Weird Al: The Book

I don't think it should come as a surprise to anyone that I'm a fan of Weird Al Yankovic, right? I mean, several years ago, I did spend a few hours writing an outline for a Weird Al themed musical. I own just about every song he's ever written. My poor family has had to suffer through me playing his music often enough that it's enough to send my six year old son screaming from the room. On my Facebook profile, I've listed three people as being influential in my life: St. Paul, Martin Luther, and Weird Al. So when I saw that a book dedicated to Al had been published, you can bet that I put Weird Al: The Book on my Christmas list right away. Since my side of the family did Christmas already, I got my copy and devoured it in about a day.

Now some of the stories that I read in here, I knew already, such as how Weird Al and his drummer, Bermuda Schwartz, met before Al performed Another One Rides the Bus on the Dr. Demento Show. I've seen the video of Al performing on Tom Snyder's The Tomorrow Show:



But there was a lot I didn't know. Like how Madonna apparently came up with the idea for Like a Surgeon (!!!), or the problems Al had with TV executives for his kids' show, or how, after UHF bombed, Al almost wrote another Michael Jackson parody. This was a great read for me to find out more about one of my favorite musicians. And the fact that this book is filled with lots of pictures from Al's life and career makes it all the better.

So if you're a Weird Al fan, you owe it to yourself to get this book. And if you're not his fan . . . well, then, what's wrong with you?

I leave you now with a picture of the Weird One that I took myself when he was performing at the Minnesota State Fair two years ago:

Sheer genius.