Okay, how about something a little more upbeat?
Well, relatively anyways.
This one by Cake from their second album, Fashion Nugget, somehow blends an odd sense of melancholy with "Happily Ever After". It seems to imply that Frank Sinatra is living a quiet, humble life in his very own slice of heaven, wherein exists his own little radio station that broadcasts his music, bathing the stars with its radiation.
We know of an ancient radiation
That haunts dismembered constellations
A faintly glimmering radio station
While Frank Sinatra sings Stormy Weather
The flies and spiders get along together
Cobwebs fall on an old skipping record
---
Beyond the suns that guard this roost
Beyond your flowers of flaming truth
Beyond your latest ad campaigns
An old man sits collecting stamps
In a room all filled with Chinese lamps
He saves what others throw away
He says that he'll be rich someday
We know of an ancient radiation
That haunts dismembered constellations
A faintly glimmering radio station
---
We know of an ancient radiation
That haunts dismembered constellations
A faintly glimmering radio station
While Frank Sinatra sings "Stormy Weather"
The flies and spiders get along together
Cobwebs fall on an old skipping record
Official audio from Cake's Youtube channel:
For me, it puts into my mind an image of an older version of Benjamin. It's long after Season 4, and he's long-since retired. The rest of the universe has moved on without him, and that's just fine. As far as Ben is concerned, he's done his bit, and is quite content to let the younger ones handle things. No need for this doddering old man to get in the way.
He resides at a private retreat, known only to a few. It's a place full of kitschy knickknacks, curios, and mementos. It seems a bit ramshackle, but there's a certain magic in this place that is warm and welcoming. To anyone that visits and asks about the bits and bobs all over the place, he'll say that they're things others were throwing out. And with a wink and a grin, will say that he'll be rich someday, implying that all these knickknacks will somehow net him a vast sum of money someday.
(The joke here, of course, is that he's been independently wealthy for quite a long time, and yet he lives in this seemingly old little house on a rogue asteroid in the middle of nowhere, pretending that he doesn't really have much in the way of money.)
The most peculiar thing about this retreat is that it has an old (circa 1950s) radio station. When he's not busy, which is most of the time, he's broadcasting all kinds of music that he likes, sending out the AM radio broadcast that anyone can tune into if they know just where to aim their antenna.
Not many do know, but he knows that some do, and if someone enjoys the playlist he's got on that day? Then that's enough for him.
In the meantime, he'll putter around, working on restoring whatever he's recently fished out of the trash, and spend quality time with whichever of his wives have decided to visit.
No, they don't actually live with him these days, but it's just fine. They've had their own things going on for quite some time, after all, and as such are very busy women. Whenever they need some time to relax, though, they know where to go. That cozy yet isolated little house, with warm comfort food, a plush bed with thick and heavy blankets, nice music, and most importantly, Benjamin himself.
Although if someone does come to him asking for help, and the need is genuine? He'll go ahead and get his gear... and then show whatever cretin is causing trouble why you do not make so much of menace of yourself that someone had to come to Benjamin for help. And he will do it with a strange sort of cheerful professionalism that will leave the cretin in question feeling like they just got played with. Like as if they had been a bank robber performing a heist and freakin' Sherlock Holmes just waltzed right on in and somehow coerced them into a round of bare-knuckle boxing.
Well, relatively anyways.
This one by Cake from their second album, Fashion Nugget, somehow blends an odd sense of melancholy with "Happily Ever After". It seems to imply that Frank Sinatra is living a quiet, humble life in his very own slice of heaven, wherein exists his own little radio station that broadcasts his music, bathing the stars with its radiation.
We know of an ancient radiation
That haunts dismembered constellations
A faintly glimmering radio station
While Frank Sinatra sings Stormy Weather
The flies and spiders get along together
Cobwebs fall on an old skipping record
---
Beyond the suns that guard this roost
Beyond your flowers of flaming truth
Beyond your latest ad campaigns
An old man sits collecting stamps
In a room all filled with Chinese lamps
He saves what others throw away
He says that he'll be rich someday
We know of an ancient radiation
That haunts dismembered constellations
A faintly glimmering radio station
---
We know of an ancient radiation
That haunts dismembered constellations
A faintly glimmering radio station
While Frank Sinatra sings "Stormy Weather"
The flies and spiders get along together
Cobwebs fall on an old skipping record
Official audio from Cake's Youtube channel:
For me, it puts into my mind an image of an older version of Benjamin. It's long after Season 4, and he's long-since retired. The rest of the universe has moved on without him, and that's just fine. As far as Ben is concerned, he's done his bit, and is quite content to let the younger ones handle things. No need for this doddering old man to get in the way.
He resides at a private retreat, known only to a few. It's a place full of kitschy knickknacks, curios, and mementos. It seems a bit ramshackle, but there's a certain magic in this place that is warm and welcoming. To anyone that visits and asks about the bits and bobs all over the place, he'll say that they're things others were throwing out. And with a wink and a grin, will say that he'll be rich someday, implying that all these knickknacks will somehow net him a vast sum of money someday.
(The joke here, of course, is that he's been independently wealthy for quite a long time, and yet he lives in this seemingly old little house on a rogue asteroid in the middle of nowhere, pretending that he doesn't really have much in the way of money.)
The most peculiar thing about this retreat is that it has an old (circa 1950s) radio station. When he's not busy, which is most of the time, he's broadcasting all kinds of music that he likes, sending out the AM radio broadcast that anyone can tune into if they know just where to aim their antenna.
Not many do know, but he knows that some do, and if someone enjoys the playlist he's got on that day? Then that's enough for him.
In the meantime, he'll putter around, working on restoring whatever he's recently fished out of the trash, and spend quality time with whichever of his wives have decided to visit.
No, they don't actually live with him these days, but it's just fine. They've had their own things going on for quite some time, after all, and as such are very busy women. Whenever they need some time to relax, though, they know where to go. That cozy yet isolated little house, with warm comfort food, a plush bed with thick and heavy blankets, nice music, and most importantly, Benjamin himself.
Although if someone does come to him asking for help, and the need is genuine? He'll go ahead and get his gear... and then show whatever cretin is causing trouble why you do not make so much of menace of yourself that someone had to come to Benjamin for help. And he will do it with a strange sort of cheerful professionalism that will leave the cretin in question feeling like they just got played with. Like as if they had been a bank robber performing a heist and freakin' Sherlock Holmes just waltzed right on in and somehow coerced them into a round of bare-knuckle boxing.