Weird AL Yankovic meets The Doors

In his post-Doors career Ray Manzarek’s status as a Rock ‘n’ Roll legend has enabled him to draw stars, who are luminaries in their own right to work with him. In Manzarek’s 1974 solo effort, The Whole Thing Started with Rock ‘n’ Roll, Joe Walsh, Patti Smith and Dick Wagner collaborated on what is considered by many critics to be mostly an underrated and overlooked album in rock history. In 1977 Manzarek followed that up by forming a new band called Nite City with Noah James, Paul Warren, Nigel Harrison, and Jimmy Hunter and they released a self titled album that sounds more like Yes than The Doors, heavy on a mellow electronic sound.

In the 1980’s Manzarek produced the band X, Exene Cervenka, John Doe, Billy Zoom, and D.J. Bonebrake on the strength of them sending him a demo that included Soul Kitchen. Manzarek later included Doe as the killer in a video Manzarek did for the song L.A. Woman.

2000 brought the tribute album Stoned Immaculate which featured a plethora of 90’s bands, such as the Stone Temple Pilots, Creed, Smashmouth, Days of the New, covering Doors songs with The Doors themselves sitting in on most of the songs for a somewhat self-congratulatory album. Most tribute albums feature bands covering legendary artists and their songs. The result is a strong album with some performances that in some cases add a new dimension to the old favorites.

Weird Al Yankovic has been making parody songs since the late 70’s or early 80’s. He started by sending in tapes to Dr. Demento, a radio show dedicated to playing parodies or unusual songs. Over the years, Weird Al has parodied everything from My Sharona (My Bologna) down to the present day with a parody of James Blunt. So, it’s no surprise that a couple of weeks ago Weird Al released a song called “Craigslist” that is on his new release Internet Leaks. “Craigslist” is a hybrid Doors song that has a generic “Doors” feel to it. While the song uses when The Music’s Over as a model you can hear strains of Soul Kitchen and 20^th Century Fox in it, it at once both parodies and emulates The Doors. The video also uses the style of Doors videos directed and by Ray Manzarek and released in the 80’s. What is surprising is that Ray Manzarek played the keyboards on the song which does give the video a feeling of homage more than a parody. In the past Manzarek has taken The Doors, and their legacy with all seriousness to the point of pretension. I wanted to embed the video in this article but unfortunately, by request of the owner, “Craigslist” can’t be embeded outside of Youtube. However, you can watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZqciuoiikw

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