''Ben Folds Live'' is a live

album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

Ben Folds Benjamin Scott Folds (born September 12, 1966) is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and composer, who is the first artistic advisor to the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., since May 2017. Folds was th ...

, released on October 8, 2002. This album marked the first official release of the Ben Folds' improvisation, "Rock This Bitch". The song, which changes with every performance, is now a staple of his live performances, with recorded versions also appears on his later albums ''

Songs for Goldfish ''Songs for Goldfish'' is a Ben Folds album of live and unreleased tracks packaged with ''Songs for Silverman'' and released through Ben Folds' website. Tracks 1 through 8 are live performances, 9 and 10 are unreleased studio tracks. Recording de ...

'' (under the name "Weather Channel Music") and on the '' Live in Perth'' DVD (in which he "rocks this bitch orchestrally" with the

West Australian Symphony Orchestra The West Australian Symphony Orchestra (WASO) is an Australian symphony orchestra based in Perth, Western Australia. Its principal concert venue is the Perth Concert Hall. WASO also gives concerts at the Mandurah Performing Arts Centre. , W ...

). This album was made available for a limited time with a bonus DVD. It had 8 tracks, including a video of the audience shooting the front cover (during which they all gave him

the finger In Western culture, "the finger", or the middle finger (as in giving someone the (middle) finger, the bird or flipping someone off) is an obscene hand gesture. The gesture communicates moderate to extreme contempt, and is roughly equivalent i ...

and yelled "Ben Folds sucks!"). This was also notable for the first appearance of the altered, minor-key version of the

Ben Folds Five Ben Folds Five is an American alternative rock trio formed in 1993 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The group comprises Ben Folds (lead vocals, piano), Robert Sledge (bass guitar, backing vocals) and Darren Jessee (drums, backing vocals). The gro ...

favorite "Song for the Dumped" on an official release. This version also includes

Darren Jessee Darren Michael Jessee is an American drummer and singer-songwriter best known as a member of the alternative rock trio Ben Folds Five. Jessee has also worked as an instrumentalist for Sharon Van Etten and Hiss Golden Messenger and released two ...

's "missing lyrics" ("You fucking whore" repeated a few times). The Japanese release of the album included a live version of "Eddie Walker" and the studio recording of "Bizarre Christmas Incident". The 'L' in "Live" on the front cover is actually an upside-down 'F', as though it used to say "

", the name of Ben's group before he began his solo career. The cover of the album was taken June 8, 2002 at Avalon in Boston, MA during the "Ben Folds and a Piano" tour. The original image is of everyone in the crowd giving Ben the middle finger, however the fingers are edited out of the photo in the cover shown here. The "explicit" version of the cover shows the fingers.

Track listing

Limited Edition Bonus DVD

#" Not the Same" (Same version as Track #5 on the CD) #"

Philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

(Inc

Misirlou "Misirlou" ( el, Μισιρλού < tr, Mısırlı 'Egyptian' < ar, مصر ''Miṣr'' 'Egypt') is a folk song from the Eastern Mediterranean region. The original author of the song is not known, but Arabic, Greek, and Jewish musicians wer ...

)" #"

Army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

" #"Album Art Antics" (photographing the cover; see above) #"

Eddie Walker Eddie or Eddy may refer to: Science and technology *Eddy (fluid dynamics), the swirling of a fluid and the reverse current created when the fluid flows past an obstacle *Eddie (text editor), a text editor originally for BeOS and now ported to Linu ...

" #" The Ascent of Stan" #"

Tiny Dancer "Tiny Dancer" is a song written by English musician Elton John and songwriter Bernie Taupin, and performed by John. It was originally released on John's 1971 album '' Madman Across the Water,'' and was later released as a single in 1972. It was ...

" #" Song for the Dumped" (in a minor key)

Personnel

*Ben Folds –

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

* John McCrea – vocals on track 8 (of CD)

Production

*Producers: Marc Chevalier, Ben Folds *Engineer: Marc Chevalier *Mixing: Marc Chevalier *Mastering: Ted Jensen *A&R: Ben Goldman, James Hynes, Fleming McWilliams *Project manager: Scott Carter *Compilation: Marc Chevalier *Crew: Marc Chevalier *Photography: David Leyes, Steve Volpe, Ben Folds *Package design: John Heiden

Charts

References

{{Authority control 2002 live albums Ben Folds video albums 2002 video albums Live video albums Albums produced by Ben Folds