these are some of my favorite things . . .

For a few months, I've been keeping tabs of some of my favorite moments in the TDA songs that I listen to. Some of these are kinda minor things maybe but I appreciate them all the same and get a lot of enjoyment out of them. For instance:

-The cymbal crash on the word "hot" in "it was a hot summer night . . ." in "Hungover in Clover." Don't really expect it there but it's there accenting the word and beat and it somehow works just perfectly.

-The command to "Squeeze!" and then "Squeeze again" and the resulting, um, "accordion lick" in "Citizen Contraire." A cool accordion lick, all full of difficult-to-follow and somewhat twisted chromatics.

-The primary, um, musical "phrase" played on the accordions in "Bowling King." When all the accordions are playing that little melody in unison together, it sounds like a squad of gangbusters coming on strong, all in step with one another. There's something about accordions all playing together like this in chorus that makes you sit up and take notice, something that you can really appreciate, I guess particularly if you've grown up listening to Frankie Yankovic polkas and waltzes. Whenever I hear this "chorus" of accordions in this song it always reminds me of a marching band lined up in "parade front" coming straight at you. I'm not expressing myself very well but it's really cool.

-Also in "Bowling King," and this is kind of hard for me to explain because I don't know the musical terminology, but in the refrain when the lead singer (Paul?) sings "Ooooh, I'm the bowling king," the female vocalists come in a beat or two after him, which lends something really nice to the song. See, now, if it had been me writing the song, I'd never have thought to have that little delay. I'd just had everyone come in on the beat and it would have turned out less special.

-During "Those Hippies Were Right," when the girls/ladies/females take over singing for a few lines, in "Fish ain't jumping/Water keeps pumpin'/There's something on top all foamy and white/" --That's a great variation on what's already been presented. That's probably a favorite of a lot of people, however.

-The brief passage in "Lawnball" toward the end of the song when the melody turns from a laid-back simple straightforward tune and, for a few measures/beats/whatever, turns into a long-hair wild electric-guitar-like riff, with a wah-wah pedal and/or fuzzbox or something. That's an unexpected little turn and to me it always sort of symbolizes the bursting through of an insane crazy mentality sitting there held back behind the rest of the studied restraint of the rest of the song--a craziness that is also somewhat placidly implied through the lyrics.

-The use of the whistle in "First Bratwurst of Summer," which gives the whole song a marching band-parade sort of quality in addition to it being a polka.

-In "Following the Puppets," at the beginning of the song, the fact that the singer (Paul?) sings in, if not exactly a falsetto, but at any rate a high pitch, lends a certain personality to the tune that is pretty hard to describe but is also pretty cool, particularly when you listen to this cut and compare it against the rest of the TDA repertoire. I mean, it provides some fun and interesting contrast.

-The languid random accordion noodling at the beginning of the song Clownhead. But who doesn't like that?

-For some reason, the entire song Mucho De Nada intrigues me, particularly the lyrics, so much so that I tracked down a Spanish-speaking woman who could tell me what the words are to the refrain and what they mean. ". . . other than this hole in my heart . . . " Both my kids (ages 6 and 9) brought this tune into their respective music classes so that everyone could listen, they like it so much. In the younger one's class, the kids immediately jumped up and began to dance and it took a while for the teacher to regain control.

-The accordion work (accordion licks and/or solos) in "Behind The Bellows." Never get tired of listening to that.

-The entire song "Following The Puppets." There's too much to list here. You can listen to the lyrics a dozen times and still find something new that helps define the whole concept of the song, the "manifesto" that it represents. I've spent hours listening to the lyrics and playing around with what they might mean; that's a lot of fun for me.

-The melody of "Mambo Triste."

(more follows)

(continuing where I left off)


-The bass/drum groove that goes on in Dr. Luv. In fact, if you gave me a CD that had an extended version of Dr. Luv on it, with maybe that song being the entire 80 minute CD, with 77 minutes or so of that CD being simply an extension of the bass-drum groove that goes on between the second and third stanzas with maybe some accordion noodling/improvisation in there on occasion as well as the background singers singing "Dr., Dr. Luv" now and then, I'd be very happy. I'd listen to that puppy all day.

-The overall wistful nature of Lawnball, the CD (aside from a couple of cuts such as Frankenstein and the Led Zep medly, of course).

There's more, but that's probably enough for now.

--sam grey

Sam, Thanks for the amazingly detailed observations! I love the fact that you are picking up on little hidden nuances that I never thought anyone would decipher. You are however, In danger of TDA OVERLOAD . You are hereby ordered to put your TDA CDs away for a week and listen to the Rolling Stones "Exile on Main Street" 20 times! Cheers,

Paul

The part I like best is during TDA's live gigs when Paul starts to play Clownhead. His eyes dilate, a little twitch starts at the corner of his mouth, the amp starts to hum a little louder... and everyone else in the band takes a couple of subtle steps away from him on the stage.

Or at least that's the way I saw it.

*Bill In Milwaukee

PS; Sam's right about the cymbal crash in "Hung Over In Clover." It's one of those little touches that make the tune.

what else is cool about that part of "Hungover In Clover," aside from the cymbal crash, is the way Paul leads into the main lyrics/vocals. It starts out "Everybody's got a summertime song . . . Here's one of our own." And then immediately, grace-note-like or whatever, you've got that triplet "It was a" and then the word "hot" comes in on the beat, along with the cymbal. I don't know enough about music to know if this is difficult to sing or not, but it sure screws with my head when I try to sing the song to myself in the car or something, because my brain wants to take the more conventional route of making "it" in "it was a" fall on the first beat of the next measure, instead of leading up to it.

yessir!