Okay, now hear me out.
It’s easy to mock Al for his occasionally sophomoric and obvious parodies of popular songs…but the thing is, it’s only once in a blue moon that anyone ever hears his original songs. This particular track, which appears on 2003’s Poodle Hat, features backing vocals and piano from none other than Ben Folds…a favor Al returned when he provided background vocals on Songs For Silverman‘s “Time…could just about have fit in on an adult alternative station, so radio-friendly is it, with a chorus that – although he didn’t – Folds himself could’ve written. Yeah, the lyrics go a little over the top in the last verse, but, prior to that, it’s actually a pretty funny take on the self-obsessed:
I was watching my TV one night when they broke in with a special report
About some devastating earthquake in Peru
There were thirty thousand crushed to death, even more were buried alive
On the Richter scale it measured 8.2
And I said, “God, please answer me one question?”
“Why’d they have to interrupt ‘The Simpsons’ just for this?”
What a drag, ’cause I was taping it and everything
And now I’ll have to wait for the rerun to see the part of the show I missed
Why does this always happen?
Why does this always happen to me?
Why does this always happen?
Why does this always happen to me?
There’s also a song on the disc (“Genius in France”) that’s more or less a Frank Zappa stylistic tribute…but that’s a story for another day.
