Paul Cezanne

[lalitisg]

cezanne was not the father of cubism!!!!



[SimonCoconino]

Steve --

you've left out one wonderful part of the song's story: the Studio 54 party to introduce the video. I still have the dark yellow sleeve 45, printed with the band's logo, that was handed out for that event (as a Jonathan Richman fan, I thought you guys out did him, even at that time, when Jojo and the rocking robbins were at the height of their powers)  to your fellow Columbia students at WKCR, you seemed to nail it -- marketing and all.

Great to see this again after all this time.

[bicyclesax]

Lastly, everyone in this video is alive and well, and our chops are in reasonable condition. Paul, Tom, and I all play music regularly in our respective locales, and Mark has long been a member of the juggling troupe Flying Karamazov Brothers. Dave produces major live shows in Atlanta. Given sufficient clamor, it's not out of the question we could have a reunion...

[writer1990]

@bicyclesax This song is a classic, I first heard it in the late 1990s from an art historian PhD friend from NYC area then Northwestern, I have no idea how he heard it first. Believe me, the song lives and we all know to take it as humor with a grain of salt and we love it. You guys were genius! (and my version rhymed "avocat" with "mais non pas")

[bicyclesax]

The 45's came in plain white sleeves. Printed jackets weren't in our budget (recording, mastering, pressing 1000 copies, and producing a 16mm film was not cheap on our mid-80s boho incomes) I created a jacket for the 45 photocopied onto blue legal-sized paper, which left exactly enough room to fold tabs at the sides, fold the paper down the middle to create the front and back, and glue the tabs together. We did that by hand 1000 times.

[bicyclesax]

I was trying to be a marketing genius. We included a press package, and even a stamped return postcard so the stations could tell us what they thought of the record, whether it was in light, medium, or heavy rotation, if it was compatible with their format, if they had a relationship with any local clubs that would like to book the band, etc. Many were returned. I probably still have them somewhere in a milk crate.

[bicyclesax]

4) If you heard this on radio, it's because we spent a small fortune and thousands of hours on mailings to college and alternative stations (back when alternative meant "other than what you hear on commercial radio all day long"). Pre-internet, this involved me going to the Columbia Business School library and finding a trade reference book listing every radio station in America and its format, and writing the ones with potential down on paper, for weeks and weeks on end.

[bicyclesax]

3) Cezanne was not a Cubist. Tom knew that. We all knew that. But in art history he's commonly referred to as the Father of Cubism or Le Pere De Cubisme) because he established certain visual principles that the cubists built upon. If you understand Spanish, the YouTube page called "Cézanne, el padre del cubismo." I'd post the link, but YouTube isn't letting me post vid links in the comments. No idea why.

[bicyclesax]

The lyric we used prior to recording the version that's on the vid was "Cezanne's father wanted him to be an avocat, but he just looked at him and said "no way, pa (sometimes "papa"). I have no idea why we went with "homme legale" and "pal" in this version. We never did it that way on stage. Maybe that's how Tom originally wrote it after the art history class that inspired the song. You can ask him.

[bicyclesax]

Thanks for comments! This is Steve, Special Guests sax player, to respond to questions. 1) 5CB was a "successor" band to us, made up of the members that existed at the time I left the band, which had Neil and Kevin from the Surreal McCoys, Wally, Mark, and Jenny having departed earlier. and rearranging its sound to be more country-ish in the absence of horns and to highlight Neil and Kevin's skills. Next post for more info.

[bobmcconn]

and actually the 5CB go "mais non Pa" not "now way pal"..still great to find this!

No problem w/ off/slant rhymes though.

[bobmcconn]

and actually the 5CB go "mais non Pa" not "now way"..still great to find this!

[candiespoon]

Father of Modern Art not Cubism. Get your history right!

[danielbalter]

Paul Cezanne was not a cubist. The founders of cubism were Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso--especially Picasso. The cubists were inspired by the work and theories of Cezanne. 

[ptrmzr]

Wow I remember this from U68 which was a low budget video station out of Newark NJ that you could pick up in Manhattan in mid-late 80's. I don't remeber if it was on cable or over the airwaves. They also played Art Of Noise, Oingo Boingo, Phil Collins - Take Me Home, Echo and the Bunnymen, Dream Academy, Bronski Beat, Fishbone - Party at Ground Zero and Max Headroom. Pretty off-the-beaten-path stuff but great music and the video images are still stuck in my head!

[tjhanley]

@ptrmzr U68 was the best

[veuvecliquot]

fuck

[steveasat2]

TERRIFIC! I spent a long time looking for the Five Chinese Brothers doing this song, but this was the version I actually remembered from way way back.

[johnnytucats]

Saw these guys do this song in Austin, TX at SXSW a very long time ago.

[OldLeftie]

20 years! What a time it must have been.

[Megesse]

ecutez et repetez who is fath....

[Megesse]

who is father of cubism? :p

[sluchaczkawka]

@Megesse Cezanne

[Megesse]

:-)

[Megesse]

I was looking for something about Paul Cezanne and surprisingly found this :)

[jrwelds]

wacky, a pop tune about art history....

[Groovecat68]

"His ouvre's in the Louvre"

lmao...

Dude, I can't believe I found this... They used to play this song on a little underground radio station in St. Louis "back in the day"... Hilarious tune. I am still not convinced Cezanne was the father of cubism, however, haha. I like the provocativce nature of your statement, tho.

Thanks for posting!

[Muskadash]

Cezanne wasn't a Cubist!

[Megesse]

:-))888

[OldLeftie]

thanks for sharing. As if it matters

[Muskadash]

Whatever.

[OldLeftie]

"whatever"? How trenchant! You might want to note, however, that no one is claiming that Cezanne was a cubist. He is reputed by many to have been the "father of Cubism" because of the innovations he introduced which were developed later by the acknowledged Cubists.

There. A bit more verbose than "Whatever", but certainly explicit enough for even an anal retentive to appreciate.

[OldLeftie]

I mean, if you want a valid criticism, Cezanne doesn't rhyme with Gitaine, and It's ModiglianI, not "Modiglian".

[JuliefromNeth]

how original idd! I like it. We saw this on school^^

[cvvvvvvvvvvv]

Original.

[marzipanthequeen]

Awesome! I haven't seen this since U68 died. Now I am a skipping happy little bunny.

[H0RSECRAZYx32]

The guy in the green shirt is my uncle haha

Wally Griffith

[adrianofaustin]

Fantastic. I have this, but with Night Flight's intrusive intro. Glad to finally see it whole after 22 years.

[danmixer]

Great Job! Special Guests. I should have known to look on youtube if I wanted to hear/see this one again.

[rachelrui]

Man, you are so good!I recognized your voice and it's so sweet!Me and Harrison watched it again and again, it's so funny and wonderfully wierd! I love it!!!

[kalaresh]

I haven't seen this in 20 years! I've been looking for this for a while. Great to see it again.

[gbp2]

@kalaresh I saw this on MTV years ago, like when they played MUSIC not pap about Musicians and stars and their lifestyles... Never thought I'd live to see & hear it again. It is as original now as before. Those who made it should be pleased with themselves, the song makes one think, and research Cezanne among others. Happy 172nd Birthday, Paul Cezanne!

[fivecb]

Great Caesar's Ghost! I thought I'd burned the last extant copy of this. Ah, well, what can you do? Quite nice to see it again, actually.