The Presidents
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The Presidents | |
Release | Thing a Week Three |
---|---|
Length | 4:09 |
Release date | 04-28-2006 |
Related Pages | Other media |
Blog entry |
"The Presidents" is a song on Jonathan Coulton's sixth album, Thing a Week Three.
History
"The Presidents" was released as the thirtieth Thing a Week on April 28, 2006. It was originally written for John Hodgman's Little Gray BookLecture #30, "How to Observe Presidents Day (Observed)". Jonathan said it was originally performed with the Hungry March Band, who played "Hail to the Chief" in between verses. The Thing a Week version instead has Jonathan playing toy instruments.
Live Performance
As indicated above, "The Presidents" was originally played only during a Little Gray Lecture (Download MP3); it has more recently made its way back to the lineup, being performed at the Barack Obama fundraiser Audacity of Jokes, several of the stops for the John Hodgman More Information Than You Require tour, and the Nyack, NY: 2008-11-22 show.
Trivia
- There was construction on the other side of the studio wall during the recording of this session. Jonathan has said: "You may hear some of it here and there, but hey: this is Thing a Week, people."
- President Garfield was, contrary to the lyrics, assassinated in 1881, not 1882. Jonathan corrected this during the above mentioned live performance with a lyric change to "Grant thought getting drunk was fun".
- After the 2008 election, the song has been played with revised lyrics:
W's reign of terror is finally over
Obama's been pretty excellent so far
originally, it was
W's legacy's a work in progress.
That is all the Presidents so far.
In 2009, the George W. Bush lyric was again changed at the March 27th NYC show to:
W decided he was the decider
It's currently unknown if any of these will be the permanent lyrics moving forward.
Availability
Downloads
"The Presidents" is currently only available for purchase in the Jonathan Coulton MP3 Store as an individual track or as part of Thing a Week III. Of course, this song is also included as part of the "Everything" playlist.
An mp3 of the original Little Gray Book performance is available here.
CD
"Thing a Week III" is available for purchase as a CD here.
Themes
Thing-a-Week Three |