What did you do over break? Will Feinstein ’13 managed to track down a rare live recording of Amanda Palmer ’98 of Dresden Dolls fame performing “Wesleyan Fight Song” (no, not the actual fight song) during a 2004 performance at Wesleyan. The unreleased track is either a brilliant tribute to Palmer’s Wes career or a scathing indictment of the school. Maybe it’s both. Some choice sample couplets:
- “Got sexually harassed by DKE / Recovered and composed a Wespeak”
- “College Row is burning down / It’s Armageddon Middletown!”
- “Sent Doug Bennet flowers, raped a sex offender / Pierced my nose and changed my gender”
Feinstein managed to obtain the recording only by contacting its top (and, perhaps, only) listener on Last.fm. He only realized he was sitting on a rare treasure, however, on last week’s Wesleyan Birthright trip, when he showed it to Scott Greene ’13, who had previously searched for the track to no avail. (According to a 2004 Argus article, this was part of a 2/13/04 Dresden Dolls show at Eclectic, during which Palmer prefaced “Wesleyan Fight Song” and “Valentine’s” as songs she wrote at Wes, “never heard before and hopefully never heard again.”) Here’s the song:
Some discussion questions: Is Amanda Palmer harboring some bizarre internal malice towards her alma mater, manifesting itself in lines like “I don’t care if you burn away”? Does this make her the first prominent alumnus ever to return to campus to express bitterness towards Wes in song? How many of her ’90s Wesleyan references are still relevant? When will MGMT write a tribute to us?
Here’s a cover performance by a talented YouTube pianist by the username of “addnamehere.” Goodness knows where he learned the song.
So start the semester off in style: with an uncomfortably aggressive song about burning Wesleyan down.
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Oh thank you thank you thank you.
This is fantastic.
Oh thank you thank you thank you.
This is fantastic.
Oh, wow, now other people know about this! Cool. I love that song.
I got my mp3 of it off an Amanda Palmer obsessive friend a few years ago – he had a huge collection of bootlegs, and sent the track to me when he heard I went to Wesleyan.
Oh, wow, now other people know about this! Cool. I love that song.
I got my mp3 of it off an Amanda Palmer obsessive friend a few years ago – he had a huge collection of bootlegs, and sent the track to me when he heard I went to Wesleyan.
Hooray!
Hooray!
I HAVE BEEN LOOKING FOR THIS SONG FOR YEARS. Thank! You!
I HAVE BEEN LOOKING FOR THIS SONG FOR YEARS. Thank! You!
hxxp://www.sendspace.com/file/6fbpke
The real question is, how does one obtain it in its magical mp3 form?
I was there the night she performed this. Lovely recording, absolutely crystal clear.
The real question is, how does one obtain it in its magical mp3 form?
I was there the night she performed this. Lovely recording, absolutely crystal clear.
I thought it was pretty common knowledge that Amanda Palmer really dislikes Wesleyan and her experience here
I thought it was pretty common knowledge that Amanda Palmer really dislikes Wesleyan and her experience here