Ever since Return of the Jedi, all the pieces associated to Star Wars has been “fairly good” at greatest. The prequel trilogy appeared geared toward a youthful demographic than the unique trilogy, and Disney’s sequel trilogy began sturdy however in the end collapsed in on itself attributable to each company and fan strain. The Mandalorian was good for under a part of its run and the identical goes for The Clone Wars. (I’ll admit I have not watched Andor, although I hear good issues.)
From my perspective, solely Star Wars venture that has risen to the extent of “masterpiece” previously 4 many years, and that’s Bizarre Al Yankovic’s sensible Star Wars parody, “The Saga Begins.” So when he carried out it lately as a part of a 23-minute recorded set for NPR’s Tiny Desk collection, it was a brutal reminder that Lucasfilm nonetheless hasn’t managed to provide something at this degree within the 27 years since its preliminary launch.
An ideal Star Wars parody
Like most of Bizarre Al’s greatest work, “The Saga Begins” is a direct parody of a beloved track rewritten to lampoon one thing else solely, not the unique track itself. On this case, Bizarre Al mocked Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace by rewriting Don McLean’s 1971 masterpiece “American Pie.” The unique folks rock track ran over eight minutes lengthy and was largely about “the day the music died,” which is the time period used to explain February 3, 1959, the day rock stars Buddy Holly, The Huge Bopper, and Ritchie Valens died collectively in a airplane crash. Traditionally, that is thought of the tip of the early interval of rock and roll music. McLean’s track is about how American tradition modified in consequence.
In distinction, Bizarre Al’s track makes a uncommon mainstream musical reference to Jar Jar Binks.
“The Saga Begins,” which runs ‘solely’ 5 and a half minutes, is mainly only a abstract of The Phantom Menace. It begins with solely a slight rewrite of McLean’s opening lyric, which one has to think about is the place Yankovic first bought the concept of mixing these two components. “American Pie” opens “An extended, very long time in the past, I can nonetheless keep in mind…” whereas Yankovic’s track begins with “An extended, very long time in the past, in a galaxy far-off…” From there, Yankovic rattles via the occasions of the film, all from the angle of Obi-Wan Kenobi.
There are lyrics like this one, which describes the opening scene:
“Naboo was underneath an assault
And I believed me and Qui-Gon Jinn
May discuss the Federation into
Possibly chopping them a bit of slack
However their response, it did not thrill us
They locked the doorways and tried to kill us.”
There are additionally strains like “Properly, I do know he constructed C-3PO/And I’ve heard how briskly his pod can go,” and “So we took him there and we instructed the story/How his midichlorians have been off the size.”
Picture: Bizarre Al Yankovic
There are some instantly humorous lyrics within the track, like when Qui-Gon Jinn tells Yoda “Simply stick it in your pointy ear.” However for probably the most half, the track simply plainly states the occasions of the movie and the absurdity of the film turns into clear simply by explaining it. Like, “Ah, do you see him hitting on the queen/Although he is simply 9 and he or she’s 14?” and later, when describing the ultimate battle, the lyrics go, “A variety of of us have been croakin’/The battle droids have been damaged.”
The refrain, as is commonly the case with Yankovic’s music, is the place he actually shines. McLean’s unique refrain started with slight variations of “We have been singin’ bye-bye, Miss American Pie
Drove my Chevy to the levee, however the levee was dry.” With that, Bizarre Al created, “Oh my, my, this right here Anakin man/Could also be Vader sometime later, now he is only a small fry,” which is well the track’s most memorable lyric.
It additionally has a reasonably nice music video that includes Bizarre Al as Obi-Wan within the Mos Eisley Cantina.
The saga behind Bizarre Al’s “The Saga Begins”
Picture: Bizarre Al Yankovic
As spectacular because the track is, it turns into all of the extra excellent whenever you learn how it was made. “The Saga Begins” got here out on June 24, 1999, simply 5 weeks after the discharge of The Phantom Menace. The parody was extremely well timed and correct to the movie, which is outstanding given the truth that it was recorded on April 30, 1999, three weeks earlier than the film got here out. And, as Yankovic has defined in interviews, he was not permitted to see any early model of the movie. As an alternative, he wrote all the track from on-line rumors and what was within the trailers and simply occurred to finish up solely proper.
The track shortly turned beloved by the Star Wars fandom, which had additionally embraced Yankovic’s 1985 track “Yoda” (one other banger, which is a parody of “Lola” by the Kinks). Among the many followers of “The Saga Begins” can be Don McLean, who instructed Billboard, “After I heard his model, I believed it was higher than the unique.” George Lucas loves the track too. In line with Yankovic, when he despatched it to Lucasfilm for Lucas’ approval, the reply from the studio was, “You must have seen the smile on George’s face.”
The track is so good that I’ll admit that it makes me need related songs for different so-so Star Wars motion pictures. Simply think about what Bizarre Al might do with a parody of any of the sequel trilogy movies or the immensely underwhelming Solo or The Mandalorian and Grogu. We’ll most likely by no means get such a track, although, since Bizarre Al is a real artist who most likely would not wish to simply repeat the identical issues he’s performed earlier than, which is greater than what might be stated about mainly all the pieces that has come out of Star Wars for many years.
Besides, after all, Andor, which I promise I’ll be attending to.
