Today's song is...
Particle Man
Only 17 days in and my random song selector struck one of the big ones. I was recently shocked to discover that my boyfriend is what I call a Tiny Toons TMBG Fan, meaning he discovered the band via the episode of Tiny Toons that contained the Particle Man and Istanbul videos. I don't know how I had missed this fact for so long. Despite being the right age, I never watched Tiny Toons so I never saw those videos until I watched Direct From Brooklyn.
I have to admit, I have never been a Particle Man fan. I don't hate it; it's just not one of my favorites. However, I love what the band does with it live. Every time I think I am thoroughly sick of hearing the song, they do something else silly with it when they perform it so it's fresh again. I have a lot of good show memories associated with this song. I think my favorite is from the screwed up St. Louis Flood show that I talk about all the time. They had almost gotten to the end of the album, having already had to go back and insert Twisting, Your Racist Friend and We Want A Rock out of order because they forgot them, when Marty remembered they hadn't played Particle Man either. He leans down to tell Danny. Flans is in the midst of saying there are only two songs left when Danny starts waving at him going "Particle Man, we forgot Particle Man." Flans gives him this totally exasperated look (which he responds to with a "don't look at me, it was him" look and point at Marty) and corrects himself to say their are only 14 songs left. That show is going to go down in history as one of my favorites. Too funny. But as far as Particle Man performances go it is closely rivaled by Linnell conducting Flans and Danny on the keyboard at both The Stone Pony and that last show at the Quick Center. Both absurdly funny Particle Man moments as well.
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My favorite Particle Man thing ever was at the Stone Pony, when they came on to do the third encore and Dan was already clapping on the backbeat while he walked across the stage. It struck me as hilarious at the time. Second prize goes to Danny making fun of everybody who was trying to clap during the "I Love To Sing" bridge at Fairfield.
ReplyDeleteIt's not my favorite song to hear live, but I do love Linnell's crazy-ass accordion thing at the end. It's a song I'm never sad to miss, but hearing it doesn't completely bum me out or anything. (Dead and Istanbul are another matter entirely.)
I feel like Particle Man is nearly everybody's first TMBG song. Or among the first anyway. I don't hate the song, but I don't love it either. I guess years of knowing it doesn't help that.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite moment:
The Crazy Donkey. First song of the first encore. Linnell begins to clap. The audience follows his lead. Linnell leans into the mic and says, "Do you think that because I started clapping, I meant I wanted you to clap too?"
The audience slowly stops clapping, save for a few people.
And then Linnell says, "Well, you're right."
John Linnell: Deadpan Snarker.
I'm always eager to listen to/watch renditions of Particle Man for the improvisation part. I actually have a "Particle Man" iTunes video playlist of more than 20 clips. It's too hard to say what my favorite improv. is, but I do enjoy those "But wait... someone reaches his skeleton hand up from the grave.." versions that were done a while back. And I simply love the accordion "mashing" that Linnell does at the finish.
ReplyDeleteIt's kind of funny to me that Particle Man is a "big one". It wasn't big in my Flood days (not in my circles or on the college radio I listened to anyway), though I did lose track of the band for quite awhile not too long after Flood and obviously missed a lot. I remember the song fondly as a typical, quirky, little TMBG gem, though it wasn't then (and isn't now) a real favorite of mine. I do particularly like it live for all the reasons expressed here already (most especially the accordion, which I sometimes think I could watch all day).
ReplyDeleteParticle Man was also the first non-kid song the band played at the first concert I attended at the Hall of Science last year. It was definitely cool for me to experience this throwback (I guess I hadn't been expecting songs from the old albums), and it was this concert that started my addiction to the live shows. Plus, Particle Man holds a special place as the first non-kid song my kids really got into once the kids' albums inspired me to start playing my old albums and collecting the ones I'd missed in the interim. My 4-year-old in particular (then 3), chose it as a clear favorite (hence his "Triangle Wins" shirt).