Straight Outta Lynwood is the twelfth studio album by the American parody musician "Weird Al" Yankovic, released on September 26, 2006, the title drawing inspiration from hip hop group N.W.A's Straight Outta Compton. It was the sixth studio album self-produced by Yankovic. The musical styles on the album are built around parodies and pastiches of pop and rock music of the mid-2000s. The album's lead single, "White & Nerdy", is a parody of Chamillionaire's hit single "Ridin'". The single debuted at #28 on the Billboard Hot 100 and peaked at #9 the following week; "Canadian Idiot", a parody of Green Day's "American Idiot", also charted, peaking at #82.
The album contains three further parodies, based on "Confessions Part II" by Usher, "Do I Make You Proud" by Taylor Hicks, and Trapped in the Closet by R. Kelly. The other half of the album is original material, containing many "style parodies"—musical imitations of existing artists, such as Brian Wilson, Rage Against the Machine, Sparks, animated musical specials, Cake, and 1980s charity songs. Originally, there were plans for the album's lead single to have been a spoof of James Blunt's hit "You're Beautiful" entitled "You're Pitiful", but Blunt's record label, Atlantic, blocked the commercial release of the parody in spite of Blunt's initial approval.
In 2006, the album was released as both a digital download and as a DualDisc (a double-sided optical disc that contained a CD on one side and a DVD on the other) containing both the album and animated music videos for a number of the album's songs. Straight Outta Lynwood was met with mostly positive reviews: Many critics applauded "White & Nerdy" and "Trapped in the Drive-Thru", while some of the other parody songs were met with a more muted response. The album peaked at number 10 on the Billboard 200. "White & Nerdy" became Yankovic's highest-charting single as well as his first Platinum-certified single. The record itself was certified Gold for shipments of over 500,000 copies.
Production Originals On July 5, 2005, recording for Straight Outta Lynwood officially began. By late 2005, six originals—"Pancreas", "Close but No Cigar", "Virus Alert", "Don't Download This Song", "I'll Sue Ya", and "Weasel Stomping Day"—had been recorded. "Weasel Stomping Day" describes, in the style of animated musical specials of the 1960s, a supposedly traditional holiday in which participants don Viking helmets, spread mayonnaise on their lawns, and "snap [the titular animals'] weasely spines in half." "I'll Sue Ya" is a Rage Against the Machine style parody, satirizing frivolous litigation. Yankovic chose to juxtapose the style of Rage Against the Machine with lyrics about lawsuits because he felt that humor could be derived by pairing the anger of the band's music with a topic so vacuous. "Don't Download This Song", a style parody of 1980s charity songs, such as "We are the World", "Hands Across America", and "Do They Know It's Christmas?", "describes the perils of online music file-sharing". According to Yankovic himself, the song takes a moderate approach to the peer-to-peer music download situation, arguing that both sides—people trying to illegally download music and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)—can act hypocritically depending on the situation.
"Virus Alert" is a style parody of Sparks, specifically their work in the mid-1970s, such as their album Kimono My House (1974). It details "the evil that lurks in your email inbox." "Close but No Cigar" is a style parody of Cake that tells the story of a man who breaks up with his seemingly perfect girlfriends due to the most inconsequential of flaws. The track was inspired by an actual friend of Yankovic's who was never satisfied with any of his dates; Yankovic later explained that "the song was inspired by [the] attitude, that nothing could ever be good enough." The final original recorded, "Pancreas", is a song mainly about the biological functions of the aforementioned organ. The song is an imitation of the musical stylings of Brian Wilson, specifically his work found on the 1966 album Pet Sounds, released by the Beach Boys, and their aborted follow-up album, Smile (the latter of which was released by Wilson as a solo record in 2004). Yankovic joked that the reason the song was written was because "my pancreas has given so much to me over the years, I felt like I needed to give something back to it".
Parodies and polka
On February 19, 2006, Yankovic began working on the album's parodies. During these sessions, three parodies were recorded; the first of these, "Canadian Idiot", is a play on "American Idiot" by Green Day. It is a satirical commentary on American nationalism and the stereotypical American view of Canadians. The song is ironic, and Yankovic has stated that the song's anger is a joke and that he loves Canada. Next, Yankovic began working on "Trapped in the Drive-Thru", a parody of R. Kelly's Trapped in the Closet. Yankovic was inspired to pen the spoof after hearing the "brilliant and wonderful and ridiculous" original. Efforts to make the parody more convoluted than the original were first considered but then abandoned by Yankovic; he eventually reasoned, however, that he could make his version "a little more stupid". Thus, the song is an excruciatingly detailed narrative about a couple going to a drive-thru, which was "the most banal thing [Yankovic] could think of at the time." Because the song was three times the length of a normal song, legally, Yankovic would have been required to pay thrice the statutory rate for royalties. This in turn would have forced Yankovic to remove one of his parodies from the album. However, R. Kelly allowed Yankovic to only pay the royalty rate for one song. To round out the first session, Yankovic recorded "Confessions Part III", a play on "Confessions Part II" by Usher. The song purports to be a continuation of the Usher songs "Confessions" and "Confessions Part II", focusing on trivial, silly, strange, and disturbing confessions; Yankovic explained that, "After hearing Usher do [the original songs], I couldn't help but think that maybe he'd left a few things out, that there were a few confessions he had yet to make."
After being denied permission to include "You're Pitiful" on the album, Yankovic wrote "Do I Creep You Out" and "White & Nerdy" to take its place, recording both on July 22, 2006. In the first of these, a singer addresses the object of his affection and stalking to the tune of "Do I Make You Proud" by Taylor Hicks; "Do I Creep You Out" was also Yankovic's jab at American Idol, a musical competition show that Hicks had won in May 2006. The final parody written and recorded for the album was "White & Nerdy", a parody of "Ridin'" by Chamillionaire featuring Krayzie Bone. The song describes the life of a white nerd whose wish to "roll with the gangstas" is impeded by his stereotypically white and nerdy behavior; the song is also filled with references to nerd culture. Yankovic later joked that it was a song he "was born to write" due to his association with nerd humor. While Yankovic usually records his songs together with his band, the backing tracks for "White & Nerdy" were completely recorded by guitarist Jim West—who handled the synthesizer production—and Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz—who was tasked with recording the drums. The two musicians recorded their specific tracks at their home studios, and the finished audio tracks were then brought to Westlake Studio in Los Angeles, California, where Yankovic added his vocals. Chamillionaire himself put "White & Nerdy" on his official MySpace page and said that he enjoys the parody. In an interview, he also stated he was pleasantly surprised by Yankovic's rapping ability, saying: "He's actually rapping pretty good on it, it's crazy ... I didn't know he could rap like that."
"Polkarama!", a medley of popular hit songs set to a polka beat, was recorded during the second parody session. Yankovic explained that, "if there's a song that I think is really ripe for parody but I just can't think of a clever enough idea, sometimes it'll end up in the polka medley." Regarding their popularity, Yankovic has said, "At this point, it's sort of mandatory for me to do a polka medley. Fans would be rioting in the streets, I think, if I didn't do a polka medley."
"You're Pitiful" controversy
Yankovic had originally wanted to record a parody of James Blunt's hit "You're Beautiful" and release it as the lead single for the album. The parodist had approached Blunt about the spoof, and the singer approved his idea. Yankovic then went into the recording studio on April 12, 2006, and recorded his version, entitled "You're Pitiful". However, Blunt's record company, Atlantic Records, told Yankovic that he could not include the song on his album. Yankovic eventually learned that Atlantic felt "it was 'too early' in James' career for a parody, and that they were afraid that focusing any more attention on 'Beautiful' at that point might lead to the perception of James as a 'one-hit wonder.
The record company initially stated that they would permit Yankovic to release the parody at a later time. Later, Yankovic discovered that they had different intentions. Since Blunt himself was fine with the parody, Yankovic decided to release "You're Pitiful" as a free digital download on his website, noting that, "if James Blunt himself were objecting I wouldn't even offer my parody for free on my Web site. But since it's a bunch of suits—who are actually going against their own artist's wishes—I have absolutely no problem with it."
Unused ideas Yankovic had wanted to record a parody of Daniel Powter's "Bad Day" for the album entitled "You Had a Bad Date", but Powter initially refused. Powter then changed his mind "literally the day before [Yankovic] went into the studio to record 'White & Nerdy'", at which point, according to Yankovic, "the train had left the station". T-Pain had also given Yankovic permission to record a parody of "I'm N Luv (Wit A Stripper)" called "I'm in Luv Wit Da Skipper", referencing the character from the 1960s sitcom Gilligan's Island. Yankovic later decided not to record the song, but T-Pain was still thanked in the album's liner notes, and Yankovic still performed the song in the parody medley during his Straight Outta Lynwood Tour. Besides his "Bad Day" and "I'm N Luv (Wit A Stripper)" parodies, Yankovic also claimed to have several "mediocre" ideas such as "Holodeck Girl" (a spoof of "Hollaback Girl" by Gwen Stefani), "IRS" (a play on "S.O.S." by Rihanna), and "HairyBack" (a parody of "SexyBack" by Justin Timberlake). In addition, Nickelback had originally given Yankovic permission to use their song "Photograph" in "Polkarama"; however, Yankovic was unable "to find a way to incorporate the song into ["Polkarama"] where it didn't sound wedged in or tacked on", and he decided not to use it. Yankovic nonetheless thanked Nickelback in the liner notes to Straight Outta Lynwood.
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