Mr. Sparkle is disrespectful to dirt!
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Alf Clausen is the Carl Stalling of the 1990s.
Responsible for creating the music for the irreverant prime-time institution The Simpsons, Clausen pretty much does the same thing Stalling did back in the 1940s for Warner Bros.’ Looney Tunes — commandeer the music of his age to satirize the era of which it was borne.
And Clausen is certainly up to the task.
Go Simpsonic with the Simpsons is the follow-up to an earlier Simpsons soundtrack, 1997’s Songs in the Key of Springfield.
That album collected eight years’ worth of Simpson music moments — an arduous task given the seamlessness with which musical satire is incorporated with the show.
Songs in the Key of Springfield, unfortunately, couldn’t include everything, which made Go Simpsonic with the Simpsons an inevitability.
This new volume includes some real treasures — a spoof on Mary Poppins, Sonic Youth covering the show’s main title, the Ramones serenading Mr. Burns with “Happy Birthday” and Linda Ronstadt singing a commercial jingle for Barney the Barfly.
Personal favorites: An “All in the Family” parody, the “Mr. Sparkle” commercial and “We Put the ‘Spring’ in Springfield.”
The collection’s producers, however, seemed to have run out of steam toward the end of the disc, filling it with outtakes. Wouldn’t have mind seeing the “Kids/Adults” song in the episode where senior citizen pass a curfew for anyone under the age of 70.
Still, the music of The Simpsons is a marvelous feat of accomplishment, and in decades to come, these albums will serve as important documents.