Prototypical Blues

Part of any artist’s legacy is their deep cuts. They are songs that exist in the nether regions of albums, either sandwiched between more popular songs or among an otherwise forgettable stretch of tracks. “Weird Al” Yankovic’s Generic Blues is the deepest cut in the Rock Hall Project. The song is in a forgettable stretch of songs on an album some fans may not even know exists, and if they do, they rank it toward the bottom of “Weird Al’s” discography. But “Generic Blues” stands out among Weird Al’s best originals by showcasing his dedication to The Blues’ roots by side-stepping any racial undertones associated with the genre and utilizing The Blues’ musical conventions to accentuate his joke-telling, thus creating a meta-narrative about The Blues itself.

The Blues is difficult for a white person to pull off. Not only was it derived from American slave songs after the Civil War, it wasn’t really popular in American pop music until British rock musicians covered 30-year-old Robert Johnson tunes during the 1960’s. I could go much deeper here, but all I want to establish for this entry is that, for a guy as white and nerdy as “Weird Al” Yankovic, writing a style parody for The Blues is a racial minefield.

One of the dangers white artists face in traditionally black musical mediums is the use of a blaccent. And “Weird Al” fell into this trap early in his career with Buy Me A Condo, which had some blaccented lines like:

I gonna buy me a condo, never have to mow de lawn.

I gonna get me da T-shirt wit’ de alligator on.

But, as we have seen with successful white musicians who operate within music associated with mostly black artists, like the Beastie Boys, Eminem, and Jack White, their success is rooted in their adherence to the musical aspects of the genre, not the performances of the musical forebears themselves. The authenticity comes from knowing the fundamentals so well that the white artist can make an authentic contribution to the genre without resorting to racial stereotypes.

 Weird Al accomplished this a few years after “Buy Me a Condo” when he successfully did a non-racially-charged impression of James Brown in Living With a Hernia. He managed to avoid racial undertones by imitating the elements of Brown’s voice that were not traditionally associated with his race, but were unmistakably recognizable. So, Weird Al put energy into the grunts, guttural accents, and high-pitched screams common in James Brown’s performances.

The Blues is a different story, though. Other comedy acts have done their versions of The Blues, but they err on the side of Blues rock-styles like Led Zepplin or Cream as opposed to Muddy Waters or B.B. King. A prime example is "Corduroy Blues" by Adam Sandler. The song has Blues tropes throughout, like lyrics focusing on the narrator’s problems and the 12-bar Blues format. But, from the distortion on the lead guitar, to the octave jumps in the bass line, to the snare-heavy drum fills, the instrumentals sound more like a Led Zepplin cover band than Blues artists. These decisions also strip away any possible racial undertones that could be misinterpreted from Sandler’s vocals or detract from the contrasts between The Blues and white artists in what Nathan Rabin calls “The Comically Incongruous White Folks Blues."

Generic Blues drives straight into old-school Blues style like a jackknifed semi during an ice storm, but with more intent. Weird Al even went one step further and did not merely write a comedic song in the style of The Blues, but wrote a Blues song about The Blues itself. He does this by exploiting the patterns in both joke and Blues structures and breaking the fourth wall by joyfully exaggerating common Blues tropes. And to add to the legitimacy of this song, Weird Al’s vocals avoid the blaccent trap and instead just sound like “Weird Al” Yankovic singing the Blues. This may be a reason why it is rumored that “Generic Blues” is among B.B. King’s favorite Blues tracks of all time.

Strangely, classic jokes and The Blues share a formula. No matter how elaborate a joke is or how complex a Blues song sounds, there is often a strict format the artist is following. For jokes, it is about subverting expectation, often achieved by a Rule of Three structure or similar technique to make the audience think they know what is going to happen next. For The Blues, it is the use of predictive lyric structures that essentially look like AAB. Weird Al take the predictability of The Blues’ harmonic structure and contrast it with unpredictable lyrics, but have resolutions that are simultaneously classic Yankovic and Blues:

      I                                        

A: Well I ain’t got no money. I’m just walking down the road.

      IV                                                                                             I

A: Well I ain’t got no money, honey. I’m just walking down this lonely old road

     bvi                                                        IV                                     I          

B: Well I wish I could get me some money, but I forgot my automated teller code

The Blues harmonies cue us into where the joke is supposed to happen and Yankovic delivers an unsuspecting reason for the narrator’s lack of funds. The punchline is surprising here because it is something relatable and humdrum to the audience, and not an exaggeration about something bizarre like “a herd of wild pigs trying to chew off [your] head” like the previous stanza. Further, in an ironic meander, the V chord in the 12 Bar Blues pattern is replaced with a flat vi chord throughout the song - making Yankovic’s version of The Blues not so generic after all.

 Weird Al utilizes this formula a few times throughout the song, but changes up The Blues background under the lyrics. Specifically, Yankovic utilizes a musical technique called Stop-Time throughout the track. Stop-time is supposed to accentuate one particular voice in the ensemble and Yankovic saves his impressive lyric-writing abilities for these moments. The following lines are perfectly declamated so they are presented with little backing accompaniment:

 Plagues and famine and pestilence, always seem to get me down.

I always feel so miserable whenever I’m around…

The other meta feature of “Generic Blues” is the overly exaggerated contrasting lyrics that break the fourth wall. On one end of the spectrum, we have an impressively long litany of three syllable negative descriptions of the narrator:

I’m nothing but a low-down, beer-bellied, bone-headed, pigeon-toed, turkey-necked, weasel-faced…

On the other end, we have him actually trying to solve the reason he has The Blues:

 I guess I got a pretty low self-image.

Maybe it’s a chemical imbalance or something…

I should probably see a doctor about it when I got the time!

This break in character is a masterful example of the self-referential nature of the song. The narrator gives a glimmer of their true self when they suddenly shift to more of a talking voice but then shift back to their singing voice to finish the verse.

As with most of the songs chosen for this project, the details are what make a good song great. “Generic Blues” operates as not only a successful style parody, but as a successful Blues song because it stays true to the genre itself. It’s a Blues song about The Blues and Weird Al is uniquely skilled to pull this off, especially with his ability to perform The Blues without falling into any stereotypical traps. Further, the song serves as a meta-commentary on The Blues itself, showing Weird Al’s love and appreciation for the genre.