back get back of that can. So we
got to watch that again. I know, by the way,
if we have never explained.

Speaker 4 (28:30):
That before, everyone should go quite a bit.

Speaker 2 (28:32):
Okay, well go watch that again if you haven't watched that.

Speaker 5 (28:37):
So we took a pivot before those ads, and we
have decided to go through this track by track and Bob,
you will still absolutely get time to talk about the
stuff that you don't like.

Speaker 2 (28:48):
Okay, you can peperate.

Speaker 3 (28:51):
There's much you can pepper it throughout this do it
however you want. We're at the end of the album.

Speaker 5 (28:55):
You know, we're just having a grand old time here.
So it opens with twelve Street, but the first pop
song we have on this a State of Shock by
the Jacksons and Mick Jagger.

Speaker 3 (29:06):
Russ is shaking his head.

Speaker 2 (29:06):
Yeah, I'm gonna start off for real. Negative this is
this is my biggest negative of this. I'm certain your
listeners and certain people are who are who subscribe to
our YouTube channel know, and I know Bob knows. I
am probably the biggest Michael Jackson fan you will meet
in at least within a one hundred mile radius at

(29:27):
any given moment. Sure, I hate this song so much.
I hate this song. I've never liked it since I
was a kid. I bought the Victory album, which, by
the way, this was the only single released off of
it at first, because they were like, well, that's the
only album, that's the only song that Michael did vocals
for us. We better put that on the radio so
people buy it. And I bought the album hoping that

(29:47):
there were much better songs on it. There were, not,
by the way, terrible album, but I was so mad
that this was included in the in the medlea like
anything else other than that song. I hate the song
so much, and it always it's my It's the biggest
number of the medley of the Polka for me. When
it starts as soon as the PoCA starts, I'm like,

(30:08):
all I gotta do is get through this next like
ten seconds, and I'm good because I just like that
song so much and and there's there's not even much
for him to do for with it creatively either, like
like and it's I will in a moment, I'll stop
going off about how terrible the song is. But Mick
Jagger wasn't even supposed to be on the song originally
it was supposed to be Freddie Mercury, and like Mick

(30:29):
Jagger was like a last minute fill in, which is
like why his vocal is like terrible, and like well
there wasn't even a thing where weird Al couldn't even
really do anything with like the duet aspect of it.
Like it is, in my opinion, it is in this
song in this Polka because it happened to be a
big hit. It happened to be a big hit because

(30:51):
Michael Jackson was singing on it, and it was the
nineteen eighties, like you know what I mean, Like it
was not a good a big hit because it was
a good song. Michael Jackson could have put out a
single of Happy Birth sung backwards in that year and
it would have topped all the charts in one Grammys
Like okay, so it bumps me out, like I don't
like I've talked about this on your show before. I
don't like anytime that weird out makes me feel like

(31:13):
he's doing something because he has to that. I don't
like that. And I feel like this song was only
included because it had to be, like it's a huge
hit associated with Michael Jackson. Do you know what I mean?
I think the I think the rest of the songs
in here are like good songs that that are on
here for a reason.

Speaker 6 (31:29):
So I don't mind the song being in in the Polka.
I wouldn't have started with this. Yeah, they're there are
the I hate to re I hate to double think.
Ou I really really do.

Speaker 2 (31:40):
Know me too, I'm always the same way.

Speaker 6 (31:41):
But this is the to me, there's some really popular
songs in here. There's some things that would really grab
your attention. And if you look at most polka's, I
mean that first song usually grabs your attention right away,
and to me, this one doesn't.

Speaker 2 (31:57):
My only thought on that with this and oh boy,
now we could we could do a whole episode where
we re arrange this and then we could do an
episode where we re arrange the verses and courses and
pre courses of all the other songs and the whole
series of rearranging during But I don't what polka did

(32:17):
he start? Is it? Uh? The uh the one where
he starts with uh mimicking another? So this which is
the one that starts with cred right, Okay? If I
mean this is this is super duper wishful thinking because
it is a thing that hadn't started by like I
don't know, five or six years yet. But I would

(32:38):
have loved it if this started with the very famous
drum intro to We're not gonna take it and yeah, yeah,
and then I mean the same because I love first
of all, I love that drum intro, the production on it,
you know. And then as soon as it gets to
the where it's going to go down to the verse,
like have it switched to the polka there and then
go into it, you know. Oh, and then also I

(32:58):
would like it if State of Shock was not involved
at all. I'm not sure if I made my feelings,
but again, I'm like wishing for something that he didn't
even start doing to like whatever six years after this
record or something. So I'm like, you know, what would
have been good is if he would have had a
time machine. So but yeah, I agree with you, even
if I'm going to allow a State of Shock to

(33:18):
be involved, which it bumps me out on two levels.
I was involved, Yeah, then I don't know why.

Speaker 6 (33:23):
So there are really good songs on in here. I
wouldn't start with this one, yea.

Speaker 5 (33:28):
Yeah, you could even start with like the intro to
the Footloots. Yeah right, you know that could have done it.

Speaker 2 (33:33):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (33:34):
Yeah, I got nothing to say about State of Shock
because honestly.

Speaker 2 (33:38):
You have to deal with every time we hear it
come on that.

Speaker 5 (33:41):
And very very truthfully, I hadn't heard that actual song
until maybe two years ago.

Speaker 3 (33:50):
It was just like, I don't care.

Speaker 2 (33:51):
We listened to a lot of the old Casey Case
countdowns in the car, and uh, you know, in that
time if he mentions Jackson or Michael or Janet or
anybody could be any number of top ten or number
one heads, you know, And and she knows this every
single time the case he's talking and then the beat
first State of Shock starts in the car, I'm always like, oh,
I'm so mad when it's a state of shaka uh.

(34:15):
But yeah, when you move on from there as sharp
dress Man. That's another one where like, I don't mind
sharp dress Man being in here. I just like Zzy's
Top had so many hits at that time, it could
have been any of them. I don't like this one though.

Speaker 5 (34:27):
I like the way he ends a snippet, this bit
every girl's crazy about a sharp dress man.

Speaker 2 (34:32):
Yeah, no I'm not. Yeah, I'm not upset about I'm
just saying he could have put a gimme all your
loven or or likes could have been in there too.
I don't know which one.

Speaker 6 (34:40):
What I like about what you just did, Lauren is
he does that and he is singing to.

Speaker 2 (34:46):
The beat, and the beat just keeps going and.

Speaker 6 (34:48):
And so that's really cool because he intentionally singing it
on the beat, so that the so when he stops singing,
the beat is still going. Yeah, right into the next bit.

Speaker 3 (34:59):
That's that. That's what gets because it goes sharp dressed man, Oh,
watts love got to do? I think that's good transition.

Speaker 2 (35:07):
I think that's my favorite vocal. And this is what's
love got to.

Speaker 3 (35:10):
Do with it? About a second honeymoon.

Speaker 6 (35:12):
We'll jump into that but I love that. That's my favorite.
That's my favorite vocal as well, because what to Do?

Speaker 2 (35:19):
I love it.

Speaker 5 (35:20):
I can't hear that song for real without like that
Tina Turner song has come on countdowns countless time.

Speaker 3 (35:27):
I'm like, we've got to do.

Speaker 2 (35:28):
I've heard people doing like a good job on it
at karaoke, and in my head, I'm like, like, you know,
because that's all I can hear is where L sing it.

Speaker 6 (35:38):
No, it's it's if I was opening, that's what i'd
open with. I mean, I would open because I think,
actually I like the transition too much, so you're probably
gonna have to keep it behind.

Speaker 2 (35:50):
Well, the issue with that too is she goes into
the verse on the original like if you so, if
you were going to open with it, you know what
I mean, He's he would It wouldn't start with him
going right into the chorus of the song. You have
to start with the one that he uses, which like,
we're not going to take it as so poorly written
that the chorus is kind of the first verse. So

(36:11):
that's why that one would work to start with it,
you know what I mean.

Speaker 3 (36:14):
That's totally fair.

Speaker 5 (36:16):
So then after What's Love got to do with it.
It goes into Method of Modern Love by Hall and Oates,
which is a hallo Oats song that I also was
not very familiar with. It was a pretty big I'm
sure it was. It's just not in my arsenal.

Speaker 2 (36:30):
I think out of Touch was on that same record
and was. I feel like that would have been a
much bigger hit out of Touch. Maybe I'm wrong, Maybe
maybe they're not even on the same album. I'll look
it up while you're doing your thing.

Speaker 6 (36:40):
But no, Hall of Notes is guilty pleasure, right, typically
people consider him guilty pleasure.

Speaker 2 (36:46):
Back then people did.

Speaker 6 (36:47):
Now they revered about to say, hallan Notes have so
many great songs that I absolutely love. This isn't This
isn't one of the ones that I would pull out
and say, yes, I love that song.

Speaker 3 (37:00):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (37:00):
So Method of Modern Love was on the Big Bamboom album,
which is the same album that had out of Touch.
Out of Touch was a number one pop hit, and
Method of Modern Love reached number five.

Speaker 2 (37:13):
See, that's what I was gonna say. I would have
thought for sure out of Touch it was. So you know, Also,
there's things I don't know enough about music theory to know,
like Method of modern Love could have just fit in
the polka better.

Speaker 3 (37:26):
I would argue two songs, you know what I mean,
I would pause it.

Speaker 5 (37:30):
My guess would be that weird Al wanted to do
M E T A jo d O have modern l
O V E over a poke.

Speaker 2 (37:36):
But I was That's what I'm saying, that fits better
with his Yeah. But also the difference between a number
one hit and number five hit is not really that big.
It's just me as a kid being like, no, the
other one was a much bigger hit.

Speaker 6 (37:48):
Yeah, And sometimes I likes to do difficult things to
say he can do difficult, which is there are times
where he does the difficult thing to say, hey I
can do that, and maybe you could pick up on
it or maybe you can't, but I.

Speaker 2 (38:05):
Can do it. I always saying, too. There's he might
have been like, you know what I like? Method of
modern love better then out of touch, you know what
I mean? Like could be any number of things.

Speaker 3 (38:13):
Yeah, I mean probably who knows one. Only the weird
one knows.

Speaker 5 (38:19):
The Method of modern Love is followed up by what's
probably my favorite part of this poka oner of a
Lonely Heart, because.

Speaker 3 (38:27):
First of all, I love that song in the first place.

Speaker 5 (38:29):
But I love that he put that really weird breakdown
part from from Owner of a Lonely Heart in the polka.

Speaker 3 (38:35):
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah yeah yeah, and then.

Speaker 5 (38:37):
That gets down into the little jazzy bit of a
poka that you always love.

Speaker 3 (38:42):
But yeah, Honor of a Lonely Heart. Any thoughts, I mean.

Speaker 2 (38:45):
Just the fact that they recreated that. That's one of
those things that I don't think people know. And for
years I didn't realize about things like that. That like
they didn't just sample that. They recreated that. And nine
two one five by ylse Yes is like revered it
was then and is now by like all the innovative
production that they did on it, not the least of

(39:06):
which is those parts like in own over Lovely Heart
And then like here's where Hell and his buddy's just
recreating this like revered thing, you know. And it's not
like they can all run out and by you know,
rolling jupiters or Lynn drum machines or anything and and
you know just go, oh, we'll just program the same
thing they did. Like they had to like find another
way to make the same sounds that are being made

(39:28):
by these like world class synthesizers and whatnot. You know,
so I for I don't know, at least for like
the first five years that I owned there to be stupid.
I just assume they, like, you know, use the original
recording there or whatever. And then years later I was like, oh, man,
to think about well, I wasn't even thinking down about it.
I was just I I never thought twice about them

(39:50):
recreating it.

Speaker 6 (39:51):
You know, sometimes all does difficult things to show he
can do difficult things. And the band is insanely talented,
insanely talented.

Speaker 3 (40:02):
Yeah, it's ridiculous.

Speaker 2 (40:03):
The only thing that I complained about with Owner of
a Lonely Heart on here, and it was two decades later.
It was kind of fixed in a way. Is I
really wanted Weardel to do the whole like move yourself
like you know the but and this is six steps
away from Wardell. But there's that movie to break Up
with Jennifer Aniston, and that's fun. If you haven't seen it,

(40:26):
it's it's it's it's it's good but not great, right
right that part where they do the a cappella version
of ow Owner of a Lonely Heart and when and
I always forget that actor's name, but he's so funny,
the one that plays Jennifer Anison's brother. He's in everything
and he's so funny. He's one of the commentators in uh,
Pitch Perfect, He's he's in Best in Show. He's in

(40:47):
that class of But when he gets right in the camera,
it's like movie yourself. I'm like, that's what I wanted
all those years ago from from Weardell. But yeah, that's
like my only thing is I wish he would have
done more. But then also like he did enough.

Speaker 3 (41:02):
John Michael Higgins.

Speaker 2 (41:03):
Yes, John Michael Higgins. But again though he he again
where all knows more than me, he did enough of
honorable only Heart there for you to know that this
is owner of only Heart and then move on.

Speaker 5 (41:14):
Yeah, And I think because I absolutely get what you're saying,
because that would have been so funny. But the the transition
from that breakdown into we're not going to take it,
because also like that's that's totally worth it.

Speaker 2 (41:31):
I think the only one you mentioned Candy Shop earlier.
I think the only one that I ever liked more
than that is uh the Humpty Dance. M there you go,
Oh it kills me.

Speaker 3 (41:42):
That's so much it's so funny.

Speaker 5 (41:43):
I mean, as somebody who does poky your eyes out
at karaoke every chance I get.

Speaker 3 (41:49):
That's just fun to do. People are like not used
to hearing those words sung this way, right.

Speaker 6 (41:54):
No, I love it. I love it that that is
when I said candy Shop. The other one in my
head is Pumpty Dance.

Speaker 2 (42:00):
Ye regarding we're not going to take it though, I
love that, And I should clarify I love Twisted Sister,
and I love D Snyder and I love this song.
I you know, when I say it's not well written,
it's not. It's just not. But it doesn't have to be.
Like this song is very to the point, right, But
D Snyder's vocal on it is so vicious, like it's

(42:22):
it's a guy being like we have had enough of
this crap and the fact that we're now could not
be more laid back. On the vocal, it's obviously a
purposeful choice, like it's gotta be like that, like we're
not going to take it is so angsty and mad,
and he just sounds like a guy that's like, oh,
and by I did I mention we're not going to
take it? Like I meant to mention that you know what.

Speaker 5 (42:43):
I mean, and it's so smooth and loungy, and the
fact that this particular part of the song ends with
the clarinet doing the rhythm of it right into ninety
nine Loft Balloons, which again vocally, the transition from We're
Not going to Take It into ninety nine Loft Balloons
is like.

Speaker 3 (43:00):
Like such a like a hard turn. Again, it's so funny.

Speaker 2 (43:03):
Yeah, well you're going from a singer from New Jersey
to a young lady from Germany, so yeah, you're gonna
have a different vocal style there.

Speaker 6 (43:09):
And sometimes it's fun to do the hard turns. In
this case, We're not Gonna Take It is such a
culturally relevant song and it was at the time. And
to listen to it stripped down and hear Dee Schneider
sing it stripped down with just a piano or just
the background, it is a amazing song and so but

(43:35):
very culturally relevant. And to me that is my guess
is Al was like, Okay, this is coming in here.

Speaker 2 (43:45):
What can I do with it? Oh?

Speaker 6 (43:47):
Yeah, there's no way this is not going to be
in here.

Speaker 2 (43:49):
What can I do?

Speaker 4 (43:50):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (43:51):
One other side note, I want to mention and when
you were talking about listening to like when you really
listen to something like we're not going to take it.
That's when a record called Stay Hungry, which is a's
a good album, but Twisted Sister always hated the production
on it because at the time, everybody else that had
come up from the metal scene and had this like
really poppy sound to him, and so the record label

(44:12):
had it produced in a way that sounds like pop rock.
Years later and I this is what I love when
artists do this. They the exact same lineup and we're
talking like twenty years later, re recorded the record and
called it Still Hungry, and they did, uh, every track
on the album, but like way harder sounding than the original,
and like, dude, we're not gonna take it. It's still

(44:33):
the same song, but it's just got like a way
harder edge to it, right. Yeah, they also did a
Christmas album, but that's the way. I have not heard that.
And now we'll look for that. Yeah, I'll send you.
I'll send you. We're not gonna it's on streaming. I'll
send you the track. We're not gonna take it from that,
so you can take a listen to it. Absolutely balloons.

Speaker 3 (44:54):
It sounds like he's just stomping through mud and galoshes
and I love it.

Speaker 2 (44:59):
Yeah, I mean that's or less. Yes, I agree. The
thing is is it's for.

Speaker 6 (45:12):
I know the beat, no idea what the words are,
but I know the beat. I know I know this song.
This is one of those where it's like I know
I know this song. I have no idea what he's saying,
but I know I know this song. I know I
know this beat. Yep, I know I know this rhythm.
I know I know this cadence, but I have no
idea what song is.

Speaker 3 (45:30):
Yeah, I don't know.

Speaker 5 (45:31):
I mean again, like we've heard the English version as well,
so we have some kind of an idea, but I don't.

Speaker 3 (45:37):
Yeah, I guess I love the fact that he gets
the German wrong.

Speaker 2 (45:42):
I think, you know, do you think it's on purpose?
Maybe I will well. I mean if he everyone I
knew was walking around just kind of like mumbling and
pretending they knew that they they knew the words, so like,
maybe you know, he was just kind of mimicking the
people who did that. I mean, it's very very possible.

(46:04):
My one thing I was gonna mention on ninety nine
loved fluence is my son and I did a reaction
video to the German version not long ago on our channel,
and it was fun for me just to be like,
why are you bringing this to me, you know because
like he was born like a thousand years after the
song came out, you know. But the more I feel, dude,
I'm older than you are, the more the most common

(46:27):
comment we got on that reaction video, which people were like,
I was today years old when I realized there was
a German version of the song, and I was like,
but oh, though, like they were at like they were.

Speaker 4 (46:37):
There at the same time they existed.

Speaker 2 (46:39):
Message like I'm not the only person who knows there's
two rock me.

Speaker 3 (46:42):
I on my dance right, No, I think I knew that, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (46:45):
There's American or English and German brother but like that
both versions of Love Palons were like really big at
the time. So I'm just surprised that people are like, oh,
I didn't know there was a German version. I'm like, well,
she is German. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (46:59):
Apparently the English version is not a direct translation of
the German.

Speaker 4 (47:02):
Original, right I guess, and it contains lyrics.

Speaker 3 (47:04):
With a somewhat different meaning.

Speaker 2 (47:07):
Well, yeah, a lot of things are like that. That's
like the only thing I can quit that to these
days is the first season of Squid Game. A lot
of people were like, yeah, but you're not really getting
what they were really trying to say with a lot
of this because they just had somebody translate the Korean
wording into English, and so they were just like like,

(47:29):
here's here's what they would be saying in English, and
it's like, yeah, but there's certain words and phrases in
Korean that have like subtext to what they were saying
that they didn't translate. And that was ninety nine lufflines
was that way.

Speaker 6 (47:41):
It's like Eskimos have a hundred one hundred different words for.

Speaker 2 (47:44):
Cold, right right, Well, if that much cold colds.

Speaker 5 (47:47):
Around you, yeah, you would have you would have some
cold stuff. So Footloots Kenny Loggins.

Speaker 2 (47:53):
I don't even have a lot to say about this.
It's good, it's good where it sits. I like it.
I mean, it's a great so you'd be you'd be
ridiculous to leave it out of here. It was such
an enormous hit. Yeah, you could do a polka medley
based on side one of that record.

Speaker 6 (48:06):
Listening to this This is when I go, oh, that's
what he's trying to accomplish with this. We got lots
of hits here because oh, this is a huge hit.
It was this song. Once we get to hear it's like, oh,
now everything else is falling into place for me. Oh
we got the Tina Turner, Oh we got Broken Heart,
we got We're putting in as many hits, as many

(48:28):
great hits as we possibly can. Oh, this is why
we're ending the album with this. Yeah, this is where
that came together for me.

Speaker 3 (48:36):
It's a real time capsule of a polka for sure.

Speaker 6 (48:39):
You know, yeah footloose, which is one of my favorite
things about a polka. Yeah, they're time castles.

Speaker 2 (48:45):
Yeah, like you and I have said to each other
when playing music trivia or whatever, we both of us
and this isn't just her saying it to me have
been like no, because that song is on this polka
and that album came out in this year, so it
had to have been released before that, or like literally
like because she knows this. When I get to music trivia,

(49:07):
I am the most second guessing person on planet Earth.
Like I will get in my own head about well,
let's say a song that that that uh it comes
off another word I'll poka miss You Much by Jana Jackson. Okay,
so I will start arguing with myself over like, well,
the album Rhythm Nation came out this year, but was
that song a single that year or was it the

(49:28):
year appe like that type of thing, you know, as
far as like what the answer is, right, and her
and I have literally been like, well no, because Miss
You Much was on the polka on you know, off
the Deep End, and that came out this year, so
it would have had like you know what I mean. Like,
that's so they're not just time capsules, they're learning tools.

Speaker 3 (49:46):
They are learning tools. That's great, That's very true.

Speaker 5 (49:49):
Like because the footlooth is being followed by the reflex
by Duran Durant, Like without this polka, my brain would
always put the reflex and other Duran Duran stuff like
later in the eighties than this.

Speaker 6 (50:03):
Really yeah, yeah this feels y'all know Duran Duran weren't
even popular in the late eighties.

Speaker 3 (50:10):
Right, No, I know that.

Speaker 2 (50:12):
I'm thinking mid eighties though. This was really for Duran Durant. Yeah.
I like this side note, fun fact, this is far
and away my personal favorite developer or developer Duran Duran song,
Duran Duran the reflex like, Oh, it's like I don't
mind girls on film and well and all their other
they have a million nuts, but this has always been

(50:33):
my favorite Duran Duran song. So this one, by contrast
to State of Shock. I was excited that this song
was included in here because I love that song.

Speaker 6 (50:40):
Yeah, I think this is the band, and I could
be wrong. I think this is my My wife had
a thing with their dad that when he was driving around, uh,
my wife and her friends. If my wife went and
asked him to prove her dad's cool, if she asked
him who sings this song, she'd only do it during
Duran Duran songs. So he just say Duran Duran, and

(51:02):
the girls at the back would go, Wow, he's so cool.

Speaker 3 (51:05):
That's really fun I love that. That's great, that's funny.
That's I mean, that's It's.

Speaker 5 (51:09):
A good system to have, you know, trying to prove
somebody's cool. Be like, I'm only gonna I'm not gonna
throw you under the bus.

Speaker 3 (51:15):
With any of this.

Speaker 2 (51:17):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (51:17):
Then it's followed by Bang your Head Metal Health by
Quiet Riot.

Speaker 2 (51:22):
This is another one where I mean, we don't have
to look it up, but I'm like ninety percent sure
that come On Feeling Noise was a far bigger hit
than Oh Yeah, for sure. But come On Feeling Noise
was a cover of Slade, So I think you you
run into more rights issues with that because you can't
just you don't have to ask quite right. You gotta

(51:42):
ask quite right and Slade right. And so my guess
is he probably went with the one that was easier
to get the rights too.

Speaker 4 (51:49):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (51:49):
So Metal Health was a single, a Quiet Riot single
between two Slade covers, come On, Feel the Noise and Mama,
We're All Crazy Now.

Speaker 2 (51:57):
No, that's no, that's two different songs, two different albums.

Speaker 5 (52:00):
I know I'm saying Mental Health. I'm looking at the
Quiet Right Riot singles chronology.

Speaker 2 (52:05):
Oh okay, I didn't. I thought you were. I misunderstood
you're phrasing.

Speaker 4 (52:09):
That's my bad.

Speaker 3 (52:10):
Yeah, mental Health.

Speaker 2 (52:11):
No. But that's so that's what's funny about quite right,
And no one in America seems to realize this. Their
two biggest hits was come On and Feel the Noise
h from the Metal Health album and Uh, Mama, We're
All Crazy Now from the Condition Critical album that followed it,
and they're both covers of Slade. Their two biggest hits

(52:31):
are not only covers but covers of the exact same band.
Because Slade wasn't big in the US, so they can
get Ready, they can get away with that all day long.
Just he can just go re release Slade's greyt Hits
is a quite right album and no one would know.

Speaker 6 (52:45):
That's how I feel sometimes with Garth Brooks, it's like, oh,
that was a cover. I didn't real He's got so
many big hits covers, it's like, oh, this is one
that because Al has said there's times where he feels, hey,
I've got to get this band on the app whether
it's a whether it's a parody, or whether it's a

(53:07):
stylistic parody. There are times when he's like, Hey, at
this time, I got to get this band on this
album somewhere, and I got to do something for them
or something for to recognize my love of them. And
so this to me quiet Riot at the time, that
feels like what this is?

Speaker 2 (53:26):
Well?

Speaker 6 (53:26):
I also I really want to get quiet right in
this Pocson. I don't know if i'd agree with Quiet Right.

Speaker 2 (53:31):
I think he really wanted to get the genre in
the in the polka for sure, because that that genre,
it was enormous. But what I would argue though, is
in certainly years later where now would get far more
edgy with the polkas, Like, for example, I don't yeah,
I don't think where now that's on there to be stupid.
Would have ever considered putting Candy Shop in a in
a that way or closer go back and listen to

(53:52):
forty five and well no, But I was like, I'm
talking about those the songs I'm talking about with they
are like super obvious obviously, you know what I mean.
The stuff that's on the other is like things that
people didn't know. That's almost kind of kind of part
of the joke. But at the time, like the bands
that would have been big in that genre, I feel

(54:13):
like I'm quite right it would have been. And Twisted Sister,
for that matter, are the voted least likely to be offensive,
Like Motley Crue had very much had the whole satanic
thing going on with them at the time. Def Leppard
every video they had, because this was before hysteria was
all like swords and blood and stuff, you know, Like, no,

(54:34):
the songs had anything to do with that. But like
the image they were putting out Ozzie, he most certainly
is not going to cover Ozzy Osbourne in nineteen eighty three,
four or five, you know. So to me, I don't
know if it was so much like I got to
get quite right on there, but I think he was like, like,
la metal is hot, I got to get that on there.
Who amongst you is the least defensive, right you know?

Speaker 6 (54:56):
And if he's going for what I think he's going
for is a pop met popular songs to finish the
album with, than sure, yeah, right, it would be the
way to go.

Speaker 3 (55:06):
Or maybe he just wanted to hit an anvil.

Speaker 2 (55:08):
Right, which is a great don't don't.

Speaker 3 (55:11):
I think it's very funny.

Speaker 2 (55:12):
My brother, that's funny. My brother was really big into
Quiet Riot for some reason. And uh, anytime he would
hear that coming from my room, I would hear from
his room, it goes. I mean like, yeah, I know
I've heard I've heard the whole album several times from
your room. I know that's not how it goes.

Speaker 5 (55:27):
That's funny, but yeah, then this close up with Relaxed
by Frankie goes to Hollywood, which is the filthiest thing
on this But.

Speaker 2 (55:34):
Again though no one knew that, right and when that
song was new, no one, like even adults I knew,
were not like, oh boy, the kids don't know about
Like people didn't get what that song was about. So
and I'm not saying weird Al didn't. I'm saying they
got away with it, so he could, you know. And again,
not not to beat this dead horse, but like with Closer,

(55:54):
there's no mistaking that. Like you, when Weirdell does that,
you know everyone and know what he's doing with this.
He just was this was the thing. Nobody realized what
it was, and it was just easy for him to throw.
I think it's a fantastic ending.

Speaker 3 (56:10):
It's a really good ending for this polka, for this polka.

Speaker 6 (56:13):
Yes, I agree.

Speaker 2 (56:16):
I'd have to look it up and see two. I
think that's the oldest song that's in this polka. Like
an order of release, I think I could be wrong.

Speaker 3 (56:27):
This is October of eighty three. Yeah maybe probably maybe,
because yeah, this song was out well before the reflex
was April of eighty four. I mean this is easy enough.
I've got things to click on. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we're
not going to take it was eighty four. Yeah, you
might be right. This might be the oldest.

Speaker 2 (56:49):
Thing I think it is. No, not well, when did
n I Know two one five come out?

Speaker 5 (56:53):
Well? Owner of a Lonely Heart was released enough to
eighty three, So this and Relax What Love Got.

Speaker 3 (57:03):
That's for eighty four? Sharp Tressed Man?

Speaker 2 (57:05):
Yeah, I feel like everything is like uh like? When
was Sharp dress Man released a single?

Speaker 3 (57:12):
July of eighty three.

Speaker 2 (57:16):
It was State of Stupid Shock, released as a I'm
not mad about it?

Speaker 6 (57:21):
So I know al does the parodies last, right, the
parody when he's making an album. The parodies are what
he does last, usually because he wants them to be
the most current they could possibly be.

Speaker 2 (57:33):
When does he do the polka?

Speaker 6 (57:34):
When do you think when in making the album, when
do you think he decides, Okay, these are the ones
I'm going to include.

Speaker 3 (57:40):
So according to the internet.

Speaker 4 (57:44):
Weird Alum, which is always right right.

Speaker 5 (57:46):
He began recording sessions for this in January of eighty five.
The first session yielded four originals There to be Stupid
Cable TV slime creatures from outer space in one More Minute.
They also recorded the Georgie of the Jungle thing. At
the time, the following month, he began recording the albums

(58:07):
for the parodies in the Polka came at the same
time around that they were all kind of conceived.

Speaker 3 (58:12):
That makes it together, So that makes sense. Yeah. February
twenty first, nineteen eighty five, Yankovic began recording the parodies
for Der to be Stupid For.

Speaker 2 (58:22):
Me, I mean, and of course I however weird All
did his thing is obviously far superior to how I
would do it. But I because the polkas are always
uh the uh time capsule, I'd probably wait to as
close as possible the record and just be like one
of the biggest hits.

Speaker 3 (58:38):
Yeah, So this is recorded on March twenty fifth, nineteen
eighty five.

Speaker 2 (58:41):
Right, that makes sense.

Speaker 3 (58:42):
So there you have it that's hooked on polkas. We
still have any negative points that we may have, and
then just a rating on a scale of one to
twenty seven.

Speaker 2 (58:51):
I believe I covered my negative points when I went
into state of shock. But Bobby, if you have any well,
here's the thing.

Speaker 6 (58:57):
Because I feel like he's trying to get because I
feel he's trying to get popular songs on here. For me,
this poka compared to some of the other ones that
are a little more subversive.

Speaker 2 (59:10):
It's a little more vanilla. It's a little more vanilla.

Speaker 6 (59:13):
This this if I'm lining them all up, if I'm
lining up the polkas, this is going to come before
some of the more one note polkas. Certainly before Uh Yeah,
I actually like only because it hit me at the time.

Speaker 2 (59:35):
Instance, I'm gonna be the Poka guy.

Speaker 6 (59:36):
I wanna get a chase of talking you are, so
I won't talk about it now, but because of the
of when it hit me and the age I was
when I first heard the Hot Rocks Poka, that one's
special for me. But this one, on the other hand,
Usually with al fans, if you don't haven't realized, whatever

(59:57):
their first album is is their favorite album whenever their
first experiences.

Speaker 2 (01:00:03):
Yeah, probably, I would say. I mean, like, I know,
like a legion of people who think Bad Hair Day
is like far and away the best thing he ever did,
because that's the one they all bought first, right.

Speaker 6 (01:00:14):
And for me it's even worse because that's the one
I bought first. But this is my first polka. And
if i'm if I'm singing a polka and I'm known
to sing a polka or two. If I'm singing poka,
this is probably the last one I'm gonna pick. This
is the one I don't have memorized right off the bat.

Speaker 2 (01:00:36):
Are you intimidated by the German gibberish? No, I don't
even think.

Speaker 6 (01:00:41):
I just I mean, you know, I was sitting there
and this morning I was humming, and I was like,
because I hadn't really looked, okay, which one is it?
And the one I was humming was the one from
uh in three D. And I was like, yeah, because
I and I'm and I hit doing pretty good, get
five different songs boom boom boom, hitting the transitions and

(01:01:04):
all that, and this one. Until I hit play, it's.

Speaker 2 (01:01:08):
Like, oh, I remember this one.

Speaker 6 (01:01:10):
I've got it, but it's not the one that immediately
comes to mind. If I'm gonna sit and if I'm
just gonna start randomly humming up polka, which I've been known.

Speaker 3 (01:01:20):
To do, yeah, yeah, I'm.

Speaker 2 (01:01:22):
Not kidding you. I'm not saying this to be funny,
but I oh, I can never remember what starts this polka.
Like earlier today, before I listened to it again, I
was like, what starts that? Why I can't And then
and I know this is being funny, but I'm not
saying it like this literally does happen to me. Anytime
this poka comes to my mind, I'm always like what,
what's what? Like why can't I And as soon as

(01:01:44):
I hit playing, like oh that song, damn it, Like
that's why, like I get so mad about Stage of Shock.
Other than that one stage shotguns out the way, I'm like,
it's off to the races. I know every transition like perfectly.

Speaker 3 (01:01:56):
It's a good time.

Speaker 5 (01:01:57):
I have nothing bad to say about this poka, Like
it's not my favorite, but it's a really good snapshot
of its time, and it definitely laid the groundwork for
Polka's being that.

Speaker 2 (01:02:07):
I was just thinking that it's there's always got to
be the first through the wall, you know, and it's
not perfect by any means, but it's it's definitely the
one that shapes however. I mean just when you think
about just the Humpty Dance thing or the candy shop
like we were talking about, like like there's always that
moment in a polka and it starts here like it always, uh,
they always begin and end with like different style polkas

(01:02:29):
or whatever like that. Starts here. The h the idea
of just being a time capsule for the past couple
of years that starts here, like and and also any
one of the Poka's there's always a thing where you're like, Wow,
that other song was a bigger hit. I wonder why
this one, Like even if you're gonna discuss it in
that depth like that all starts here too, you know,
and like you, I can't. I think it was you

(01:02:50):
that brought up Laurn the sound effects, you know, really
being as funny as I like the bang your head thing,
like it's just that's funny to me that like it
started there, and then you can draw a dilect direct
line from that to the donks and closer.

Speaker 3 (01:03:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:03:09):
Well, my guess is is that this is this is successful.
And the reason I'd say it's successful is we have
it on the first album and no idea it was
coming right, and then you do it on this album
and you close it then as we've had to Polka party,
well they named the album from Hey, we're putting the

(01:03:30):
polka on here, and so you have to think that
Al's feedback is, Hey, you're doing this unique thing that
nobody else is doing this is really cool, This is
really funny.

Speaker 2 (01:03:42):
Has depicted in the biopic. And I was there, so
I can I can tell you this is how it
really was. I mean, you have to remember Polka parties
were all the rage at the time too, So he
was gonna and name the album Polka Party. You know
what I mean? You have to read. I mean, you know,
I know it was before your time, but it was.
It was a different scene people. I used to get him.
So that's that scene in the movie hits home with

(01:04:04):
me when he gets in trouble for sneaking out some
bulk party because I was constantly sneaking out to Polkan parties.

Speaker 6 (01:04:11):
You know what's funny is is uh remember how I said,
I got even worse. I went and go find the past.
I didn't find Polka Party. Yeah, I didn't find Poka Party.
It was eighty the summer of eighty eight, and I
was working in a commissary for the boys Scott summer camp.
I was working and the guy happened to be working

(01:04:32):
with had that one tape.

Speaker 2 (01:04:35):
He had it on cassette and.

Speaker 6 (01:04:36):
He played and I've got a weird alt album that
I'd never heard before, And I was like, oh, Polar
Party and it was Poker Party. I was like, I
didn't even know this existed. Of course, then I pull
out my three four cassettes whatever, I say, Oh, we're
gonna be rocket weird out all the time.

Speaker 2 (01:04:54):
I became a weird al hipster in that moment. He's like, oh,
you have Polka Party. I like his older stuff.

Speaker 6 (01:04:59):
This debut album, I had no idea it existed.

Speaker 2 (01:05:03):
I was just like, I've got.

Speaker 6 (01:05:04):
A full album of weird al songs that I've never
heard before.

Speaker 2 (01:05:09):
You know, I always tell people all the time, Lauren,
here'shen me say this all the time. You know how
people are like, oh, I was born at the wrong time, man,
I absolutely was not. Like I got to see everything
that I The only regrets, not even the right word.
The only wish I ever have is I was too
when Elvis Presley passed away, So like, maybe born a
little bit earlier, just so I can like have a
chance to see him live. Other than that, I got

(01:05:31):
to see so many awesome things, like me being a
music person and continue to witness awesome things. But I
am in a weird way jealous of Like my son
was born in two thousand and six, so he had
like I don't know, ten weird al records that were
brand new to him all at once, you know what
I mean, and in all sorts of other musical brilliance.

(01:05:52):
Like I always tell Lauren this, like if I could
go back in time and hear the song Welcome to
the Jungle for the first time, Like if you could
somehow eternal sunshine me to like you know, wipe that
from my memory and then play that for me right now,
Like I would do that every day, Like I would
hear Welcome to the Jungle for the first time every day.
And the fact that like there's someone listening to this
right now, who's who might be like, let's welcome to

(01:06:14):
the Jungle and then go here it for the first time.
I am raging with jelousey.

Speaker 3 (01:06:18):
For that person's beautiful thing.

Speaker 6 (01:06:20):
It is fun with kids to have that contact knowing
that they're hearing things for the first time. So I
refereed a robotics event this weekend, and yeah, right, So
it's very competitive though. So they're playing music through the
whole day and at one point I hear and I

(01:06:41):
was like, why are they playing all about the Benjamin's
That wait a minute, Wait a minute, and honest to goodness,
it is all about the pinions. And of course I'm
singing every word and I text Megan, and Megan texts
me back immediately goes, I know I'm singing every word,

(01:07:02):
and that is that cultural thing. That's that I introduced
her to this song. She knows it as well as
I do because it's the one I probably played the
most and U and she tries just right there with me,
And so it's really fun to have that touch point
with your kids.

Speaker 2 (01:07:19):
Yeah, it just is.

Speaker 3 (01:07:20):
Yep, it's gorgeous. I love it. We have to get
down to business and give it a rating on a
scale of one to twenty seven.

Speaker 2 (01:07:27):
I'll go first, Well, real quick, before we do that,
last week's episode, you and I apologize to a certain
extent because of how short the episode was, because there
wasn't a whole lot to talk about with Cable TV
assured people that next week would be much longer, far
more in depth, and that Bob would be an awesome guest.
And I believe we've made got on all these promises. Well,
thank you for that. These are campaign promises you can believe.

Speaker 3 (01:07:48):
In, right on. Yeah, So I'm just going to run
on the beard out platform and call it a day.

Speaker 4 (01:07:53):
You probably win, I would.

Speaker 3 (01:07:56):
I'm going to give this on a scale of one
to twenty seven. I gave Cable TV twenty two and
you were like, that's generals.

Speaker 2 (01:08:02):
I'm what a, what a? What an incredible impression that was?
I thought it was me.

Speaker 5 (01:08:07):
I know, I'm gonna I'm gonna give this a twenty
four because I like it as a polka and like,
you can never really go wrong listening to a weird
at polka. So that's gonna be what I give this.

Speaker 2 (01:08:23):
I'll go ahead and go next. I'm gonna give it
a twenty and ninety of the points that I'm giving
it are for those things we talked about where this
is the goat, this is the og like, this is
the one where so many things come from. Uh. I
am deducting six points for state of shock, and I
am deducting one point because I wish out of Touch
was there instead of method of Modern Love. But everything

(01:08:47):
else that we like, there's nothing to dislike here as
far as like if you just like, let me put
it this way, if you were again, we took a
younger person and we played a bunch of polka like
quote better or later polkas for them, and then after
that went and then here's where it started. They would
be like, oh, I totally get where that came from,
you know, And that's that to me, earns it that

(01:09:08):
right to get into twenty. Can't crack twenty cracked into
twenty one though, because stand shock's on there, and I
can't abide giving that as fair. I'd have a.

Speaker 6 (01:09:17):
Really hard time giving any polka below a twenty I
had just because it's a polka. Sure, but again for me,
this one's a little more vanilla than what's coming later.
And so this one hits twenty one, I'll get my
lucky number.

Speaker 2 (01:09:36):
Six points deducted for state of shock. No, I wouldn't
do that, but.

Speaker 6 (01:09:41):
It just if I'm lining them all up of the
medley polkas, this one's going to be one of the
It is probably going to be one of the lowest
ones for me. Yeah, because I've got ones coming that
I absolutely love. Oh yeah, I love it, absolutely love.
So I've got twenty seven's coming. Ah, I have no idea,

(01:10:02):
and you know I have some that if I if
I put them on, I'm singing every word. I'm singing
it all the way through because I absolutely love it,
and I can think of two right off the top
of my head that is like, let's go.

Speaker 3 (01:10:13):
I love it, I love it. Yeah, you're locked in
for quite a while now.

Speaker 2 (01:10:18):
One more thing regarding Polkas, and again I realized we
were several albums away from and we will be discussing
Hot Rocks Polka. When I got UHF, I had never
known of or heard the Rolling Stones hits package, so
I didn't know why it was called Hot Rocks. So
I kept being like.

Speaker 3 (01:10:36):
These are all why are they doing this?

Speaker 2 (01:10:38):
This is rolling Stone songs? Why is this called the
Hot Rock? I don't and then like I don't know.
Two or three years later, I came into a copy
of Hot Rocks.

Speaker 4 (01:10:45):
And I was like, ah, I'll do it.

Speaker 2 (01:10:47):
Oh no, I get it. I had no idea.

Speaker 6 (01:10:50):
You know what, Russ, you and I are right there,
same thing. Yeah, yeah, I had no idea. I like,
I loved it, but I was like, why why is
this called that? But it's like because after went through
it's like, well that's a Stone song, Well that's stones,
that's there's a lot of.

Speaker 2 (01:11:05):
Rolling Stones on this one.

Speaker 6 (01:11:06):
I didn't know they were all rolling stones, but it
was just like, there's a lot of rolling stones.

Speaker 4 (01:11:11):
Why do you do that too much?

Speaker 3 (01:11:14):
Too much? Well, I think that's uh. That's hooked on polkas.
And I will tell you this much. For those of
you listening, Bob will now henceforth to be our polka guy.
So when we hit the poko, Okay, yeah, that's been
all my brother's podcasts where I'm brother, I'm.

Speaker 6 (01:11:34):
Brother Bob, Poke Bob, I like that.

Speaker 3 (01:11:37):
Yeah, you're gonna be Poke Bob over here on BEARDL.

Speaker 5 (01:11:39):
And speaking of your brother's podcast, your brother Jonathan has
the Trivial Warfare podcast, which, if I do backwards math
in my brain, his podcast is the first podcast I
was ever on, and then I got comfortable doing it
and then decided to start this show. So I kind
of owe your brother quite a bit because it's the
reason that we're sitting here doing this today.

Speaker 2 (01:11:59):
So and if we're gonna.

Speaker 6 (01:12:01):
Plug his show, I will say that they just celebrated
ten years of being a podcast and they and they've
got over five hundred episodes. And in those five hundred episodes,
if you're a weird Alt fan, there is a themed
episode where they say there at the beginning of the episode,
there's a theme and every answer is a weird Alse

(01:12:24):
song title. Every answer is a weird Alse song title.
And it is very fun when my brother figures out, oh,
there's a theme and he looks through and sees the
names of the thing and you get he gets the
aha moment.

Speaker 2 (01:12:37):
He's like, that's the answer. I know what the theme is.
I know the theme.

Speaker 4 (01:12:40):
Who wrote I.

Speaker 6 (01:12:41):
Don't know, but you had something very similar that never
saw the light of day. If I'm not mistaken, I.

Speaker 2 (01:12:47):
Did you did?

Speaker 3 (01:12:48):
It got recorded and that the recording was corrupt or something,
so it's a lost Like the.

Speaker 6 (01:12:54):
Recording was like, that's what happened, So they lost the record.
It was recorded, but it was never aired, the one
that Lauren was on. But there is a weird Alt
themed episode that if you are a diehard weird Al fan,
it's a fun episode to listen to.

Speaker 3 (01:13:10):
Yeah, yeah for sure.

Speaker 5 (01:13:12):
Well, next time on the show, I will have Insane
and on to help us wrap up side two of
the Dear to Be Stupid album, and then.

Speaker 3 (01:13:22):
You know, we'll play around.

Speaker 5 (01:13:23):
We'll probably re sequence it and you know, do a
little bit here and there. Before we dive into a
poka party, which starts with living with a hernia, which
Russ loves to talk about, not the act of living
with a hernia, but the song Well.

Speaker 2 (01:13:36):
I mean like I I like to sing that song,
So in a sense, I do like talking about living
with a hernia.

Speaker 3 (01:13:42):
But not the act of living with.

Speaker 2 (01:13:44):
The act of No. No, are you familiar with the
different types of hernias that you can get? I'll tell
you later, Okay.

Speaker 3 (01:13:50):
I'll settle down.

Speaker 5 (01:13:52):
Ye all right, folks, thank you so much for listening. Bob,
thank you for being here. Oh, thank you, poke Bob
for being here. That's right, I'm gonna have to make
sure I remember to tell him as such.

Speaker 6 (01:14:02):
I got to be on the show, and I got
a new nickname, thank you very much.

Speaker 2 (01:14:07):
Not everybody gets those things, or let me say this,
not everybody gets us to tell them what their nickname is.

Speaker 5 (01:14:15):
All right, folks, we'll come at you next time, and
in the meantime, stay weird, be awesome.

Speaker 3 (01:14:20):
Bye bye bye,

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Dare to be Stupid: A Deep Dive - Hooked on Polkas

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Dare to be Stupid: A Deep Dive - Hooked on Polkas