Tag Archives: Alice Childress

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Song of the Day #1,378: ‘Alice Childress (Live)’ – Ben Folds Five

Best Albums of the 90s – #1
Ben Folds Five – Ben Folds Five (1995)

This pick will come as no surprise to regular readers of the blog. I’ve gone on record calling this my favorite album and even featured it in its entirety a year and a half ago.

In fact, I’ve had to cheat in order to post a song today. This recording of ‘Alice Childress’ isn’t from the album itself but from a live radio performance by the band on KCRW. Fittingly, given yesterday’s featured album, Folds writes in the liner notes that he sang this song “absolutely intimidated by Fiona Apple’s performance on the same show.”

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Song of the Day #869: ‘Alice Childress’ – Ben Folds Five

I’ve written before about how I believe great albums have a moment when they become great. A special album is great start to finish, certainly, but there is usually a point almost halfway through when the whole thing just leaps up to another level.

‘Alice Childress’ is that point on Ben Folds Five.

This song is on my short list of favorite Ben Folds tunes, which puts it on my short list of favorite songs by anybody. It’s pretty and profound and deeply moving without ever striving to be important.

One of my favorite things about Ben Folds is that he is the opposite of pretentious — he goes out of his way to write the way people talk. And in the process he often writes far more meaningful songs than people who fancy themselves true poets.

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