Weird Al - Behind The Music Remastered --

brady

Platinum Member
I just saw the recent re-airing of Weird Al's Behind The Music. It has been updated quite a bit with a lot of new information. One might call it...remastered.

Anyway, I heard something in it which I must have missed before. Which brings me to a question for Bermuda...

Early on, when they are talking about the Dr. Demento show, they mention that Bermuda had also submitted a few songs as well. I have never heard them. Or even heard of them. What ever happened to those songs? Bermuda, do you still have any copies you could share with us?

I'm just curious to hear what early Bermuda songs may have sounded like.
 
From what i've heard They were unable to release jon bermuda's early works as they too closely resembled that of Buddy Rich. The world was not yet ready for such a great talent so soon.
 
One such distraction began on September 14, 1980, when Jon was invited by Dr. Demento to be interviewed on his live radio show to talk about the songs he'd submitted years earlier; Jon and his friends were among the first people to have home-made music played on the Dr.'s show at the time. It was there that Jon met "Weird Al" Yankovic, who happened to be answering request lines that night. Already a staple of the Dr. Demento show, the 20-year-old Yankovic played accordion and had been sending his homemade parody tapes to Demento on a regular basis. That night, he would debut his newest parody, Another One Rides The Bus, live on the air. Al asked Jon if he'd mind pounding out a straight beat... on the accordion case! Jon cheerfully agreed, and evidently had a great time:
"Afterwards, I told Al 'you should have a band, I'll be your drummer,' to which he agreed. Dr. Demento's show was syndicated nationally, and within a few weeks, Bus was being played on 'morning drive' radio for millions of listeners and a new audience beyond the devotees of Dementia. Soon we began to record more sophisticated tapes for the show and played a few gigs around L.A. In early 1981, Al dubbed me 'Bermuda'."

Stolen without permission from Jon's Web page
 
The things I sent to Demento were few and far-between, nothing original, and pretty crude. BUT, they got airplay at a time when not much home-made stuff was being submitted or played on the show, and that's how my interview came about at a time when a lot of the show's material had become 'independent'.

April 1973, "Pico & Sepulveda" - among the players were future pros Jeff Rona, Barry Keys, and sax player Richard Elliot! This was submittd for a contest, and we came in 2nd. But the track was used as his theme for a while, since it didn't have vocals, and he could talk over it.

Jan 1974, "The Ballad of Woodsy Owl" - just for fun, since Demento had played the other song.

June 1975, "Mr. Ghost Goes To Town" - a combination of two versions that Demento played, still gets airplay every few Halloween shows. The song was actually done by many artists over the years, and is the underlying theme in the old Don Knotts movie "The Ghost and Mr. Chicken"

I took credit on all, although they were truly group efforts.

I'm sure they're out there somewhere!

Bermuda
 
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