"Pumpkin, Mrs. Farnsworth" revisited
Sep. 10th, 2004 11:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jwghAfter my last entry, a couple of people said that they had heard and really liked "Pumpkin, Mrs. Farnsworth". This is great, but probably the version they heard isn't the version Chris and I played last night, so I wanted to set the record straight ... party out of fairness and partly so that if anyone comes to a Killdevils show they'll know what to expect.
So! A little history of "Pumpkin, Mrs. Farnsworth".
In April of 2002, a British Kibologist, John D Salt, had a dream which was the genesis of the song:
I had an odder-than-usual dream last night.It involved a parlour-game, which I should think would need quite a large and well-furnished parlour for the game to work successfully.
The game is called "Pumpkin, Mrs. Farnsworth". It needs numerous players of all sexes to play it, and somebody called Mrs. Farnsworth, who carries a plate of cakes and distributes them among the party.
The object of the game is for pairs of players to secretly have sex with each other without being noticed, and then shout "pumpkin!" before Mrs. Farnsworth can offer them a cake.
It all seemed much less impractical in my dream than it does now.
I expect some bloody Freudian will come along with their psychoanalysis hat on in a minute and claim that dreaming about secret sex acts in a well-furnished parlour is symbolical of some kind of repressed fascination with railway engines, or something.
Australian Kibologist Casey B was then inspired to write lyrics for it.
And there things lay for a few months. Then I decided I wanted to record a sort of an Irishy song (inspired by the song Mick McGuire which I had been playing for a while), so I sat down and figured out an arrangement and recorded the thing. The next day I was on ArkMOO and Casey stopped in; when I told him I had recorded "Pumpkin, Mrs. Farnsworth" he revealed the he, also, had come up with an arrangement for the lyrics and recorded it. So the two fairly different versions were recorded independently, possibly within a few hours of each other.
[my version] [Casey's version]
Casey's version is probably most people's single favorite Interrobang Cartel recording; it really kicks ass. My version is, I think, also reasonably catchy, although it doesn't rise to the same level. (My arrangement is the one that The Killdevils are performing, however. At least right now.)
The story doesn't quite end here, though. Jeremy D. Impson decided he wanted to contribute something to Interrobang Cartel, so he recorded himself playing the noseflute and allowed as if anyone wanted to incorporate these into an ?!C song they should go ahead and do so. After fooling around with the various musical tools I had available at the time (this was before Garage Band came out!) I came up with a new superfast version of "Pumpkin, Mrs. Farnsworth" which had the same basic structure as my earlier recording but had some extra vocal parts, instrumentation, and of course the nose flute solo.
Casey dubbed his version the "London Share House Mix", my first version the "English Country Garden Mix", and the nose flute version the "Spaghetti West End Mix". And that's the story of "Pumpkin, Mrs. Farnsworth". I should put all this information up on the ?!C website at some point.
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no subject
Date: 2004-09-11 07:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-11 04:57 pm (UTC)Do you have scientific proof of asskicking, or is this merely anecdotal? Well, all right, it does kick, but it's not my favorite Needs More Wanger track. My favorite probably is different on different days, but "Chalice of Fire" is right up there. Matt and Casey nailed the genre so damn well it's frightening. "The George Hammond Conspiracy" is great too. And then there's both versions of "The Robot Song" -- remarkable, two completely different takes on the same lyrics, both great. I really can't make up my mind which I like better. NotR's probably trails Casey's by a neck right up until the end, when he pulls off that spectacular higher-and-higher harmony ending and sends it into extra innings... wait, do horse races have extra innings?
Anyway, NotR and Casey need to record more songs.
no subject
Date: 2004-09-11 05:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-11 09:35 pm (UTC)but I should also mention that 'I'm Not A Tuba Player' is one of the post-Needs More Wanger songs that I really really like a lot. More! More!
As far as why I thought most people liked '"Pumpkin, Mrs. Farnsworth"' best, it probably doesn't even rise to the level of anecdotal, being more of a vague impression. Kerri and Matt both like it a lot, I know, and I think it's one that often gets mentioned when vaguely review-like things happen regarding Needs More Wanger. But I'm not sure what I'm basing that on so may be wrong.
I think Casey's recording of 'The Robot Song' (the first ?!C recording, unless my memory is completely defective) really gave the whole Interrobang Cartel concept the shot in the arm it needed to become whatever the hell it is today. As you say both it and Glenn's versions are great and I like them both a lot for different reasons.
Now I go to bed.
no subject
Date: 2004-09-13 11:02 am (UTC)Curse you for saying this the same day I verified that I can indeed use Barfly as a MIDI sequencer -- a somewhat buggy and clumsy one, but it's a useful program in other ways and it's much cheaper than the still cheap but more bucks than I want to spend at the moment easy beat, a free beta of which I used for "Not a Tuba Player".
Well, don't hold your breath, but who knows.
no subject
Date: 2004-09-13 11:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-12 06:54 pm (UTC)I admit, I can't decide which I like best: "Chalice of Fire", "Pumpkin Mrs Farnsworth (London Share House Mix)", "George Hammond", or "The Robot Song (Data Version)". They all make me incredibly happy. Hell, "Comar:" and "360 World" make me happy, too.
I irritated a co-worker Saturday when I was doing overtime by repeating, "And now, kittens" every time I finished something. Eh, what does she know, crazy Catholic.
no subject
Date: 2004-09-12 06:57 pm (UTC)