Song of the Day - Day 642

Today's song is...


Spoiler Alert

The first couple of times I listened to Join Us, I had only paid attention to the Linnell portion of this song. My initial impression was "hey, that's amusing"but it didn't make a big impact. But Gary pointed out to me that I needed to stop and really listen to the Flansburgh portion of the song too. And I did. Sitting in the parking lot of the grocery store. And then I went "whoooooooooa." I think I laughed out loud too. I was pretty blown away. First by the humor and absurdity. Then by how intricately the two halves of the song fit together and all the specific and deliberate points at which they meshed.

Then someone, (Q maybe? Or Gabby? I honestly don't remember.), suggested to me that the flute at the end represented death and the concept of the "death flute" was born. There followed a brief and heated debate about whether is was a flute or a bass clarinet, in which I said bass flute and had the joy of receiving a text message at work when the physical credits were finally examined that said "bass flute." (Don't ask why I got so excited about that. I can't explain.)

Then there was a brief period of delight over the video, mostly because I was so excited that the boys were in it, because I was really hoping they would be. And then finally a long sequence of seeing the song performed live, by puppets. And do you know what happens when you hear the same song performed by puppets 28 times in a year? You get tired of it. That's right. This is now the only Join Us track, that I am completely worn out on. Don't get me wrong. It is still brilliant, still funny, and whenever I hear it live again, I am sure I will have benefited from the break. But I did need that break from it. Boy, I am ready for it again right now though. Bring on the puppets!