THE MAGICAL ARMCHAIR
The Ben Folds Five Digest
Issue #117 - July 17, 1996
THE MAGICAL ARMCHAIR, Issue #117
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Topics for Today:
God Damn Ben Folds!
barry black
(Jellyfish)
Ben Folds Five in "Long Vacation"
Ben to answer questions from list members
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Date: Wed, 17 Jul 1996 01:06:17 -0400
From: PowerVegan@aol.com
Subject: God Damn Ben Folds!
Damn Ben Folds! Here I am, hard at work on my parody album of the BF5 CD,
and my first idea was to do "Jackson Cannery" with an acoustic guitar and no
piano, and then I read in an interview that Ben WROTE the song on guitar.
Grrr. Okay, fine -- start over with a different theme for that one. So,
then I totally rewrite the lyrics of "Philosophy" to be about Falafel,
thinking of how impressed Ben will be with my clever humor, and then I read
in The Magical Armchair about how Ben joked at a show about how "Philosophy"
sounded like "falafel"! No, no, no! And then at least I'm looking forward
to putting out some of this music which I learned by ear when everybody's
complaining that there's no sheet music available, and then I read how Ben &
Co. are going to publish sheet music!
Damn it, Ben, you're blocking me at every turn! You'd better not tell me
that you ever put the words for "Joy to the World" to the tune of "Sports &
Wine", or I'm just gonna hafta kick your ass. Knock it off already.
-- Michael Bluejay (Austin, TX)
P.S. Regarding the post that said "the report was capped off with a clip of
Ben throwing his stool at the piano" .... sounds like a G. G. Allin show.
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Date: Wed, 17 Jul 1996 03:28:14 -0400 (EDT)
From: The Computer GEEK! <jgore@nrv.net>
Subject: barry black
Barry Black is worth checking out. Really cool music. I found a advance copy
of it in a used cd bin for $5 bucks. I dig it.
**************************************************
Go ahead and laugh all you want
I got my philosophy
And I trust it like the ground
That's why my philosophy
Keeps me walking when I'm falling down
************** jason *****************************
[And to think I paid full price. -fjm]
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Date: Wed, 17 Jul 1996 11:07:54 -0500
From: Leslie Weiler <leslie@charybdis.com>
Hey! This is my second time to ever post, and i'll try not to ramble,
but...Steve (Clay) : if you want to try Jellyfish, grab Spilt Milk. Trust
me on this - if there is a perfect deep harmony pop song, it is on that
album. Grand, grand recording.Gin Blossoms a rn't bad, but Son Volt and
Wilco both do the same sound with SOUL. Any word on the <tentative>
release of a new album from BFF? I mean, even a general season of a year
would be nice.
leslie weiler
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Date: Wed, 17 Jul 1996 14:26:52 -0700
From: John Leo <jleo@us.oracle.com>
Subject: Ben Folds Five in "Long Vacation"
I just joined this list so I don't know if this has been mentioned
before, but the song "Philosophy" was used as part of the plot of
Japanese TV drama "Long Vacation", and this is in fact how I
discovered the group.
Japanese TV operates rather differently than in the US--there are four
TV seasons corresponding to the natural seasons, and shows tend to be
fixed length. So "Long Vacation" was an 11 episode show by Fuji-TV
shown in the Spring season of this year, roughly April-June.
"Philosophy" appears in episode 5--one woman (Ryoko) turns on the
radio and the middle of the song is playing--she thinks back to the
earlier night of her first kiss, when she was with a guy named
Shinji. There the radio is playing and "Philosophy" starts from the
beginning. After a little bit Ryoko recognizes the song and says she
really likes it but doesn't know who performs it. Shinji says it's
Ben Folds Five, and that he also really likes them, and that they
should then celebrate this coincidence with a kiss.
The scene eventually fades back out to the present, where the song
ends and the DJ says the group will be performing live. Ryoko copies
down the info.
Later, another woman, Minami, is invited on a date to a live show, and
what do you know, it's also Ben Folds Five. While she's at a gas
station with another guy (Sena), the song is playing in the background
(up to the end), and then the DJ says they'll be in concert. Minami
hears that and says, oh, that's the group I'm going to the concert
of--what was the song like?
Later most everyone shows up outside the live house--Minami and her
date, Ryoko who buys a ticket from a scalper, and Shinji and his
girlfriend. There are Ben Folds Five posters all around. Looking at
Frank Maynard's web page, it seems BFF did give a concert in Tokyo
around the end of February, which may have been when they were filming
the drama, or any any case they got ahold of the posters.
Unfortunately, that's the end of BFF's involvement in the show--they
never show any of the concert, or even the group at all.
My guess is that this was put in as a form of advertisement by
Toshiba/EMI, who had released BFF's album in Japan and also released
the soundtrack album for "Long Vacation". Three of the characters in
the show are pianists (Ryoko, Shinji and Sena) so BFF was a nice
choice.
And the advertisement worked in my case! I really liked what I heard
of "Philosophy", but as I'd never heard of BFF I originally thought it
was a made-up group and the song actually just performed by the people
who did the drama soundtrack (although it was rather different from
the other pieces in the show). When I got the soundtrack album and it
wasn't on it, I started to suspect BFF might be a real group.... I
checked the web, found Frank's excellent web page, bought the album,
and was amazed how great it is! "Philosphy" is still my favorite of
all the songs.
It seems that BFF has some popularity in Japan--I also found on the
web that their songs have been fairly popular on J-WAVE, a radio
station devoted to non-Japanese music. And I expect them to get quite
a bit more popular there due to the exposure from "Long Vacation",
which was one of the most-watched dramas ever in Japan (and a very
good show, I should add).
For those who are interested in seeing the scenes with BFF in "Long
Vacation", it is not too difficult to do. Find a store that rents
videos of Japanese TV shows (most big cities should have at least
one), and ask for tape 3 of "Long Vacation" (which has episodes 4 and
5 on it)--the BFF part is around the middle of episode 5. The tape
should cost just $1 to rent for a couple nights, but you may have to
pay a membership fee which may or may not be worth it. Note that even
though the name of the show is "Long Vacation" (in English), the name
will probably be written in Japanese script (katakana) and the show
will be in Japanese with no subtitles.
A few cities will be broadcasting the show in the US as well. WMBC in
the New York City area has already begun showing "Long Vacation" on
Wednesday nights from 10-11pm, without subtitles however. The first
show was July 10, so the fifth episode should air August 7. Other
cities, including San Francisco where I live, should be showing it in
the next few months as well, perhaps with subtitles. It sounds like
they rushed to show it right away in NYC due to its popularity.
John Leo Oracle Corporation
jleo@us.oracle.com Server Technology
http://www.halfaya.org/leo/ SQL Execution group
==============================================================================
[I've gotten word that Ben and the band are about to take a short
break from the road and would like the opportunity to answer questions
from Magical Armchair subscribers. I'll be posting instructions on how to
ask your question in the next couple days. Don't post anything yet, but
be thinking of really interesting stuff you'd like to ask Ben. -fjm]
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