SONG OF THE DAY
“Box Set” by Barenaked Ladies (Gordon, Reprise/ Sire Records, 1992). Written and composed by Steven Page.
WHY TODAY?
Ugh, I’ve been singing it all day and all night around the house like woah. It’s fun, but man, it’s not really an all-day song if you only know like one chorus’ lyrics. Lol.
Also, do you not totally love that this track was released on their debut album? Already jaded of the conventions of the music industry, how l love thee BNL.
Also, this is the best album they recorded, and we STILL rock it out on car trips from beginning to end. We rocked it on all those long wedding car trips last Spring and summer and, with it sticking itself in my head today and all, it’s clearly trying to remind me just in time for Easter travels that it’s ready to go and not to forget to pack it. Did it also give me a check to pay for travelling gas? No? Then Gordon is being a mite presumptuous this year on just how triumphant—or even at all possible— his return to our car stereo may be.
Also, see these mothers in concert as many times as you can in your life. They are awesome live. And bring Kraft Mac ‘n’ Cheese.
BTW, the “box set”:
“Disc One: It’s where we’ve begun, it’s all of greatest hits,/ and if you are a fan then you know that you’ve already got ’em.
Disc Two: It was all brand new, an album’s worth of songs,/ but we had to leave the whole disc blank ’cause/ some other label bought ’em.
Disc Three: This is really me in a grade school play; I had about a hundred thousand lines but of course I forgot ’em.
….
Disc Four: Never released before, and you can tell why./ it’s just some demos I recorded in my basement.
Disc Five: I was barely alive, I was coughing up a lung,/ so they had to use a special computer as my replacement.
Disc Six: A dance remix, so I can catch the latest trend/ and it’ll make you scratch your head and wonder/ where my taste went.”
INTERESTING FACTS (a la wikipedia)
– Gordon is the major label debut album by Canadian band Barenaked Ladies.
– After The Yellow Tape was certified platinum in Canada, the group won Discovery to Disc, a contest hosted by CFNY-FM, a Toronto based rock radio station. With the prize winnings of $100,000 Barenaked Ladies were able to hire producer Michael Phillip Wojewoda and record the album at Le Studio, north of Montreal.
– Horn parts, guest vocalists, and nods to other bands including Rush allowed Barenaked Ladies to expand on the sound they had developed while touring. “They had a real clarity about what they wanted [the album] to be… I just captured what it is they do,” said Wojewoda.
– The band selected 14 songs out of 20 candidates that they had written to record in the studio. “…they didn’t need a lot of shaping. It was… a matter of shifting through a lot of great moments and finding the ones which fit best on the record,” said Wojewoda.
– The band worked on the album for ten to twelve hour sessions each day, with little conflict among members. At night the band would commute to their house by skiing in the moonlight.
– After some difficulty recording “The King of Bedside Manor” it was suggested that the band members record the song naked. Wojewoda and engineer Jean Diamont were also required to remove their clothes; said Wojewoda, “I think the recording has this totally over-the-top nervous energy as a result of being naked.”
– “I don’t think there’re many musicians from Toronto who aren’t on Gordon,” said Brown.
– Jon Pareles of The New York Times wrote, “It’s not easy to be hyperactive, brooding, and whimsical all at once, but the Barenaked Ladies do just that.”
– MacKenzie Wilson of Allmusic wrote that the album approaches, but does not cross the “bound[ry] of silliness.” She went on to call the “shared vocals… refreshing and upbeat,” concluding that “Gordon is a great introduction to the Barenaked Ladies’ sweet comic relief.”
– The album achieved diamond status in Canada, selling over one million copies. In the United States, initial album sales were stronger in larger cities, however, a spike in sales was not seen until the releases of Rock Spectacle and “One Week.”
– Gordon was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America in August 1998. According to Steven Page, the number of “fans who know every word of every song” outnumbers the number of units sold by four times.” Gordon must be the most bootlegged album in [United States] history,” said Page.