"Best Of" committee

2018 - Now with opening act Emo Philips!

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CB Johnny
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"Best Of" committee

Post by CB Johnny »

Fans like myself, Ergalthema, Elvis, and others have been keenly interested in the little details. Ergalthema is still looking for solos and special moments. Dave and I are on the lookout for any songs that are not on a studio album (e.g., Dare To Be Stupid Unplugged, Audience Inspiration Song, Albuquerque Special Fake Version, Reunited, Craigslist Extended etc) no matter how minuscule.

And of course, plenty of us are very interested in all the varying pre-song banter jokes, trivia, and odd moments.

However, as much as your average CPFOA likes to dedicate an awful lot of free time on their hands... It's a huge tedious mind-numbing task to go through 115+ hours just to comb through minor details.

However, if you're interested in contributing to the ever-growing body of Weird Al trivia, then it would be more fun and easy if it became a group effort with specific goals.

We could take the 49 songs and divide those up.
Say for example one fan took Nature Trail, WDTAHTM, Dog Eat Dog, and CNR.
Another took So Sick Of You, Velvet Elvis, Airline Amy, She Never Told Me She Was A Mime.
Another took Bob, One More Minute, You Don't Love Me Anymore

and so on and so forth.

We listen to each instance it was played and any banter that took place immediately before and after.

We take notes on the following:

Transcripts of what Al and the band says or does. NOTE: this does NOT mean every superfluous public speaking noise that almost English speaker is expected to make. Please break free and omit every and any use of sounds like "Uh" or "Um" or moments that Al repeats a word or two when catching up with himself to talk. It's about getting the message across.

On the other hand if your paraphrase is so loose that the trivia/joke aspect is gone then it's not what I have in mind for the project. For instance I'm working on Dare To Be Stupid (Unplugged)
say I wasn't and someone put
"He said this next song is a Grateful Dead rarity off of an old album from Japan" when Al was a lot more detailed then that... ((and none of you did this so far! you're all doing great!))
I'd thank you for your time but it's just not what I'm looking for. Comedy is in the details.
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Songography entry worthy moments


This project would be super helpful to Elvis and I. We collect every miniscule moment where Al hums, whistles, plays an instrument, etc. even if he didn't write the song himself. For a comprehensive example please see my list available on the Music subforum called "the handy guide to hear everything without bootlegging"

We've already had an instance on the tour where Al sings a few notes of "Reunited" by Peaches & Herbs. We go that miniscule, people. :P
---------------
and, as Bob Ross would put it, any "happy little mistakes" that happen when performing or when a song they had less practice with (Jackson Park Express and Fun Zone for instance) starts to sound a little more on point.

That way we can archive a bunch of information and...... put together a guide for the best of the tour. :)

I mean who knows who could find that information useful. :F

Reply here with a song or two or three that you are interested in covering. Send me your notes and it will be placed on the wiki website that Ergalthema has set up for us. Speaking of Ergalthema, I want to thank him for setting a great wiki up for us... and providing an impressive ear for his two songs.

If you are suddenly thinking I expected that level of attention from all of you- I promise you, that you do not. Everyone here will have their own ear for things and it provides a sense of variety. You do not need to have the amazing ear for musical detail that he has.

So simply put: You don't need to have an expertise in music, vocabulary, etc. If you know the song's studio version well enough to catch differences and can explain such in some sort of simple terms then you're good. You really are just fine.


It's also worth noting that for those who might emphasize mistakes made in the tour.....
This is a perfect tour to acknowledge just how amazing Al's band is. They learned a 40-year catalog's worth of material for a four-hour rotation's worth of content and therefore any "mistake" in such a loose casual lowkey vibe experience isn't a fault it's a feature so I emphasize that this collaborative document celebrates their efforts.

Lastly, perhaps our efforts can streamline any considerations made in the future for some sort of live album? |)

That's not the primary goal and, honestly, would probably conflict with some sort of contractual obligation with Stitcher, however... I can dream and we can certainly let this project serve as a handy guide to the band's hard work and Al's comedic chops, trivia, and the various magical moments throughout the 77 shows.

Who's interested?

----
Here are the songs, the number of shows they are played during, and who has claimed them.
Please let me know ASAP if interested so there's no overlap.

THE LIST

Fun Zone- 21
CNR- 41 - Aiyume
Bob- 32
Why Does This Always Happen To Me? - 33 - claimed by Muppetboy09
Generic Blues 31
Buy Me A Condo 28
Jackson Park Express 42
Stop Forwarding That Crap To Me 17
Craigslist 29
Good Old Days 37
Happy Birthday 15
You Don't Love Me Anymore 41- claimed by Margarita
Party At The Leper Colony 8 - claimed by Al's Homeboy
Don't Download This Song 38
When I Was Your Age 30 - claimed by richegreen
Melanie 37 - claimed by Amyshy
One More Minute 39 - claimed by Aiyume
Mr. Popeil 17
Your Horoscope For Today 18
Dare To Be Stupid (Unplugged) 44 - claimed by CB Johnny
Mr. Frump In The Iron Lung 21
Traffic Jam 09 - claimed by JoseyKlein
My Own Eyes 31
Albuquerque 36 - claimed by CB Johnny :wacko:
The Biggest Ball Of Twine In Minnesota -40- claimed by Ergalthema
The Night Santa Went Crazy -24
Good Enough For Now 13 claimed by Richegreen
Nature Trail To Hell - 29 claimed by Ergalthema
I'll Sue Ya 29
Close But No Cigar 30
My Baby's In Love With Eddie Vedder 17 - claimed by Margarita
Midnight Star 30
Stuck In A Closet With Vanna White 13
Let Me Be Your Hog 24
Truck Drivin' Song 10 - claimed by Margarita
If That Isn't Love 23
UHF 35
She Never Told Me She Was A Mime 15
Velvet Elvis 29 -
I'm So Sick Of You 14
Young Dumb And Ugly 28
One Of Those Days 10
Dog Eat Dog 31
Airline Amy 21 - claimed by Amyshy
I Remember Larry 22- claimed by cherylhunt411
I was Only Kidding 10
Christmas At Ground Zero 17
That Boy Could Dance 7


new additions:
banter for Unplugged Medley (not the performance itself)

banter for Star Wars songs
anomalies/gags during Star Wars songs but not song quality

and a disclaimer:
I have taken it upon myself to handle Dare To Be Stupid Unplugged due to it being one of the most played songs on this list besides Saga Begins and Unplugged Medley. However, due to it not having a studio recording for comparison I am starting to doubt my own ear for noticing differences. I'll be emphasizing pre-song banter, anomalies, and the like.
If you were going "ah, man I wanted to claim that" then perhaps I can offer a trade?

This does not mean I'm skipping the music mind you. I'm still putting in my hours at the front lines. You wonderful fellow fans have been gracious with this project and now that I'm back to having free time on my hands after taking care of my family and my career this should be fun.

besides. I've decided to take on Albuquerque because none of you have to subjugate yourself to listening to that over and over for a project that I came up with. I need to lead by example in gratitude that y'all made this easier for me.

Super special thanks to Ergalthema for helping with that site wiki. :great: I'd be overwhelmed no matter how simple that is. No spoons for learning new website layouts at this point in my life when leading a project in my free time. :wacko:
Last edited by CB Johnny on Wed Sep 05, 2018 6:54 pm, edited 22 times in total.
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ergalthema
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Re: "Best Of" committee

Post by ergalthema »

Love this idea! I'd gladly take Nature Trail and Twine Ball (the top two from my dream setlist).
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CB Johnny
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Re: "Best Of" committee

Post by CB Johnny »

Solid! I'm going to update the volunteer list and their respective songs. Feel free to inbox if you prefer, folks.
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ajv2001
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Re: "Best Of" committee

Post by ajv2001 »

Without even listening to all the shows I feel like Craigslist from Green Bay (with his insane phone call with his mother) and My Own Eyes from NYC2 (with respective opening Dave Grohl story) should be the choices for those
5/13/12-Waterbury, CT
10/6/13-Northampton, MA
6/6/15-Mashantucket, CT 8PM
7/30/15-Port Chester, NY
9/18/16-Waterbury, CT
9/16/17-Providence, RI [UHF]
3/2/18-Mashantucket, CT
3/4/18-Boston, MA
~Strings Attached '19~
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CB Johnny
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Re: "Best Of" committee

Post by CB Johnny »

Oh absolutely, however, I need to emphasize that the notes for comparing and contrasting all the instances will still be necessary for The Songography and the tour spreadsheet. But, yes, those two nights for those two songs are the strong contenders, to say the least.
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Re: "Best Of" committee

Post by Muppetboy09 »

I'll take "Why Does This Always Happen to Me?"

Any specific place you want our "reviews" to get posted once they are done?
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amyshy
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Re: "Best Of" committee

Post by amyshy »

I'm in! I'll take Airline Amy and Melanie because I'm a sucker for the stalker songs. :D
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CB Johnny
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Re: "Best Of" committee

Post by CB Johnny »

We can start with just inboxing them to me.

and great, thank you guys for jumping in!


I feel I s hould emphasize/recap the goals.
1) verbatim transcript of the pre-song banter and any relevant post-song banter. what was said, any audience callouts that influenced the moment, any weird events surrounding it (example: houselights before Truck Drivin' Song)
2) music or lyric mistakes
3) special creative liberties for a particular night (Craigslist final night, Happy Birthday Beatles intro)
4) solos not mentioned in Ergalthema's spreadsheet


also if you're not familiar with The Songography on Elvis or Catradohtem's website

Elvis and I (filling Catradohtem's big shoes) are noting every single unique musical moment. So remixes, alternate version, etc those are obvious. but there are also little moments where if Al even sings a few words in conversation (Reunited by Peaches and Herbs) or plays a few notes of an instrument... we want to know about it and list it as a song entry. The vibraslap solo Al had is an example. That songography would even include the moment on this week's Comedy Bang Bang in which Al and Scott sing pleasantries at each other towards the beginning of the episode.

That's how specific and obscure we get.

=D thank you so much, guys. The more who get involved then the easier this gets.

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edit: I'll take Dare To Be Stupid (Unplugged)

It was played the most often under Saga Begins and Unplugged Medley.
Granted, Albuquerque is the true time sucker in song length to play count ratio but I'll let a brave passionate soul rise to that task if they want it.
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ergalthema
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Re: "Best Of" committee

Post by ergalthema »

Regarding #1 - would a summary be ok? Word-for-word transcription is quite difficult and time-consuming. It will be challenging enough just to make notes and summarize the banter.
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Margarita
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Re: "Best Of" committee

Post by Margarita »

Sign me up:) I'd like to take Truck drivin' song and My Baby's in love with Eddie Vedder
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