Camper Van Beethoven fans: what's your favorite Camper song?

[NinetySix]

And please don't say "Take The Skinheads Bowling" just because it's the only one you ever heard....

Mine is "The History of Utah." Feel free to post snippets of lyrics, like so:

And old Joe did and said as he would
Took all the shopping carts from the mall
And took 'em to Utah
Which was Zion

And he built an empire out of the desert
Out of the dust and the sand, just like Las Vegas
But he never took the route that the Mafia did

[enigmatic]

1. "Sad Lover's Waltz"

But their version of Pink Floyd's "Intersteller Overdrive" is great, too..

[NinetySix]

2. I like another of their covers, Sonic Youth's "I Love Her All The Time"

There's nothing like a country cover of a punk song!

[enigmatic]

4. Wan't that great?

"II & III" is my favorite record of theirs; not a bad cut anywhere on it..

[NinetySix]

6. There are better songs on other albums,

but II & III is just plain solid, and my favorite too. It's more consistent that Telephone Free, and the instrumentals are better (and there are more of them than on the later albums). I especially love No Kruggerands For David and ZZ Top Goes to Egypt (one of my favorite CVB titles!)

[aquaman]

5. That is a great cover.....

[leftofthedial]

3. pretty much all the ones Cracker did

[NinetySix]

7. Er, I dunno....

Cracker might occasionally do a Camper song, but I don't think they make it onto the albums.

I did hear them do O Death and The Axe Murderer Song back when it was just David Lowery and Johnny Hickman touring with a couple of other musicians, before they even decided to call themselves Cracker. It was a great show even though it was a Monday night and there were only about 20 people there.

[leftofthedial]

11. I just meant that in the world of David Lowery, I like Cracker better

Camper has had moments, but also put on three or four of the five worst shows I ever saw.

[NinetySix]

12. REALLY?!??!?

I liked Cracker well enough through the first two or three albums (I especially like the title Garage D'Or), but they kinda lost me after a while. Just too different from what I was used to from Lowery, I suppose. And maybe a little too conventional. I love the quirkiness of the self-titled album and the innovative pop of Our Beloved. The only song by Cracker that ever reminded me of CVB was Dr. Bernice (AWESOME LYRICS!), okay, and maybe Nostalgia. Cracker's good, but I'l always prefer Camper--probably my favorite band of all time.

[driver8]

14. Camper Van Beethoven put on one of the BEST shows that I

have ever seen.

I saw them warm up for 10,000 Maniacs in Richmond, VA and they were incredible!!

[leftofthedial]

17. I saw them do one pretty good show

and three or four that were just absurdly awful

[NinetySix]

18. They're back together, you know

A friend of mine saw them in NYC and in NC someplace and said that they were unbelievably good. Lowery even convinced Jonathan Segal to play with them again!

Now that Monks of Doom are gone once and for all (thank God!), maybe the band members have gotten over their disenchantment with the direction of the band, and a little retrospect makes them realize just how good they were.

[Rabrrrrrr]

8. The Sound of Music

[NinetySix]

9. I don't know that one

What's that, something off of Tusk?

[Rabrrrrrr]

10. Don't remember the album. And their version might be called

"The Hills Are Alive", but it's the main song from Sound of Music sung out of tune, irrythmically, with some wild bashing crashing percussion (sounds almost like pots and pans) as accompaniment.

[driver8]

13. "When I Win the Lottery" and "Eye of Fatima"

When I Win the Lottery

Well I lost an eye in mexico
Lost two teeth where I don’t know
People see me comin’ and they move to the other side of the road
I robbed a liquor store or two
Made myself at home a few times
Borrowed myself a car when I needed it
I got me a shack at the bottom of the road
Fixin’ cars and givin’ tows
Spend all my money on the lottery
When I win the lottery gonna buy all girls on my block
A color tv and a bottle of french perfume
When I win the lottery gonna donate half my money to the city
So they have to name a street or a school or a park after me
When I win the lottery
Never run a flag up a pole
Like mr. red, white, and blue down the road
But I never called myself a hero for killing a known communist
Now I can walk into any old bar
Find a fight without looking too hard
But I never killed someone I don’t know just ’cause someone told me to
And when I win the lottery
Gonna buy the house next to mr. red, white and blue
And when I win the lottery
Gonna buy post 306 american legion, paint it red with five gold stars
When I win the lottery
When the end comes to this old world
The rights will cry and the rest will curl up
And God won’t take the time to sort your ashes from mine
’cause we zig and zag between good and bad
Stumble and fall on right and wrong
’cause the tumbling dice and the luck of the draw just leads us on
And when I win the lottery, gonna buy all the girls on my block
Silver-plated six shooters and a quart of the finest highland scotch
’cause when I win the lottery, the rights will shake their heads and say that
God is good but surely works in mysterious ways
When I win the lottery

[NinetySix]

16. When I Win The Lottery has some of their best lyrics

Another of my favorite songs with great lyrics is Jack Ruby, although it goes one or two verses too long:

I remember his hat tilted forward
His glasses are folded in his vest
And he seemed like the kind of man who beats his horses
Or the dancers who worked in his bar

We saw on the screen his face for a moment
No time to plead or even ask why
Jack Ruby appears from out of nowhere
Then disappears in broad daylight

'Cause he's a friend of that cloven-hoofed gangster, the Devil
He's been seen with the sherriff and the police
Drinking whiskey and bourbon after hours
Saying, "let's do business, boys; the drinks are on me"

[REP]

15. Pictures of Matchstick Men

I know, it's a cover but damn it's a good one.

[NinetySix]

19. One of their trippiest songs, Flowers,

is also from Key Lime Pie, and the two almost seem like companion pieces. Flowers is a cover too, I think of a Box 'O Laffs song, pre-Camper.

[vajraroshana]

20. Damn, now I'm gonna have to get my one cvb cd out...

I can't remember the name of the song; but now I've got to go get it out.

And I will blame you when I start sneezing from the dust that's gonna come off it when I get it out!

[vajraroshana]

21. well I don't have to go through the whole cd...

"Eye of Fatima (pt.1)"

[vajraroshana]

22. I've also got a record (vinyl) of "Monks of Doom" cvb alter-project

That whole album is pretty damn good. Very good guitar stuff.

[omega minimo]

23. Dustpan