The Smiley Smile Message Board

So go out and buy Straight Outta Lynwood so you can hear "Pancreas".  :)

I'm listening to Pancreas right now.  It's like the perfect distillation of Pet Sounds and SMiLE.  And just a little funny, too. :)  Maybe Al can join Al and Brian on tour and perform the song.

And (Weird) Al can play accordion on Wouldn't It Be Nice. Pancreas is awesome, love the end of it. Loving Polkarama as well.

I'm very impressed!  I have a hunch that a lot of people who buy the album won't "get" the song or what it's modeled after and wind up skipping over it in favor of the parodies of more modern stuff, but that's OK...

Weird Al is a guest on www.tomgreen.com tonight, a live talk show broadcasting globally on WEB-O-VISION!  Anyway, its a call-in talk show, so if you were interested in his inspiration for the song or how he was influenced by Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys, you could ask him personally.  It airs live at 11 pm EST.

Yeah, I popped the cd in my friends' car when I got it yesterday and when he heard it right after he heard "White and Nerdy", I saw a confused look on his face at first, haha. What's even better is on the dvd side "Al in the studio" you get to see Al and his band work on Pancreas (and other songs as well), really cool. Al played piano, harpsichord, vibraphone, tannernin, accordion, harmonica, bass harmonica, and toy piano alone on Pancreas.

It is HILARIOUS stuff -- there's bits there that sound more like 70s Brian than Smile, probably accidentally, but it gives the whole venture an even cooler vibe than Weird Al probably intended.

The record on a whole is hilarious -- the "Trapped in the Closet" parody had me rolling.

You can hear it in full:

http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/weirdalyankovic/albums/album/11773243/straight_outta_lynwood

On the bottom there's a playlist.

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 >:(

I heard the promotional copy today. I now own it. The Program Director and I had a laugh, and he got the joke. All harmonies performed by Al, which is a formidable feat in itself. nice listening , full of many inside musical winks...I love the 'vegetables' take-off in the middle.   PMcC

.....make that the 'wind chimes' parody in the middle. (I gotta get my 'Smile' straight)

I think Weird Al should coproduce Brian's next album. He really seems to grasp Brian's methods and melodic bass lines! Now why can't all these bands claiming to be Beach Boys influenced release a record with that sound?

If you were a true fan, you would've moved to the US long ago.  Your level of dedication just isn't enough to compete here on the SmileySmile board.

You can listen to the whole thing on Napster, without paying. Just register for the site. Also, that song is AWESOME. Dead on Brian imitation. Weird Al is great.

Well, if anybody cares...its on...or maybe you don't and Im just a schill...in which case...suck it!

And I Thought he was dead!   ::)

"Pancreas" is playing on my university's radio right now

Oh my god, this song is amazing! It's great! Supreme! I'm going to keep on listening until all my free plays are gone.

On Rhapsody, if you move the progress slider back to the beginning of the song before the song ends, that only counts as one play.  When there's a song I'm thinking of buying, I just play it 5 or 6 times to see if it bears repeated listens.  But I only use one play by just starting the song over before it ends.

To be honest, the song is smartly done....but i dont find it funny at all.

I agree with that sentiment...I didn't find it funny so much, I was more impressed just at the mere fact that he was able to write a song about his pancreas and have it come off as well as it does.  With all the musical complexity involved it amazes me that he can put it together with the subject matter like that.  I've always found that about Al...whether you find him funny or not, there's no denying how clever he can be. 

On a non-BB forum I'm on, the concensus is:

-  Straight Outta Lynwood is one of Al's best albums, and

- "Pancreas" is just not that great a song. Even someone who is a BW fan said he didn't care for "Pancreas" because, well, a four-minute song going on about the pancreas just gets kind of old -- and I can dig that. But to be honest with you, when I listened to "Pancreas," I was too focused on the Brian parody/tribute to even notice....man, he put in EVERYTHING! Just brilliant!

I've been a Weird Al fan since "Eat It" came out....I NEED to catch up -- I still haven't gotten Poodle Hat. Hopefully Amazon will have one of those "get these two together" specials....

If anybody still cares about this, the video is on youtube for it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrXUVSxeZYQ

thanks for posting the video.

my favorite part about this song (other than the acurate musical arrangements) are the anatomically correct descriptions of the functions of the pancreas. weird al has totally got his sh*t together

from the Nov. 2 issue of Rolling Stone:

MY LIST - Weird Al Yankovic

Brian Wilson "Vega Tables"
Yankovic, who played accordion on a shelved Wilson track, says the 37-year wait for 'SMiLE' was worth it.  "It's just amazing," he says. "I have to give a nod to any song that encourages you to eat your vegetables."


what "shelved Wilson track" did he play on???

"Let's Stick Together" from the first version of Sweet Insanity

Isn't it true that, beyond his control, he had to record his accordion part separately and has never actually met Brian face to face?

Pancre

Just reviving this topic to point out that the song is now played at Brian's shows during intermission. Really.

That's awesome.  It wouldn't surprise me at all that Brian digs the song.

Thanks for pointing me in the direction of this song. Had a GREAT laugh over it. Until now my favorite Al track was "Amish Paradise". Interesting to know that Bri gets a kick out of it too!

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. If The Beach Boys and Brian had never existed, and had Phil Spector never existed, "Pancreas" would have been hailed as a masterpiece. Or at least a huge cult classic.

That's a weird thing to say.

If the Beatles had never existed, Badfinger would be a lot more popular?

I just think it's great to live in a country that allows Weird Al to walk around freely and have a career and everything.  In any Eastern Bloc nation he'd be in some kind of a camp. In other places the townfolk would chase him through the streets with ugly intent, like the ending of "Phantom Of The Opera". Here in the U.S. we haven't even sterilized him.

That's an incredibly harsh post, which i happen to agree with  :lol

Of all the people to go after in this world or even in the music world, you're choosing Weird Al?