History
Ben Folds has spoken of feeling a social outcast at times and finding it hard to make friends as a child because his family was constantly moving. As he found initial success with the band Majosha and then forming Ben Folds Five with Darren Jessee and Robert Sledge, he began to recognize members of his audiences as similar types of outcasts. He noted that these types of people, who were in search of their own identities, would often find themselves gravitating towards the underground scenes (punk, ska, hardcore, etc.) of independent music. They would latch onto the scenes with particular fervor.
"Underground" is both an ode to and castigation of these type of people, as well as the perceived notions of the underground scene looking in from the outside. As Folds says:
| “ | It's just exercising artistic freedom to put some different things together that I think are funny. I think it's funny to make a very happy, cabaret-sounding song about the underground of the indie rock world. I think it's funny to take those people and make them dance around like puppets and sing Bee Gees. That's part of why you write. It's the freedom to do stuff like that. If there's a statement in it at all -- and it's not the heaviest song obviously -- it's that the underground or indie scene or whatever you wanna call it is just a social club. It's just fun. They're not planning the next revolution. People get so fucking serious about it, but it's just like if you've got all the credit to apply for a country club, they're going to ask you the same questions. | ” |
A catchy, raucous romp laced with falsetto, the track became the first international commercial single and first U.S. radio single from the album Ben Folds Five. It introduced the band to the world and remains the most well-known track on the album and one of the most well-known songs of the band's career, second only to "Brick".
The song was among the most popular performed at Ben Folds Five concerts. It featured a degree of audience participation, including coordinated sound effects and retorts to various lines throughout the song. Folds continues to perform the song occasionally during his solo career.
Read more about this topic: Underground (Ben Folds Five Song)
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“Every generation rewrites the past. In easy times history is more or less of an ornamental art, but in times of danger we are driven to the written record by a pressing need to find answers to the riddles of today.... In times of change and danger when there is a quicksand of fear under men’s reasoning, a sense of continuity with generations gone before can stretch like a lifeline across the scary present and get us past that idiot delusion of the exceptional Now that blocks good thinking.”
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