funny tree

by What Time Is It, Mr. Fox?

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about

When recording the album "And Other Stories," Nathan and I recorded this to kill time while waiting for someone else to show. I used Tom Eaton's dark sounding guitar, which was fun to play. Nathan's imrov is simple and particularly haunting to me on this recording.

I wrote the basic structure of the chords and fingering (well, in my case, thumbing) at a party many years ago on singer/songwriter Deb Hardy's guitar. The late great Joanne Schreiber had been playing Deb's guitar all night and had tuned it to dropped D. It opened up a new little world to my novice guitar playing.

Shortly afterward I wrote the lyrics. The song has always been somewhat of a mystery to me, but conjures up a memory of my 16th birthday. I was sitting on a rock, thinking the only thing that I wanted for my birthday was that the boy I had a crush on come by and visit. Then from my rock, I watched him appear on the road, and knock on my door. There was no one there to open it. Then I watched him walk away, somehow satisfied that he had fulfilled my birthday wish, and at the same time wondering why I didn't run up to greet him.

I love the shortness of the song. It's more like a clue than a story. As a recording it's served well in under 2 minutes. When we play it live, it changes and expands, and each time it's very different. Sometimes Deb Hardy adds her woodsy harmony, and the song becomes a pagan chant.

The words are also personally oddly prophetic, since one of the lines is "not merely a photograph with a caption." Little would I know the following decade would include lots of pictures and captions on online dating sites.

lyrics

funny tree

do you know my funny tree?
have you seen my weeping rock?
do you know that side of me?
can you hear that kind of talk?

my map is not available in stores
my mind has many corridors
from inner space to outer shores

i'm not at all an easy contraption
not merely a photograph with a caption
i never was and never will be, yet
still, i'm a funny tree

credits

released June 22, 2010
brian king : voice, guitar
nathan cohen: violin, viola

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about

What Time Is It, Mr. Fox? Boston, Massachusetts

Baroque pop meets neo-soul in a steamer trunk.

"Time has come for Mr. Fox" Boston Herald

"Catch him as his star climbs" Time Out NYC

Members:

3rian King - voice, guitar, keys

Nathan Cohen - violin, trumpet

Renee Dupuis - vocals, keys, melodica

Joe Cardoza - upright bass

Dennis Monagle - drums ... more

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