Ben Folds Live
Ben Folds Live is a live album by Ben Folds, released on October 8, 2002. This album marked the first official release of the improvisation, "Rock This Bitch". The song, which changes with every performance, is now a staple of his live performances, with recorded versions also appears on his later albums Songs for Goldfish (under the name "Weather Channel Music") and on the Live in Perth DVD (in which he "rocks this bitch orchestrally" with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra).
| Ben Folds Live | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Live album by | ||||
| Released | October 8, 2002 | |||
| Recorded | March 2 – July 6, 2002 | |||
| Genre | Alternative rock | |||
| Length | 71:10 | |||
| Label | Sony | |||
| Producer | Marc Chevalier, Ben Folds | |||
| Ben Folds chronology | ||||
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| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | |
| Pitchfork Media | 7.1/10 |
| Rolling Stone | |
| Uncut | |
This album was made available for a limited time with a bonus DVD. It had 8 tracks, including a video of the audience shooting the front cover (during which they all gave him the finger and yelled "Ben Folds sucks!"). This was also the first appearance of the altered, minor-key version of the Ben Folds Five song "Song for the Dumped" on an official release. This version also includes Darren Jessee's "missing lyrics" ("You fucking whore" repeated a few times).
The Japanese release of the album included a live version of "Eddie Walker" and the studio recording of "Bizarre Christmas Incident". The 'L' in "Live" on the front cover is actually an upside-down 'F', as though it used to say "Ben Folds Five", the name of Ben's group before he began his solo career.
The cover of the album was taken June 8, 2002 by David Leyes at Avalon in Boston, MA during the "Ben Folds and a Piano" tour. The original image is of everyone in the crowd giving Ben the middle finger, however the fingers are edited out of the photo in the cover shown here. The "explicit" version of the cover shows the fingers.