{"id":27737,"date":"2017-08-12T12:47:38","date_gmt":"2017-08-12T20:47:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/?p=27737"},"modified":"2017-08-12T12:47:38","modified_gmt":"2017-08-12T20:47:38","slug":"watch-aimee-mann-and-band-perform-crazy-good-patient-zero-on-conan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/2017-08\/watch-aimee-mann-and-band-perform-crazy-good-patient-zero-on-conan\/","title":{"rendered":"Watch Aimee Mann and Band Perform Crazy-Good “Patient Zero” on Conan"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Aimee Mann<\/strong><\/a>‘s crazy-good album\u00a0Mental Illness <\/em><\/strong>remains one of our Best Albums of 2017<\/strong>.\u00a0The roundly-praised album is perfectly produced and arranged, and is filled with memorable melodies and adroit vignettes of this majorly mental, modern life. Among our Best Songs of 2017<\/strong>\u00a0from the album is\u00a0the heart-rending, socially-anxious\u00a0Goose Snow Cone<\/em><\/strong><\/a>\u00a0and the masterful \u00a0Patient Zero<\/strong><\/em>. This week\u00a0Mann<\/strong>, co-writer and harmonist\u00a0Jonathan Coulton<\/strong> and pizzicato-plucking ensemble showed up on Conan<\/strong>\u00a0to killing-ly perform Patient Zero<\/strong><\/em>. The performance is a great reminder of the song’s well-honed lyrics, producer Paul Bryan’s<\/strong> string arrangement, and all as adroitly delivered by Mann, Coulton<\/strong> and the workers on the string-gang on Conan<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Mann<\/strong> discussed the song on the always illuminating\u00a0Song Exploder<\/strong><\/a> podcast. As explained there,\u00a0Mann<\/strong>\u00a0originally wrote the crushed-Hollywood-hopes song after meeting then Hollywood-newcomer Andrew Garfield<\/strong> (The Social Network, Silence, Hacksaw Ridge<\/strong><\/em>). As she evidently often does, Mann<\/strong> initially framed the song as a waltz, before sending it to pal Coulton<\/strong>\u00a0for re-imagining. Coulton<\/strong>\u00a0waltzed it up to 4\/4 time and introduced some new melodies and added the “lights of the canyon” chorus [Ed.:<\/strong> wouldn’t “stars of the canyon” have made more sense contextually?]. Regardless,\u00a0it’s a great song worthy of Mann’s<\/strong> much-loved Elliott Smith<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Watch the performance below, and afterwards check out the official video for the song and the song’s lyrics at bottom.<\/p>\n

You can pick up Mental Illness<\/strong>\u00a0<\/em>HERE<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n