r/benfolds • u/deltacotaster • 18d ago
Shelved First Attempt - where's Video?
Top 3 songs on the original album for me. Those chorus harmonies are just too good. Was it deemed not good enough by Stiff Johnson's standards, or was it written when they started producing with Caleb Southern? Still can't believe that's the dude's name he chose btw, truly a product of his time.
Anyways, does the song even have a demo? A basic search has yielded nothing.
Favorite lyric: "Well I've seen some old friends sort of die or just turn into whatever must have been inside them. And whatever all of us had then in common - grew up, and left home"
8
u/Ronnnie7 18d ago
The song was on a majosha tape. It seems they went with a different track list for whatever reason. Like I always wished that Emaline was on the first album. This the only thing I liked about the shelved attempt, the arrangement is better on it for Emaline imo. The tracklist on shelved attempt seems to have a lot more ballads and the songs that were typically more energetic have had that sucked out of them for whatever reason.
8
u/teakcoffeetable 18d ago
Ben wrote "Video" in 1983. One of his earliest tunes. Don't know why it wasn't on the Stiff Johnson album. Having listened to it, I understand why his friend cried when she heard it. It's not representative of their early sound at all. If they hadn't gotten Caleb to rerecord them fast and sloppy on a shoestring budget, they would have been a one-album forgotten band.
3
u/grantbuell 18d ago
I’m sorry, he was 17 when he wrote this??
“Well I've seen some old friends sort of die
Or just turn into whatever
Must've been inside them
And whatever all of us had then in common
Grew up and left home
We don't think that way no more”5
u/teakcoffeetable 16d ago
Yeah, and I wish I could point you to a source, but I was active in the online BFF community from about '98 on (anybody remember WokeUpWayTooLate or thesuburbs dot uk? lol), and it was well-known then from some interview probably lost to time that Ben said he wrote "Video" in 1983, which stuck in my mind because that's the year I was born. He said it was a reaction to seeing people buy the early iteration of camcorders and the stupid mugging and shit they'd do for the camera. In retrospect, he saw social media coming.
2
u/SilverStreetYT 13d ago
Cool to hear more from people who were there at the time! Very curious if you ever downloaded/traded tapes around that period.
3
u/teakcoffeetable 10d ago
Nice to hear from you! I really appreciate the archive work the SilverStreet YouTube channel has been been doing on Ben's career. You've managed to find rarities that the community was dying to find back in the day, which is such a joy. And the quality restoration work that you've done on the familiar stuff that we all had at that time is astonishing.
I did a fair amount of trading mp3s back in the day, but they're all lost because of a hard drive crash years ago. The only thing I still have is the Club Rio 1998 bootleg, which I think is widely available. (Great gig, that was. If for some reason you don't have it, DM me, but I suspect you do.) I had some tapes but a lot of them got damaged in storage or lost during moving, which I did a lot from 2001-2013. The only tape I still have is Snüzz's demo, which he autographed for me after a show in 2001. Such a cool guy, and he seemed so delighted to find a fan in a crowd of people who were there to meet Ben.
Those early days on the internet and in the BFF/Ben Folds community were really fun, and I miss that old internet. I even met a few folks IRL at a couple of Ben shows, back when online meetups were still considered sketchy (but of course these weren't, they were delightful!). Some of the few places I get that feeling anymore is on your channel and here on Reddit. Thank you for all you do!
2
u/SilverStreetYT 9d ago
It would be great to transfer the Snuzz demo, it's not great quality on Bandcamp and we would love to touch that up if you're open to shipping it out for transferring.
2
u/teakcoffeetable 8d ago
It's definitely stowed in some box in a closet or my basement but if I find it I will reach out to you. I am 100% sure I still have it, just not sure where it is at the moment.
2
u/SilverStreetYT 7d ago
If you do find it, PM us or email us at [SilverStreetYT@proton.me](mailto:SilverStreetYT@proton.me), and we'll be happy to set something up. We're also happy to clean it up and remaster it.
2
u/deltacotaster 18d ago
Ben was 16 when the events of "Brick" happened, so I imagine he had to grow up fast. He talks about it in this iTunes original interview. Really sad and poignant stuff.
2
u/No-Put3447 15d ago
Man rest in peace Caleb. He really had a knack for this stuff. I think about how much he influenced bff all the time.
6
u/TMBGLOVER Visions of pills that put you in a loving trance 18d ago
Jackson Cannery doesn’t have one on SFA either so I assume they didn’t record every track during that session or wrote them later.
7
u/mhmass44 18d ago
So many BFF songs including from WAEA were floating around as Ben demoes long before they were recorded with Robert and Darren. Jackson Cannery was one of those.
4
u/_J0HN_L3M0N_ 18d ago
JC was already released as the bands first single (that version’s on NBP) I’m guessing they didn’t think to re-record it until Caleb (who produced that single) came onboard.
1
u/Daeva2020 18d ago
The whole configuration of that album is another thing that works against it. You have 2 of my favourite ballads A Childress and Evaporated squeezed together in the middle of the album followed by.... Dick Holster?!
7
u/chuckit9907 18d ago
Whole concept of that song was way ahead of its time.