Albuquerque (song)

1999 song performed by "Weird Al" Yankovic

For the Neil Young song, see Tonight's the Night (Neil Young album).

"Albuquerque"

Song by "Weird Al" Yankovic
from the album  Running with Scissors
Released| June 29, 1999 (1999-06-29)
Recorded| October 15, 1998
Genre|

* Comedy rock
* spoken word
* hard rock
* rock

Length| 11:23
Label| Volcano
Songwriter(s)| "Weird Al" Yankovic
Producer(s)| "Weird Al" Yankovic

"Albuquerque" is the last song of "Weird Al" Yankovic's 1999 album Running with Scissors. At 11 minutes and 23 seconds, it is the longest song Yankovic has ever recorded.

With the exception of the choruses and occasional bridges, the track is mostly a spoken word narration about a made-up person's life in Albuquerque, New Mexico, after winning a first-class one-way airplane ticket to the city. According to Yankovic, the song is in the style of the "hard-driving rock narrative" of artists like The Rugburns, Mojo Nixon and George Thorogood.[1]

## Writing

[edit]

In a video on GQ where he broke down his most iconic songs, Yankovic said he had finished writing the song and needed to cut it down to song length, but then he decided "No! I'm not going to cut it down, I'm just going to do the whole thing!"[2]

Yankovic set off to write the lengthy song, considering it as a final track for Running with Scissors. The long, meandering story was not expected to be popular and instead Yankovic wanted to compose a song "that's just going to annoy people for 12 minutes", making it feel like an "odyssey" for the listener after making it through to the end.[1] Yankovic described writing the song as "free flowing," writing down a great deal of material he thought would be funny including previous anecdotes he had recorded, and trimming it down to form a lengthy "semi-cohesive story."[1] The lyrics were too long to include in the liner notes for the album (it ends mid-sentence and goes into a written apology by Yankovic), saying that the listener will have to figure them out for themselves. The full lyrics were posted to Yankovic's website.[3]

## Plot

[edit]

The song begins with Al talking about a traumatic childhood, living "in a box under the stairs in the corner of a basement half a block down the street from Jerry's Bait Shop" and being force-fed sauerkraut by his mother for his own health. Enraged, Al swears at the age of 26½ that he'll leave his mother's place, and by chance, wins a radio contest on the very next day, with the grand prize being a first-class one-way ticket to Albuquerque, New Mexico.

After an unpleasant experience on the flight, Al's plane crashes into a hillside, leaving him the only survivor as he was the only passenger who followed proper safety precautions. After crawling to Albuquerque over three days while carrying his heavy luggage, Al checks into a Holiday Inn, but disaster befalls Al again after a "big fat hermaphrodite with a Flock of Seagulls haircut'' barges into his room, fights him, steals his prized snorkel, and flees.

Al vows to bring his attacker to justice, but first decides to buy donuts. At the shop, he asks for many types of donuts and pastries, only to be told each one is sold out. He finally settles for a box of crazed weasels, which start to attack him. Running around town screaming for help, he meets a woman, Zelda; the two fall in love, marry, buy a house, and have children, but eventually break up after Zelda asks Al if he could join the Columbia Record Club.

The break-up allows Al to "achieve his lifelong dream": a part-time job at the Sizzler. The job is eventful, and Al relays several amusing anecdotes, such as biting a homeless man's jugular vein before losing his train of thought, at which point, he circles back and says that the entire point of the song was to relay his hatred of sauerkraut. The song ends with Al telling the listener that even during an existential crisis, they can still take solace in the existence of a "little place called Albuquerque".

## Recording and performance

[edit]

At the end of the song (around 11:20, after the music ends), faint laughter can be heard in the background. As Yankovic says, "That's Jim West laughing - I thought it would be a good way to end the album. He's cracking up because of the stupid chord he played at the end of the song."[4]

## Reception

[edit]

Contrary to Yankovic's belief that the song would not be popular, it was one of the best-received songs from the album, and Yankovic incorporated the song as an encore to his tours.[1] When performing this song live, Yankovic has been known to extend the song, by listing off more types of donuts, listing more names "Zelda" calls Yankovic, not telling the "amusing anecdote" at first, and even starting the song over completely after he "loses his train of thought." When performing this song live in Canada, Al is known to replace the dream job at Sizzler with one at Tim Hortons,[5] a Canadian doughnut shop. During the guitar solo of the third chorus, Yankovic sometimes introduces West eagerly, but West plays "Mary Had a Little Lamb" instead of the real solo. Yankovic acts disappointed, and West walks away acting ashamed. As of his 2022 tour, Yankovic stops the song after using the word "hermaphrodite" to acknowledge that the word was now considered a slur and that the song was a product of an earlier, more ignorant time.[6]

The 2004 video game Doom 3 contains a thin reference to the song - an email in one of the in-game PDAs mentions a character whose arms and legs were dismembered by the "Albuquerck Capacitor", therefore giving him the nickname "Torso Boy".[7]

## Personnel

[edit]

According to the liner notes of The Essential "Weird Al" Yankovic:[8]

* "Weird Al" Yankovic – lead & background vocals, group vocals, hand claps
* Jim West – guitars, group vocals, hand claps
* Steve Jay – bass guitar, group vocals, hand claps
* Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz – drums, tambourine, group vocals, hand claps

## See also

[edit]

* List of songs by "Weird Al" Yankovic
* Shaggy dog story
* The King of Rock 'n' Roll, another song sometimes sought by this name.

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b c d Rabin, Nathan (2011-06-29). ""Weird Al" Yankovic". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 2011-06-29.
2. ^ "Weird Al" Yankovic Breaks Down His Most Iconic Tracks | GQ, retrieved 2023-11-28
3. ^ ""Ask Al" Q&As for April, 2000". Zomba Recordings LLC. Archived from the original on 2007-01-13. Retrieved 2011-11-04.
4. ^ ""Weird Al" Yankovic: The Ask Al Archive".
5. ^ ""Weird Al" Yankovic - Need I Say More?". Archived from the original on 2007-11-03.
6. ^ Greene, Andy (October 30, 2022). "'Weird Al' Yankovic Wraps Up 'Ill-Advised Vanity Tour' With Epic Carnegie Hall Concert". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on October 31, 2022. Retrieved December 8, 2024.
7. ^ "Doom 3 Easter Egg - Weird Al Reference in E-Mail". The Easter Egg Archive. 2004-08-23. Retrieved 2022-12-28.
8. ^ Yankovic, "Weird Al" (2009-10-29). The Essential "Weird Al" Yankovic (booklet).

* v
* t
* e

"Weird Al" Yankovic

* "Weird Al" Yankovic
* Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz
* Steve Jay
* Jim West
* Rubén Valtierra

* Rick Derringer

Studio albums|

* "Weird Al" Yankovic
* "Weird Al" Yankovic in 3-D
* Dare to Be Stupid
* Polka Party!
* Even Worse
* UHF – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack and Other Stuff
* Off the Deep End
* Alapalooza
* Bad Hair Day
* Running with Scissors
* Poodle Hat
* Straight Outta Lynwood
* Alpocalypse
* Mandatory Fun

Soundtrack albums|

* Weird: The Al Yankovic Story

EPs|

* Another One Rides the Bus
* Internet Leaks

Compilations|

* Greatest Hits
* The Best of Yankovic
* The Food Album
* Permanent Record: Al in the Box
* Greatest Hits Vol. II
* The TV Album
* The Essential "Weird Al" Yankovic
* Squeeze Box: The Complete Works of "Weird Al" Yankovic

Songs|

* "My Bologna"
* "Another One Rides the Bus"
* "Ricky"
* "I Love Rocky Road"
* "Eat It"
* "I Lost on Jeopardy"
* "Like a Surgeon"
* "Yoda"
* "Hooked on Polkas"
* "Dare to Be Stupid"
* "I Want a New Duck
* "Living with a Hernia"
* "Christmas at Ground Zero"
* "Fat"
* "Money for Nothing/Beverly Hillbillies"
* "Chicken Pot Pie"
* "Smells Like Nirvana"
* "You Don't Love Me Anymore"
* "Jurassic Park"
* "Bedrock Anthem"
* "Achy Breaky Song"
* "Headline News"
* "Amish Paradise"
* "Spy Hard"
* "The Night Santa Went Crazy"
* "The Saga Begins"
* "It's All About the Pentiums"
* "Polka Power!"
* "Pretty Fly for a Rabbi"
* "Albuquerque"
* "Bob"
* "Couch Potato"
* "eBay"
* "You're Pitiful"
* "Don't Download This Song"
* "White & Nerdy"
* "Pancreas"
* "Canadian Idiot"
* "Trapped in the Drive-Thru"
* "Whatever You Like"
* "Craigslist"
* "Perform This Way"
* "Tacky"
* "Word Crimes"
* "Foil"
* "Handy"
* "First World Problems"

Videography|

* Al TV
* The Compleat Al
* UHF
* The "Weird Al" Yankovic Video Library
* Alapalooza: The Videos
* Bad Hair Day: The Videos
* The Weird Al Show
* "Weird Al" Yankovic: The Ultimate Video Collection
* "Weird Al" Yankovic Live!: The Alpocalypse Tour

Tours|

* An Evening of Dementia with Dr. Demento in Person Plus "Weird Al" Yankovic
* Mandatory World Tour
* Ridiculously Self-Indulgent, Ill-Advised Vanity Tour
* Strings Attached Tour
* The Unfortunate Return of the Ridiculously Self-Indulgent, Ill-Advised Vanity Tour

Related articles|

* Discography
* Videography
* Polka medleys
* Peter & the Wolf/Carnival of the Animals – Part II
* Weird: The Al Yankovic Story

* Category

Authority control databases |

* MusicBrainz work

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