"Straight Outta Lynwood" Weird Al 9/26 (1 Viewer)

[DavidBL]

Weird Al Yankovic's new album was supposed to come out last month, but his song "You're Pitiful" (spoof of "You're Beautiful") got squashed not by James Blunt, but his record label (Atlantic). In protest, Al made the song available for free download at his website (http://www.weirdal.com, which is also where you'll be greeted with Al's intro to the new album). The full story can be found here:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...toryId=5482774

Due to the song being pulled at the last minute, the album was delayed, probably because the pressings, CD inserts, lyrics sheets, etc., all had to be redone.

The song is great BTW, and Atlantic records comes off looking pretty pitiful. Having Weird Al spoof your song is a great way to increase its popularity.

 

[Michael Allred]

I thought song spoofs were ok'd by the court system and didn't need permission from song owners for them to be released? I coulda swore I read some news report a few years ago about this.

 

[DavidBL]

They don't, but Al has a very high standard of getting artists' approval before he'll do a spoof. In this particular case, he had James Blunt's permission but the record label stepped in, and Al didn't want to cause problems between Blunt and his label so he pulled the song from the album. Legally he could have gone ahead with it but Al always prefers to take the high road on matters like this even when it causes him a lot of grief (rare in the entertainment industry, I know).

 

[nickGreenwood]

Gotta love Al. I never know when the man is releasing a new album, but the quality of his stuff really holds up over the years.
He's just a fun, quirky guy, I think his "behind the music" special on VH1 a number of years ago was the best.

"I thought song spoofs were ok'd by the court system and didn't need permission from song owners for them to be released? I coulda swore I read some news report a few years ago about this."

I think Al didn't want a similar situation with "Amish Paradise" that happened back in the 90's. He does respect people and wants them to be OK with his spoof's, usually the artist is of the mind that "I haven't made it if I'm not spoofed by Weird Al" but the record companies aren't always so cool about it sometimes. This is pretty much just a different way of saying what David said.