Ben
Folds Five news
Sept. 2012. The
newly-reunited Ben Folds Five releases a new album, The Sound of
the Life of the Mind, and launches their first tour in over a
decade. The Magical Armchair has the
tour dates.
Stuff on this site
• Ben Folds Five FAQ
• MP3 of me sitting in
with BF5 on "Best Imitation of Myself"
• Order albums and sheet
music
• Chord charts for some songs
• My lousy MIDI recording of Best Imitation
• Similarities between BF5 songs and other songs
• A Who's Who Guide to Ben Folds Five
• Interviews with the band from the 1990s
• BF5 Haikus
• Picture of my BF5 tattoo
• The piano market (piano stocks)
• BF5's shows in Austin
• SXSW 1996 concert photos
Other sites
• The band's official site
• Magical Armchair (well-known fansite)
• Wikipedia article about the band
• Lyrics at BestLyrics.com
• Misheard lyrics
• Ragogna interview, Oct. 2012. Excellent interview with Ben; touches on some technical aspects of the music as well as the meaning behind some of the lyrics.
• BF5 All Together Now. Japanese fan site, in
English & Japanese. Doesn't seem to have been updated since
2000, but has some cool GIF animations of the band.
• The Strangest Thing. This large fansite died
in 2002, but here's the archive.
• 1997 interview
• Hotel
Lights. Darren Jessee's critically-acclaimed other band
• ChuckFolds.com.
Ben's brother's site about his own music
• Phil's Finest Hour was an Australian band with a
BF5-like sound. Unfortunately they seemed to have disappeared,
and I can't find any recordings of them listed anywhere.
Ben
Folds Five timeline
1966. Ben born on
Sept. 12.
Mid-1980s. If
the song "Army" is truly
autobiographical, Ben works at Chik-Fil-A, contemplates joining the
army, and plays in an unsuccessful band.
~1987-90. Ben
forms Majosha with Millard
Powers. Band wins a "Battle of the Bands" contest.
1994. Band forms in
Chapel Hill, NC, with Folds,
Darren Jessee on drums, and Robert Sledge on bass guitar.
1995. Debut
eponymous album on Caroline Records.
"Underground" is a semi-hit single.
1996. The band gets
a large following in Japan, courtesy of a
Japanese TV drama in which one of the characters is a big fan, but gets
a lot less attention the U.S.
1997. Second album, Whatever
and Ever Amen.
The single "Brick" launches the band to stardom, and "Song for the
Dumped" and "Battle of Who Could Care Less" hits the Top 25.
1998. Ben releases
his first solo album, Fear
of Pop, though Ben Folds Five is still going strong.
1999. Third album, The
Unauthorized Biography
of Reinhold Messner. "Army" charts in the Top 20.
2000. The band
breaks up amicably in October. The bandmembers' projects
post-breakup aren't detailed here; instead see the Wikipedia articles
about Ben,
Darren, and
Robert.)
2005. A remastered
and expanded edition of Whatever and Ever Amen is released,
including seven new bonus tracks.
2008. The band
reunites for a single show in Chapel Hill. (NME)
2011. The band reunites to
record three new songs for the compilation album The Best Imitation
of Myself: A Retrospective.
2012. The band releases their fourth
studio album, The Sound of the Life of the Mind, and begins
their first tour in over a decade.
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(click to
show animation again)
This animation
is courtesy of the Japanese site BF5-All
Together Now (used by
permission).
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NPR Interview
aka, National Public Radio
by Liane Hansen • Jan. 28, 96
[ Music: Jackson Cannery starts, up full, then under: ]
LH: And now, ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce to you, from Chapel
Hill, North Carolina, the Ben Folds Five.
[ Music up full: "Stop the bus, I wanna be lonely, when seconds pass
slowly and years go flyin' by, you gotta stop the bus and get off here"
]
LH: Although they produce a big sound, the Ben Folds Five is really a
trio. Drummer Darren Jesse, Robert Sledge on a fuzz-toned bass, and
pianist Ben Folds. A rock 'n' roll band led by a pianist is a rare
thing these days, but Ben Folds never even considered hiring a
guitarist.
BF: It really didn't occur to us at first. Now it's become a challenge
to see what we can do with the piano to bring it up to guitar energy.
Every member of the band really has to make up for the lack of a guitar
player. There's a good reason why in the last however many years of
rock 'n' roll there's always a guitar. We have to put out a lot more to
get that much out of it, you know.
[ Music segues under to beginning of Philosophy, then up full: "Won't
you look up at the skyline, at the mortar, block and glass, and check
out the reflections in my eyes..." Music under: ]
LH: The song that I think initially shows off your dexterity on the
baby grand piano certainly is the song called "Philosophy", and it's a
song about, sort of, standing alone...
BF: Yeah...
LH: ...and, ah, it's kind of, all right, all of you people who didn't
believe in me...
BF: Yeah...
LH: (laughs) kind of song.
BF: When I write anyway, I kind of take a part of my character that I
can exaggerate, and that was the, partially like the old man part, kind
of like (Uncle Walter voice) "I built this and you laughed the whole
time" kind of thing to it. I always find a lot of my friends didn't
seem to have any particular direction at the time that I wrote the
song. It was a little frustrating to me. It was also frustrating to be,
well, not laughed at, it wasn't that bad, but just like "Well, here's
Ben, he's off doing the same thing" and so I kind of wanted to put that
in the song, and it's kind of a dorky thing to put, I mean, the word
philosophy, like that, it's not very rock 'n' roll, and I really like
pushing things in to that kind of music that aren't rock 'n' roll.
[ Music up full: "and I say, go ahead, you can laugh all you want, but
I got my philosophy, keeps my feet on the ground, and I trust it like
the ground, and that's why my philosophy, it keeps me running when I'm
falling down. I pushed you 'cause I loved you guys, I didn't realize
you weren't having fun..." Music under: ]
LH: What were those things that you were doing that people said "Oh,
there's just Ben, doing his thing?"
[ Music: slow fade out ]
BF: I'm kind of, I've always been since I was real little I've been
kind of directed, and when everyone else was out playing army or
whatever, I was at home playing piano or drums or bass or guitar, or
something. I didn't get out as much. (laughter)
LH: Chained to the piano. Beautiful piano playing, though.
BF: Thanks.
LH: Are you trained? Did you take lessons?
BF: A year of formal training, when I was nine years old. I took it
very seriously for a year...
[ Music under: beginning of "Uncle Walter" ]
BF: ...and after that it was Little Richard kind of, beating the hell
out of the piano.
[ Music up full: "Come on... Your Uncle Walter's going on and on, 'bout
everything he's seen and done. The voice of 50 years' experience, he's
drunk watching the television. You know he's been around the world.
Last night he flew to Baghdad" then fade under: ]
LH: So is this kind of punk, kind of sensibility?
BF: Yeah, I mean, we all grew up in the late 70s. I was in the seventh
grade or something like that. You grew up listening to the corny soft
pop of the 70s, and then all of a sudden there's like the Clash and the
Sex Pistols and all this, and that was it, that was all you listened
to. So it has to be in our music somewhere, you know.
LH: Lots of attitude.
[ Music: "Uncle Walter" fades, then "Underground" up full: "I was never
cool in school. I'm sure you don't remember me. And now it's been ten
years. I'm still wondering who to be, and I'd love to mix in circles,
cliques and social coteries, that's me. Hand me my nose ring (can we be
happy?). Show me the mosh pit (can we be happy?). We can be happy
underground. Who's got the looks, who's got the brains, who's got
everything? I've got this pain in my heart, that's all. Hey you," then
fade under: ]
LH: Did you ever listen to Queen? And Freddie Mercury?
BF: Yeah, on the radio. I remember hearing Rhapsody in Blue...
LH: Bohemian...
BF: Bohemian Rhapsody in Blue, (laughter) and loving it on the radio
but I didn't have their records.
LH: Yeah. I heard him and his influence in the song that you do called
"Underground." here's a moment where you all break off into a vocal and
I guess you're saying "Hand me my nose ring"?
BF: Uh huh. That's actually, that's Jesus Christ Superstar, that whole
beginning.
LH: Oh, really?
BF: Yeah, if it had to be anything, that's what it is, the, uh, "Oh...
we have a problem here," you know, that part. That's what the beginning
is supposed to kind of be. Lyrically it's just like, if you're in high
school and you're kind of a geek, and don't really stand out in any way
there's a good chance that a few years later you can invest in the
right tattoos, t-shirts, nose rings and mohawks and have instant
friends. It's a social clique.
[ Music up full, end of song: "Everything's heavy underground.
Everything's happy underground. Everything's heavy underground." ]
LH: Boxing's been good to me, Howard. My favorite song of yours. I've
listened to it over and over, and I thought, is he writing about
Mohammed Ali and Howard Cosell, is that what he's writing about? It
turns out yes indeed, that's what you're writing about.
BF: Yeah, that's definitely in there. My father's a big boxing fan, you
know. When I was growing up, it was always Mohammed Ali and Ken Norton,
or Ali and Frazier or Foreman or whoever it happened to be and it was
like a big deal, and I think I just gathered a romantic notion about
boxing. I've never really been interested in it but it definitely
yields it's own soap operas. It's almost like "George Jones does Tammy
Wynette wrong" and to keep up with that. It's like the same thing with
Mohammed Ali. I mean, he quit how many times and came back and, so
using that just as a framework. At the time I really thought I wanted
to quit playing music. It wasn't...
[ Music under: "Boxing" ]
BF: ...doing it for me and I wasn't, I didn't feel like I was
succeeding as much as I wanted to. And so I thought about this, you
know, "Boxing's been good to me, Howard", you know. "I tried." And then
wait for everyone to say "No don't quit, please don't quit." That's
what the song is about, is wanting to quit or saying you're going to
quit and waiting for someone to keep you from doing that.
[ Music up full: "Howard, now I confess, I'm scared and lonely and
tired. They seem to think I'm made of clay, another day I'm not cut out
for this..." then under: ]
LH: You do it as a palm court, and you add strings, violins and cellos,
it almost, it reminded me of all those daguerreotypes one sees of the
boxers in the very straight position and then juxtaposing that with the
kind of sport is became when Ali was fighting.
BF: Yeah, and it's, um, also Raging Bull was something that had
something probably to do with the feel of that song. because as I was
writing I could imagine slow-mo shots, black and white, with the sweat
flying, the whole thing. There's something just sad about boxing. I
don't know what it is. I'm not sure if it's that once you're done with
it and you've had the hell beat out of you, like what do you do then? I
don't know what it is, there's just something just kind of sad about it.
[ Music up full: "Boxing's been good to me, Howard. Now I'm told we're
growing old. The whole time we knew, a couple of years I'd be through.
Has boxing been good... has boxing been good... has boxing been
good..." ]
LH: You're going to be making a video?
BF: Yes.
LH: A first video?
BF: Yes.
LH: What selection?
BF: Underground.
LH: Oh, ho, no, nose rings. (laughter)
BF: Nose rings, mohawks, and cowboy hats.
LH: Wow.
BF: We're going out to Arizona and we're gonna film on the set of "Pale
Rider."
LH: Whoa. (laughter) Stand back!
BF: It's a saloon scene, basically. Three minutes of gratuitous saloon
violence with stunt men and breakaway railing and...
LH: (laughter) Have fun while you're doing it.
BF: We'll definitely have fun while we're doing that. It's just
something... I was going "What kind of scene from a movie would I
really want to be in?" and I'm like "Yeah, I'd like to just fight with
some stunt men." So...
LH: et some breakaway beer bottles and do the whole thing.
[ Music: toward end of "Uncle Walter" under: ]
BF: Yeah.
LH: All right. Ben Folds. His debut recording, "Ben Folds Five," is on
Caroline Records. Ben Folds, thanks a lot for coming in.
BF: Thank you!
[ Music: up full to conclusion ]
Tapes available from NPR. Call (202) 414-3232.
Ben Folds Five studio albums
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1st album
(July 25, 1995)
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2nd album
(Mar. 18, 1997)
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3rd album
(Apr. 27, 1999)
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4th album
(Sep. 18, 2012)
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Compilation
albums
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Naked Baby Photos
(Jan. 13, 1998)
live tracks, alternate versions, obscure
covers
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The Best
Imitation of Myself: A Retrospective
(Oct. 11, 2011)
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Sheet Music
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Keyboard Signature Licks
Sheet Music
Order for $23.
Expertly written note-for-note sheet music for selected songs from all four BF5 albums, plus commentary, interviews with Ben about the songs, and a practice CD! Read my review.
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Whatever & Ever Amen
Sheet Music
Order
for $20
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The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner
Sheet Music
Order
for $20.
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Naked Baby Photos. This is a collection of live
& alternate versions and some covers. This is a good source for
songs from the first album since the sheet music for the debut album is
long out of print. Order
for $20.
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