Ben Folds' version of the Spinning Songbook

[wardo68]

I've only been to one Ben Folds show in my life (despite how much I love the man's albums) and I was not surprised that each interlude between songs was full of audience members shouting requests. Recently Ben announced that he would be accepting song requests at an upcoming show via paper airplane, and as you can see, the audience came prepared.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4hql_c0Fjw&

Since the guy has an encyclopedic knowledge of pop music, he was able to tackle things he's done before, like "Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head", and other stump-the-banders, like "Bad Bad Leroy Brown".

I haven't seen anyone (the artist himself or any writers) compare this concept to the Spinning Songbook, but it's a pretty neat idea anyway.

[Jack of All Parades]

You are on to something with this suggestion, Wardo. I have had great difficulty working up any enthusiasm for a revisiting of the spinning songbook wheel, which really did not work that well when it was initially rolled out. Hard to understand how an artist so given to not repeating himself is dragging out this old idea. I suppose he thinks it will help sell tickets. The stump the band idea of Mr. Folds is much more enticing and, given EC's encyclopedic musical knowledge, as well, could surely be great fun. Professional musicians as he has gathered together in his band should surely be capable of flying by the seat of their pants with such audience suggestions[love the notion of them being 'airmailed' in as well]. Come to think of it didn't EC do such a thing on Letterman, going up into the audience and doing songs extemporaneously, creating on the go. You pose an intriguing suggestion.