Ever since Return of the Jedi, all the things associated to Star Wars has been “fairly good” at finest. The prequel trilogy appeared aimed toward a youthful demographic than the unique trilogy, and Disney’s sequel trilogy began sturdy however finally collapsed in on itself as a consequence of each company and fan stress. The Mandalorian was good for less than 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 undertaking that has risen to the extent of “masterpiece” previously 4 many years, and that’s Bizarre Al Yankovic’s good Star Wars parody, “The Saga Begins.” So when he carried out it just lately as a part of a 23-minute recorded set for NPR’s Tiny Desk sequence, 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 finest work, “The Saga Begins” is a direct parody of a beloved music rewritten to lampoon one thing else solely, not the unique music 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 people rock music 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 aircraft crash. Traditionally, that is thought-about the top of the early interval of rock and roll music. McLean’s music is about how American tradition modified consequently.
In distinction, Bizarre Al’s music makes a uncommon mainstream musical reference to Jar Jar Binks.
“The Saga Begins,” which runs ‘solely’ 5 and a half minutes, is principally 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 acquired the thought of mixing these two parts. “American Pie” opens “An extended, very long time in the past, I can nonetheless bear in mind…” whereas Yankovic’s music begins with “An extended, very long time in the past, in a galaxy far-off…” From there, Yankovic rattles by way of the occasions of the film, all from the attitude of Obi-Wan Kenobi.
There are lyrics like this one, which describes the opening scene:
“Naboo was beneath an assault
And I assumed me and Qui-Gon Jinn
May speak the Federation into
Perhaps chopping them somewhat slack
However their response, it did not thrill us
They locked the doorways and tried to kill us.”
There are additionally traces like “Effectively, 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 advised the story/How his midichlorians have been off the size.”
There are some straight humorous lyrics within the music, like when Qui-Gon Jinn tells Yoda “Simply stick it in your pointy ear.” However for probably the most half, the music 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 she or he’s 14?” and later, when describing the ultimate battle, the lyrics go, “A whole lot of people 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 definitely the music’s most memorable lyric.
It additionally has a fairly nice music video that includes Bizarre Al as Obi-Wan within the Mos Eisley Cantina.
The saga behind Bizarre Al’s “The Saga Begins”
As spectacular because the music 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 exceptional 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 your complete music from on-line rumors and what was within the trailers and simply occurred to finish up solely proper.
The music shortly turned beloved by the Star Wars fandom, which had additionally embraced Yankovic’s 1985 music “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 advised Billboard, “Once I heard his model, I assumed it was higher than the unique.” George Lucas loves the music too. In response to Yankovic, when he despatched it to Lucasfilm for Lucas’ approval, the reply from the studio was, “It’s best to have seen the smile on George’s face.”
The music is so good that I’ll admit that it makes me need comparable songs for different so-so Star Wars films. 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 in all probability by no means get such a music, although, since Bizarre Al is a real artist who in all probability does not need to simply repeat the identical issues he’s accomplished earlier than, which is greater than what might be mentioned about principally all the things that has come out of Star Wars for many years.
Besides, after all, Andor, which I promise I’ll be attending to.