Weird Al" Yankovic is no stranger to biting the hand that feeds him. After all, his fame comes largely from a career of lampooning the music

industry's biggest stars to the tunes of their hits, and garnering quite a rabid following for his satirical mock-ups of pop culture in the process.

But if taking Michael Jackson, Madonna and other superstars down a notch ever seemed risky, they all pale in comparison to Yankovic's latest target: the record industry itself.

"Weird Al's" lead single from his new album, "Straight Outta Lynwood", issues a glaringly tongue-in-cheek dare to his global fan base: "Don't Download This Song". The accompanying online push for the track,
available freely for download from Weird Al's personal home page and as well from www.myspace.com/weirdal
comes with an animated music video that details, in over-blown and outrageous fashion, the consequences that can come from illegal downloading.

The track is on par with anything Yankovic has recorded before as far as satire is concerned, but the jabs at the "R-I-double-A" and infamous anti-piracy advocates like Metallica's Lars Ulrich are particularly brutal.

Click here
www.dontdownloadthissong.com
to be taken to the "Don't Download This Song" webpage, where you can (not surprisingly) download the song and watch the video.

I have allways been a Wierd Al fan though, his E-bay song was a great favourite with the tipsters.
The best musical comedy coming out of the USA, is Stephen Lynch in my opinion. His Gordon Lightfoot getting into a taxi song, made the tea I was drinking come out of my unsuspecting nostrils.
I did a live local radio broadcast recently, and had to have the lyrics of a Lynch tune "If I were Gay", cleared by the producer before singing it . Sadly for him, he didnt read them, and it went out live, he was not a happy bunny, but the audience was.
Kevin Wilson makes me laugh a lot too, and Bill Baileys album is brilliant. See if you can download "Classical Cockney" from i-tunes. I love musical jokes, but it really sells mostly to musicians I fear.

nm

Nope; still dead... wait; I just edited your link and it now works fine; very well worth visiting too; thanks DJ

Horrid and brilliant all in one, as allways with Wierd Al! All valid points as well, we found nine illegal downloads of unreleased stuff of ours at the weekend.