Kudos to Ray Manzarek for signing up to this!

Parody singer "Weird Al" Yankovic poked fun at Segway riders three years ago with his rap song "White and Nerdy," and his latest single "Craigslist" skewers the people who can be found swapping wares and scoring dates on the classifieds ads site. (While there's a verse about the popular "missed connections" feature on Craigslist, there isn't otherwise mention of the current prostitution controversy that the site's been dealing with.)
The video and song are a professed homage to the Doors, and though it isn't a takeoff on a specific song, Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek was enlisted to play on the track. "Craigslist" is available for sale as a single now and will appear on an album that comes out next year.

Weird Al takes on Craigslist, the Doors

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I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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Anonymous

I believe it’s from “When the Music’s Over”. From the first riff chords, to the soft-spoken lyrics over the low, slow keyboard, to the profuse yelling afterwards, near the end. Orig song near 11 minutes, but damn good if I do say so meself!
Dwokoneseus

This IS a takeoff on a specific song, namely “When The Music’s Over”, the last song from the “Strange Days” album.
proto opus

before watching, i thought it would be along the lines of “people are strange when you’re on craigslist”.
MrsBug

:channeling Eddie Murphy: Weird Al is a musical genius!
arborman

Oh man, memories of my childhood. Christmas at Ground Zero was a brilliant song, though it did put a damper on the Xmas morning I pulled it out of my stocking.
FredicvsMaximvs

@ #24 Nerdcore: No offense, but Weird Al was doing his unapologetically nerdy thing looooong before “nerdcore” came into being. The credit for making it ok to musically fly your geek flag lies with Al.
MrJM

How is it that I’m 25 years older and Al is still the same age?

Could the subtle combination of 1) commitment to the absurd, and 2) absolute lack of self-consciousness be the secret to longevity?

I hope so, cause I want Al to sing at my grave. (An up-beat, polka version of Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World” would be perfect. Well, except for me being dead and all…)

– MrJM
Takuan

so? have your funeral while you can enjoy it. Who cares what they do when you’re dead?
Anonymous

“isn’t a take off on a particular song”. Really? It sounds like “When the Music’s Over” to me.
febryle

As a Doors parody, it’s spot on–the scenes of Native Americans dancing, the shots of downtown LA at night, the spoken-word part over the slow keyboard riff. And is Ray playing his original Vox Continental?? Wow.

But it’s not particularly funny, particularly compared with how outstanding White and Nerdy was. Still, well done Weird Al.
Ocker3

damn, Weird Al doing what he does best, just bought a compliation DVD of his videos, damn fine experience.

The first verse also reminded me of One Red Paperclip
Trent Hawkins

The last CD of his that I bought also had his music Videos with it. Good stuff, the man’s still got it.
PeterS

The video cracks me up. Weird Al has done it again with a spot on parody for Craigslist’s dating ads and more. The video isn’t really funny nor does it really pretend to be funny at all but it’s a good video nonetheless.

I have found another great article about Craigslist… http://clhandbook.com . Enjoy
Anonymous

#15 is right this IS definitely a “When the Music’s Over” parody.

I met Weird Al backstage at one of his concerts. He is the nicest guy ever. He took the time to say hello and talk to everyone. The concert was amazing too. His energy on stage is great, every member of his band is a very skilled musician, and seeing parents in the audience singing along with their kids was just such a good vibe.

Plus, I’m a HUGE nerd and I love Weird Al.
Sean Blueart

It’s such a relief to hear him NOT singing through his nose!
John Hudgens

Takuan: To quote an Al title: “I’ll be mellow when I’m dead!”
NoahRodenbeek

Weird Al? Really? Saw him on ‘Look Around you’ recently… least weird thing I’ve ever seen on that show.
Axx

Agh! Al sans ‘stache! My world has been turned upside down.
teufelsdroch

@9 if you prefer funny and…gay

@7 yeah, I’d love to see the link to how Mad magazine pioneered fair use laws

@25 good title, but maybe the oblique reference Al uses works better?
Ocker3

Al has long attributed others for opening the door for him, like Dr Demento. Al can’t accept people’s comedy song ideas, so he sends them to Dr Demento, who may still have his radio so in California.

Al has long had the ‘stach, but for this role I think it works.
mdh

noahrodenbeek, LAY is supposed to be eye candy for the herbally intoxicated. Weird Al is not, as he abstains.
Anonymous

This is musically a direct parody of When The Music’s Over. Lyric-wise, it’s fudged a little bit (and, yeah, probably for length). Also contains some of the mangled sounds from Roadhouse Blues.

I just wish the song was about something different, because he already sang about most of it in E-Bay.
webmonkees

Wow, didn’t know Ray was involved. No wonder the keyboards sounded so right.

Although Al always asks permission even though he doesn’t have to, let’s hear it for those lawmakers who included parody as fair use..
Anonymous

My old band had a song called “Craigslist,” too: http://drbmusic.net/music/May%202006%20Demo/01%2020060508%20Craigslist.mp3
NoahRodenbeek

@MDH, I guess I missed the “intended for herbally intoxicated audiences only” disclaimer. Maybe if Al smoked a little weed he’d be funny?
Anonymous

if you prefer funny:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=li8Rs013314
Schaffer The Darklord’s Craigslist Rap
Talia

No worries, Mr. Yankovic is only funny to those with a sense of humor. :p
mdh

@noahrodenbeek I guess I missed the “intended for herbally intoxicated audiences only” disclaimer.

“only”?

If you were responding to what I said – rather than misquoting me so I say what you want for me to have said – then we could probably hash this out.

“only” in a sentence changes the entire meaning of a sentence. In this case it appears to have been added so that you could respond to something much more obnoxious than what I said.

-1 internet for you.

unrelated – Ray’s keyboards do sound awesome.
Anonymous

Sad that nobody has mentioned Shaffer the Darklord’s track ‘Craigslist’ (nerdcore, represent!). He doesn’t link it on his myspace, but you can catch a sample at the iTunes store < http://snurl.com/k93c9>.

I have always enjoyed Weird Al, but I have yet to hear him credit the Nerdcore folk who opened up the opportunity for him to sing about being such a geek – thinking of MC Frontalot mostly, but all of the various and sundry who would lay claim to the genre.

Now when I play these originals for my non-nerdy friends (I have a couple), they remark that these are rip-offs of Weird Al.

talmage

Anybody else hear “Soul Kitchen”?

ju2tin

As a Weird Al fan, I say: Meh.

NoahRodenbeek

@MDH, sorry, I didn’t mean to misquote you, in my head I heard how a real disclaimer would sound and it included the word only. Let’s continue the conversation with this:

“I guess I missed the ‘intended for herbally intoxicated audiiences’ disclaimer”… which is still more of a paraphrase of what you said rather than a direct quote. Sorry again for adding the “only”, I didn’t mean to derail the conversation with it.

Weird Al does Craigslist, Doors style

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