Album: Carnival Boy
Year: 1996
. . .
The final track on Tobin Sprout’s 1996 album Carnival Boy is a case study in how to pile on instrumentals and vocals as a song moves forward, continually upping the ante until it becomes an utterly perfect hook machine. Opening with just a single guitar and bass from Sprout, followed by Guided by Voices drummer Kevin Fennell’s steady beat, “The Last Man Well Known to Kingpin” starts with the first of its series of name-drops:
Madcaps and laughs
Syd Barrett
The last man well known to kingpin
Madcaps and laughs
Syd Barrett
But what’s in a name?
And at that instant, Fennell builds as Sprout adds more guitars and he continues on:
Friday June 23rd
The Troubadour
Friday June 23rd
I’m not sure what any of this actually means: my working theory is that he’s describing a poster for a Syd Barrett tribute band called Madcaps and Laughs he saw at a record store called Shangri-La Records, which would explain the final bit of the song, where he sings “Shaaaaaaaagri-laaaaaaaa Recorrrrrrrrrrds” a couple of times before fully committing to the outtro.
Of course, I have no idea if this is what the song is about — for one thing, would a Syd Barrett tribute band really be headlining the Troubadour on a Friday night in the mid-1990s. And it also doesn’t really explain who kingpin is in this context. So maybe it’s just a bunch of cool stray references — you can’t get much cooler than Syd Barrett or The Shangri-Las — all piled together. Which is exactly what happens in the outtro, when Sprout starts singing the opening verse over the closing verse. And. It. Is. Heaven.
Shaaaaangrilaaaaaaaaaa
(Madcaps and laughs, Syd Barrett)
Recorrrrrrrrrrrrrds
(Everyone wants to be kingpin)
Shaaaaangrilaaaaaaaaaa
(Madcaps and laughs, Syd Barrett)
Recorrrrrrrrrrrrrds
(Everyone wants to be kingpin)
With the guitars also fuzzing up around the vocal counterpoints, and Sprout singing “Madcap and laughs, Syd Barrett” at the top of his range, the last half of “The Last Man Well Known to Kingpin” is as lovely as mid-90s powerpop ever got, a lost jewel of a song climaxing a lost jewel of an album.
“The Last Well Known to Kingpin”
“The Last Man Well Known to Kingpin” Live in Athens, 2017
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