Once I got over the fact that I was standing thisclose to Ben Folds when I saw him play the House of Blues here in Boston a couple months back (close enough to get a great view of the streams of spittle flying out of his mouth…I’m not criticizing!), I had another wet-my-pants moment when I found out that Ben was collaborating on a project with Nick Hornby, author of one of my favorite books (and movies) of all time, “High Fidelity”. The album-length project, “Lonely Avenue”, finds Hornby playing Bernie Taupin while Folds does the Elton John thing.
During the concert, Ben was kind enough to grace us with a preview of one song from the album, “Levi Johnston’s Blues”, a song that pays tribute to the hockey-playing jamoke who had the misfortune of knocking up Sarah Palin’s daughter (and is apparently getting back together with her-of COURSE there’s a reality show involved! After all, money talks!). As you’d figure from a Hornby/Folds collaboration, the song’s got more than a couple of chuckle-worthy lines, and is also well-crafted enough that you should enjoy it even if you’re a Tea Party-ist (Tea Partier?…hey, isn’t a tea partier someone who cruises public restrooms? Did Larry Craig come up with this name?).
Check out “Levi Johnston’s Blues” here. I doubt Levi has much of a concept of irony, so this is probably already his ringtone.
“Lonely Avenue” hits stores on September 28th.