mightypa's Full Review: Dare to Be Stupid by Weird Al Yankovic
Who's the one musician who can say he has worked with Joan Jett, Michael Jackson, Huey Lewis, Kurt Cobain, AND P Diddy? Weird Al, naturally. And in the mid-1980s, Mr Yankovic released an album that acted as a dare to the world, a dare that meant great risk and great fun. That album? Dare To Be Stupid.
The Dare had eleven tracks, as listed below:
1. Like A Surgeon
2. Dare To Be Stupid
3. I Want A New Duck
4. One More Minute
5. Yoda
6. George of the Jungle
7. Slime Creatures From Outer Space
8. Girls Just Want To Have Lunch
9. This Is The Life
10. Cable TV
11. Hooked On Polkas
Of these tracks, One More Minute, Yoda, and This Is The Life make the best impression. Of course, Yoda is a parody from Al's early career, parodying The Kinks' Lola. Now that the latest Star Wars flick is in theatres and your memories of the little green muppet are fresh in your mind, listen to this one and laugh. The other two tunes are originals and rank among Al's best efforts. One More Minute is the single best love song that's not a love song ever. In my days of high geekdom, I knew this song verbatim. I can't figure out why I didn't have a girlfriend in high school. Mmmmmm. And This Is The Life is from the Michael Keaton movie, Johnny Dangerously, and describes what one would do if one were the richest person in the world. Ah, the high life. Treat yourself to this trio of songs. You won't be disappointed.
Of course, Al doesn't always hit the mark. I Want A New Duck, a parody of Huey Lewis' I Want A New Drug, is lame. I think Al was stretching himself a bit to make this song work, and it just doesn't. Also, George of the Jungle, clocking in at under a minute, just seems to be filler. It's as if Al needed just a little bit more to make the album over 35 minutes long, and came up with this little gem. And lastly, Girls Just Want To Have Lunch, while continuing Al's pre-occupation with food (along with other Al songs like Eat It, Fat, and The White Stuff), came out just a bit too late. By the time Dare was released, the phenomenon that was Cyndi Lauper was long dead. Timing is important, and Al was just a bit late on this one.
Unfortunately, Dare To Be Stupid is usually considered by many to be Al's worst effort. Granted, it doesn't have the same humorous consistency of his superlative In 3-D or Off the Deep End, but there is much to recommend in Stupid. There are some genuine classics, as I've already listed, and come on, it's a Weird Al album. Like pizza or sex, even when it's pretty bad, it's still pretty good.
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