Weird Al Yankovic - The Saga Begins - Live in Concert - Bigger & Weirder 2025 Tour

Weird Al Yankovic performs The Saga Begins Live in Concert during the Bigger & Weirder 2025 Tour in Austin, Texas. I encourage every Weird Al fan to get out to see him in concert to experience the brilliance of a Weird Al Yankovic concert in person! It is truly something to see! But if you can't, I hope this video allows you to enjoy a part of the entertaining show he and his extremely talented band put on for fans on the Bigger & Weirder 2025 Tour!

If you missed it, check out the Q&A Panel with Al I attended in 2024 via the link below:
   • Q&A Panel with the One and Only "Weird Al"...  

"The Saga Begins" is a Weird Al's song that parodies "American Pie" by Don McLean, with lyrics that humorously summarize the plot of the film Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace through the point of view of Obi-Wan Kenobi, one of the film's protagonists.

The song's title, not mentioned in the lyrics, derives from a tagline that appeared in teaser trailers and the film poster for The Phantom Menace: "Every saga has a beginning". "The Saga Begins" was released as a single from the 1999 album Running with Scissors, and later appearing on the compilation album The Saga Begins.

Yankovic gathered most of the information he needed to write the song from internet spoilers. Lucasfilm declined a request for an advance screening, and Yankovic paid to attend a charity fundraiser pre-screening. He had done such an accurate job with the storyline that he made only minor alterations after the pre-screening.

McLean approved of the song and, according to Yankovic, also has said that his children played it so much that "he'd start thinking about Jedis and Star Wars, and it would mess him up" in concert.😂 According to Yankovic's website, Lucasfilm's official response to the song was, "You should've seen the smile on George Lucas's face."

The music video for The Saga Begins was filmed over two days in 1999. Yankovic described the shoot as one of the most difficult of his career. He wanted to keep it simple, as they could not use scenes from the film, the song was more than five minutes long, and they had a small budget. The desert scenes were filmed on day one in the Mojave Desert outside Baker, California. Temperatures reached 120 °F (49 °C) and several crew members passed out from heat exhaustion. Several scenes could only be filmed in one take, as there would be footprints in the sand for a second take. To film the final scene, they did not have time to use a camera dolly, so they got the shot by strapping Yankovic to a crane and spinning him around 50 feet in the air.

When on tour, Al and his band usually perform "The Saga Begins" during an encore, and this show was no exception.

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