Song of the Day - Day 133

Today's song is...


I Am A Paleontologist





(Not even gonna make excuses about this being late)

There are not enough words in the English language to describe my love for this song. I think I actually didn't even realize how very, very strongly I feel about this song until I went to write about it and found it an extremely daunting task. John was teasing me last night, that I could write an entire blog post just on how cute the little animated band members are in the video. And that is completely true. The faces they are making are laugh out loud funny. And don't even get me started on the dancing pachycephalosaurus. Too cute to be borne.

But let me see if I can try to explain this too you. This song made it's first appearance at a family show at Le Poisson Rouge in New York City on March 28, 2009. I know, because I was there. I was standing at the back of a room leaning on a barrier surrounding a sea of parents and their children all sitting on the floor. The band came out and rocked through 813 Mile Car Trip. Then Flans demanded everyone stand up and suddenly I could barely see anything. And practically before I even knew what was happening Flans was announcing that Danny was about to sing us a brand new song called I Am A Paleontologist and they launched into it. And I was in love. Immediately, whole hearted in love with the song from the very first beats. I hadn't a clue what words Danny was singing but it didn't matter because the song ROCKED. Every child in the room was dancing, every parent's head was boppin'. And oh, whenever it got to the spoken word section with Flans singing "diggin', diggin', diggin', diggin" and Linnell riffin' on dinosaur names while making weird hand gestures (and I am only just now realizing, mispronouncing pachycephalosaurus), I just about died.

I remember this with the vivid clarity of events that made a profound impact, despite the fact that I only have one extremely blurry photograph documenting the event. And I remember virtually nothing of the rest of the show, so totally eclipsed was it by this song.



Imagine my delight upon getting home, when I realized some fine wikian had captured the entire thing on video. I spent hours and HOURS listening to this video over and over and over trying to decipher the lyrics. This was my first major, "figure out the lyrics from the live performance" experience, something I have had some practice with since then, but was new and thrilling at the time. It took two more videos from later performances before I finally made out the beginning of the second verse and was so triumphant I probably hollered "HERBIVORE" aloud in my apartment.

I loved seeing it performed across the summer as Flans repeatedly told the crowd to stand for their favorite song that they had never heard before, and I always wanted to shout "It really is my favorite song!" I felt like one of the cool kids being able to sing along to the song that wasn't even released yet. And oh, when it was released, I was so not disappointed. It was everything I wanted it to be and more, right down to the ridiculously adorable video.

I have watched this song travel from new song infancy to an explosion of popularity following the release of the album and somehow, I feel like I've been on a journey with it. It seems to sort of mirror my journey with this band. From it's first performance at a show when I was still wet behind the ears in the fandom, through the summer when it was becoming familiar to the hardcore fans just as I was starting to make some friends among them, to the fall when it debuted to the world on the album almost exactly the same time I started this blog. The spring where it had become a regular fixture the repertoire, just as I was finally finding my place in the fandom and finally into another fall where it's performance at a kid's show was as much a given as my face in the crowd.

I use the possessive a lot when talking about things that I love. I'm always confusing people by referring to TMBG as "my band" (and then they think I actually play in one). But I think, more than any other song in the catalog, this one feels like MY song. It's more than just the song itself. It's my experience with it that will always keep tucked in a very near and dear corner of my heart. And I continue to find new things to love about it. While just rewatching that first live performance, I realized that I have always been so focused on the humor of the spoken word section that I never noticed the beautiful bass solo Danny is doing behind it, which is particularly noticeable in that video. Now I can enjoy that too.

I started this story with a memory and I'll finish it with one two, full circle. At the second Morristown show in October, we had excellent seats that put us in the front with a great view but not so close as to feel self conscious at the kid's show. The crowd was on it's feet for this song and I was singing along and dancing (as least as much as I ever do). And taking pictures as usual. I had my camera up to snap a shot of Danny singing, glanced down to see how it had come out while still somewhat unconsciously singing and bopping my head, and looked back up and right into his eyes to find him just grinning at me. And for a few brief moments I felt the complete and utter joy of that awesome electric connection between music and artist and fan when it seems like the song is being sung just for you.

And it is for moments like that, ladies and gentlemen, that I will love this band until there in no longer breath in my body and follow them to the ends of the Earth (and Canada).