Q&A with "Weird Al" Yankovic on the "Alpocalypse" tour: concerning "Peter and the Wolf"
JohnA
Q&A with "Weird Al" Yankovic on the "Alpocalypse" tour
[excerpt]:
One of your lesser known albums is 1988's children's recording of
Peter and the Wolf with Wendy Carlos. How did you get involved with
that?
From what I remember, I was approached by CBS Masterworks, which was
the classical division of CBS Records, and they thought it would be a
fun idea to have me do my own version of Peter and the Wolf. And
originally, they wanted to pair me with Michael Tilson Thomas and the
London Symphony Orchestra, and for whatever reason that didn't wind up
happening.
Ultimately, I was paired with Wendy Carlos, which in retrospect was a
much better choice, because it gave us a whole lot more flexibility -—
we didn't have to rely on the limitations of an orchestra, and it gave
her a lot more freedom to do bizarre and whimsical and sometimes
atonal and unusual things that an orchestra probably couldn't even
have pulled off. We had a great time collaborating together and had a
whole bunch of fun working on the project.
You still like it today?
Yeah. I mean, it's a very (laughs) different kind of project for me. I
don't even know if I consider it [part of] my discography, because
it's such a different side project for me. I wouldn't consider it a
"Weird Al" album per se, but it was something that I certainly enjoyed
doing specifically because it was so different.
That album is hard to find now. Why is it out of print?
Again, it's nothing I had anything to do with ... it's one of those
things I just don't have any control over, so [the label] just let me
know: "Hey, guess what, it's out of print."
Have you ever played It for your daughter Nina?
I played it for her once; I'm not sure that she reacted (laughs)
really strongly to it. Maybe I did it when she was too young; maybe
I'll pull it out and try it again. She was into ducks when she was a
toddler, so I thought that she might react the story because there was
a duck featured prominently in it, but it didn't seem to make too much
of an impact.
It was a very different kind of project and I don't think I would do
specifically do something exactly like that again, but I always try to
do things that are a little bit different and out of my comfort zone
and try to expand my horizons, so that's a good example of something
that I'd like to do again.