Mysterious New Songs?

I was hoping that everything but 'You Don't Know Me', 'Cologne' and 'Hiroshima' from the leak were a joke - I much preferred the bootleg versions to the leak of the other songs. Not sure what, if anything, this bulletin changes.

Bring on September...

I hope Ben answers my e-mail, clearing this all up.


He never answers. 

Bitch Went Nuts is the best of the fakes.

I agree with this--both that it's a fake, and that it's the best of them.  The lyrics are so f**cking funny, and so clearly a put-on that I will be very, very surprised if this is the one on the album. 

For a joke, it's brilliant, for an album track--stupid...

Quote from: Luke8400 on July 20, 2008, 04:51:35 PM

Bitch Went Nuts is the best of the fakes.

I agree with this--both that it's a fake, and that it's the best of them.  The lyrics are so f**cking funny, and so clearly a put-on that I will be very, very surprised if this is the one on the album. 

For a joke, it's brilliant, for an album track--stupid...

There's a lyric in there that I read as a clue - "Bullshit from the internet".

I agree with this--both that it's a fake, and that it's the best of them.  The lyrics are so f**cking funny, and so clearly a put-on that I will be very, very surprised if this is the one on the album. 

For a joke, it's brilliant, for an album track--stupid...

[/quote]

I dunno.  I might like this fake one more than the "real" Bitch Went Nuts.  It's a funny little character sketch, and we haven't gotten many of those lately.  It's probably more interesting to me than the "real" first-person song, even though we know Ben's basketball wasn't really stabbed by anybody.

Quote from: ccrider on July 21, 2008, 09:35:59 AM

I agree with this--both that it's a fake, and that it's the best of them.  The lyrics are so f**cking funny, and so clearly a put-on that I will be very, very surprised if this is the one on the album. 

For a joke, it's brilliant, for an album track--stupid...

I dunno.  I might like this fake one more than the "real" Bitch Went Nuts.  It's a funny little character sketch, and we haven't gotten many of those lately.  It's probably more interesting to me than the "real" first-person song, even though we know Ben's basketball wasn't really stabbed by anybody.

The whole corporate, beemer, wanting-to-be-a-partner thing just seems so unlikely, although we're talking Ben Folds here, so who knows!

The whole corporate, beemer, wanting-to-be-a-partner thing just seems so unlikely, although we're talking Ben Folds here, so who knows!

But the cocaine thing IS likely? 

Quote

The whole corporate, beemer, wanting-to-be-a-partner thing just seems so unlikely, although we're talking Ben Folds here, so who knows!

But the cocaine thing IS likely? 

No, I don't know about the cocaine angle, it just seems funny for him to write a real song about giving a shit about being a partner somewhere, but like I said, we're talking Ben Folds here, and stranger things have happened!

Maybe I missed something - just because Ben sings in the first person doesn't mean it's based on fact. "My Name is Hiro I am 52" didn't make me suddenly rewrite the biography page.

~A

yeah. and ben's a big randy newman fan, who sort of pioneered the "unreliable narrator" song.

While we're talking about the realness or "fakeness" of The Bitch Went Nuts, can I just add this quote from the Paste magazine article:

"The cheeky irreverence that’s become Folds’ trademark is still on full display in tunes like “Bitch Went Nuts,” which tells the fictional story of a relationship that went south after the narrator’s lover goes psycho and stabs his basketball. According to Folds, the song is a comment on the male perspective. “If you ask loads of women what went wrong in a relationship, they’re going to give you a variety of answers. But you ask men, especially at a bar somewhere, and they’re gonna go, ‘Uh, bitch went nuts!’”"...

even though we know Ben's basketball wasn't really stabbed by anybody.

Perhaps he's getting bored of people saying "is it about your divorce" so he rewrote it.

(Yes, I think it's fake, but it's possible. And I do like the lyrics.)

got the call from sony. nothing really out of the ordinary. i just confirmed that i complied with their request, and that was about it.

So this thought just came in my head: Does Ben record demos?
People have been saying Ben wouldn't go through the trouble of recording bad versions of his songs or "fake songs" altogether, but what if they're just well done demos?

Well, I've listened through it a lot now and I really like a number of the songs.

Good: The Bitch Went Nuts, Dr. Yang, Free Coffee (i like this version a lot, never liked the other one much), Hiroshima (maybe with a little less talking at the end/cut the fake live crowd.. the song always has needed a better finish), You Don't Know Me

Mixed: Cologne, Way To Normal/Long Way To Go

Dislike:The Frown Song, Brainwascht (such lazy top 40 pop crap, I love the "real" version he played live though)

Missing: Errant Dog, Kylie From Connecticut

I think these songs are leaks of early previews, possibly for the record company.  Some are finished (Dr. Yang), and some may be fake if he had to fill a quota for some deadline so some songs are quick rips (Brainwascht?). He's said he's been done with the album at a number of different points, but was still working on it.  I guess we will know soon enough.