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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Ben Folds Five chords & sheet music
By fans
I used to list a lot more sites here, but over the years
they've slowly disappeared, one by one. :(
The official sheet music books
Ben Folds Five: Keyboard Signature
Licks, published by Hal Leonard
 Subtitled "A step-by-step breakdown of
the piano style and techniques of Ben Folds". Includes
a practice CD.
Holy Shit! An incredible
resource for learning to play BF5. First of all there's the practice CD
that's included, featuring studio musicians playing BF5 without the
vocals so you can hear the instrument parts clearly. (In fact, it
could be even useful for drummers and bassists who have trouble hearing
their parts over the vocals on the band's CD's.) What's more, several
tracks feature the piano alone playing slowly so you can hear
the nuances. The sheet music itself is first-rate. Even if you have
songbooks from the albums (like WE&EA), you'll still appreciate
that the writing in this book isn't tiny so it's a lot easier
to follow. But that's not all -- there's commentary by the
transcriptionist on the songs, as well as interviews with Ben about
them. There are a few minor things I could nitpick, but it doesn't
matter: this book/CD is awesome even if it's not perfect.
From the Debut: Underground, Philosophy, Alice Childress,
The Last Polka, Boxing.
From Whatever: Battle of Who Could Care Less, Brick,
Evaporated, Kate, Song for the Dumped.
From Naked Baby Photos: Eddie Walker.
From Reinhold: Narcolepsy, Don't Change Your Plans,
Lullabye, Magic, Mess
Click here to order from SheetMusicPlus.com.
($23)
Official songbook for Whatever &
Ever Amen, published by Hal Leonard
 A great songbook. If you're familiar with The
Beatles Complete Scores, this is written in the exact same vein.
Not just note-for-note on the piano parts (which would be amazing
enough), but note-for-note for the bass parts, including SEPARATE bass
tablature, AND note-for-note DRUM parts. Wait, there's more: the
HARMONY vocals are even written in! Plus, when the music's slightly
different on the 2nd or 3rd verse, the differences are noted. There are
two drawbacks, though: because of the level of detail, the music is
TINY, and generally only shows six bars per page. The second problem is
that beginners may have a hard time with it. Still, if this book is
beyond your skill level, then going through this book with a teacher is
an excellent way to IMPROVE your skill level. This volume must have
been ridiculously time-consuming and expensive to produce. 144 pages!
Whoo-howdy! Click here to order from SheetMusicPlus.com.
($20)
  Official songbooks for Naked Baby Photos
and The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner.
I haven't bought these yet, but they're published by the same company
that did Whatever & Ever Amen (Hal Leonard, see above), and they're
similar length (144 pages for Naked Baby), so I expect they're just as
good. Of course, since the songbook for the debut album is unavailable,
the songbook for Naked Baby Photos is the next best thing, since it
contains all the songs from the debut as well as some others. Click
here to order Naked
Baby or Reinhold
from SheetMusicPlus.com. ($20)
 Official songbook for Rockin' the Suburbs. Sheet
music
for Ben's first post-BF5 solo album. Click here to order from
SheetMusicPlus.com. ($20)
Official songbook for
the debut ("Ben Folds Five")
I was lucky enough to get a copy of this autographed, limited-edition
book in early 1996 — it sold out quickly. It was published in
Japan,
and marked not for sale outside of Japan, although I ordered it from
the Ben Folds Five order line. It's been long out of print, and I don't
know of any plans to produce any more. But don't
fret, just order the book for Naked Baby Photos above, which
has all the songs from the debut.
Hard as this book is to find, it's
actually not that good — it leaves out a LOT. It's simplified "easy
piano". Plus, although the music is written in three staves, the
right-hand piano stave simply shows the melody when there's a vocal
part. (Ben rarely plays the melody when he sings—he plays
something
else.) Finally, lots of solo bits were omitted—including the
infamous "Rhapsody in Blue" quote in Philosophy. I play by ear,
but I
like to have the sheet music to check myself. Unfortunately, the
level
of this book didn't add to my existing knowledge of the songs as much
as I'd hoped, although it definitely corrected me on several things I
had gotten wrong trying to figure things out for myself.
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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