Song Of The Day - Day 128

Today's song is...


Mammal


Listen to my favorite performance of today's song HERE!


One of my long time favorite TMBG songs, this is one of the earliest ones to grab me once I started listening to the Dial-A-Song collection non-stop in my car. I think it originally appealed to me as a life long animal lover and then later as a distinctly Linnellian song. The flow of the lyrics is simply brilliant. And the "raise a paw" line is just adorable.

I distinctly remember asking Gary the morning of the Mohegan Sun Apollo 18 show if he thought that they would play Mammal. I was so unfamiliar with the album at the time, I think it was the only thing I could distinctly remember being on it. And they did play it so I got my wish. But my favorite performance is the one linked above. It's from the Apollo 18 show at LPR. I think I've mentioned before, that I did not realize how amazing that show was at the time because of the obnoxious guy standing behind me in the audience and the terrible fan behavior I witnessed afterwards. But going back and listening to the recording, I was suddenly able to appreciate the spontaneous way in the which the audience provided all the backing vocals on the songs straight through the show, something I was not conscious of at all at the time. It makes such a strong connection between the band and the audience and gives the show a sort of intimate feel. You wouldn't know it from some of the people standing near me in line, but now I feel like the majority of the people in that crowd were the capital letter FANS.

I also remember another LPR show where Flans was introducing Why Does The Sun Really Shine? and someone in the audience shouted "Now fix Mammal!" I desperately wanted to shout "Don't you dare!" but did not yet have the confidence.

(P.S. I left the post-song chatter on that recording on purpose because there is a really funny Linnell quote in there.)