Benjamin Tod, "Beautiful Curse," // GemsOnVHS™
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- Опубликовано: 14 окт 2024
- Ben came down to Old Hickory, Tennessee to play a new tune for us, just before the pandemic swept the nation. In some sort of premonition of events to come, we talked a little bit about how it is the duty of an artist to go into the darkness and come out with something people can use. That's why songwriting is important; it pieces together all our desires, fears, ambitions, hopes, dreams, failures and victories into a little package we can appreciate, and grow from. Fitting for a moment like now, when the songs are helping us all get through isolation, quarantine and financial woe.
Indeed, as I stare at an empty calendar running into the summer, I owe a lot to the artists who spend their whole life writing these feelings I can't adequately deal with on my own. Teaching me, letting me lean on their sweet melodies and stories. So thanks to them, cheers. Buy your favorite songwriter a drink next you see them, and for now buy their music online so they can survive long enough to share the tunes they're writing even today, cooped up at home. Drop in on a livestream. Together we'll make it to the finish line.
This is filmed in a rather historic place, at our friend Katie Belle's house (formerly her father, Townes Van Zandt's house), the same kitchen where Townes self titled album cover was shot, the same place Ben and Matt Heckler played together in that video all that time ago. It was also the house in the Heartworn Highways documentary, the scene with Guy Clark and everyone singing around the table. Maybe we will have to do something big here one day. Stay tuned.
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“It’s the duty of artists to go into the darkness and bring something back that’s tangible for people to heal themselves with”
Holy shit, this guy is incredible
The best! An artist in every sense of the word! 👍
I think that sums up his philosophy on music and lyrics. Always so powerful.
A gem of truth right there.
Liz Stohlman holy fuck isn’t that the truth
Healing does not come from darkness it comes with light
This man has saved lives while fighting for his own. Thank you Ben.
And of course, thank you GemsOnVHS for consistently providing us a refuge from manufactured, corporate drivel some call "music."
thanks friend
Amen brother
I feel this man’s soul has captured mine. What a beautiful man, beautiful voice and a magnificent soul. WE LOVE YOU!
Well said!
Still true
Dude Benjamin Todd is pure Talent Southern soul at its finest!
I was lucky enough to spend a night hanging out with Ben and Ashley. We offered them a place to park the van. Passing drinks and playing music till damn near sun-up. Ben is a true character, which isn't something you expect from anyone these days, let alone a traveling musician. Very humble. He's as real as they come.
Wow. That's amazing
Awesome
I’m extremely envious but good for you! That is a special treat. I love the simplicity of the chords he uses but lyrically is raw and real. He has things to say, important real life messages.
Lord honey ur lucky. God I'd love to be able to get a while with them I'll hop a train outta this shitbox town in Kentucky tonight. I got one foot in my gave an the other hands on a bottle. I'm dying for real and it's not hear.
they love each other right?🥺
He’s a miner of words that cure the soul.
Funeralopolis
This guy is what’s missing with mainstream music today! When you are the stuff you sing it shows. It makes you feel the music
I'm glad he isnt mainstream, nor could he ever be. If stuff like this was the "mainstream" where would it go from there? Ben is for that very specific group of people that find him.
I lost my wife and soulmate to cancer last August. 38 yrs gone in a flash. One gift was that I cannot listen to anything less real than Benjamin Tod. I am healing through artists like Benjamin Tod. Thank you Benjamin❤️🙏
My deepest condolences
Benjamin is easily my favorite artist. Ashely makes him better musically, but there's something even more raw and stark in the simplicity of his solo songs.
3RDW0RLD Agreed sir. Their harmony is something special but for my money just give me a barstool, an empty room with good acoustics, BEN and his guitar.
Amen hes the main light but she brings a lightness sometimes needed for certain songs plus who can say september doves isn't one of his best songs
3RDW0RLD I love the LDSB stuff but the solo stuff is probably even better because it’s so much deeper lyrically. In one of these they ask Ashley if there are songs he brings that she won’t play and she says yes. Those become his solo stuff. It’s the real, gritty, dark emotional stuff.
There's something about listening to one of Ben's songs and thinking "Wow I can relate to that..." then thinking about it some more or reading the lyrics and also thinking "And that's a little terrifying..."
Ben is amazing.
I saw Barefoot Surrender 10+ years ago in southern Oregon. That cd I got at the show was played so many times driving crazy through the forest... I think Barefoot Surrender imprinted on my then-teenage son. All these years later, through my son, I am reconnected to his music. These songs are like an exorcism to the painful parts of my life I try not to remember, but can't forget.
"Shared pain is lessened; shared joy, increased..." Spider Robinson
Just love him so much 😍
Without doubt one of the greatest of our generation
My favorite artist of all times just wanna set down and drink a few with him🍻
Im glad hes healthy i could not stand to lose another hero of mine to this shit
@@TTVSmileyz420 yes 100%
Yae hands down this man needs to be big
This dude is just an incredible songwriter.
I love how you look at the comments and its like everyone knows each other, so friendly and accepting. Music like this has that ability... and bens its choir.
Franco Devlin It should be like that. Accepting each other’s and making sure we all get out of here alive..
Anyone who feels this. I consider my family.
yess
you are 69 likes sorry cannot like this comment
@@jessers436 you can come back and like it now if you’d like, someone else did it for us, cuz i wouldn’t have been able to like it at 69 either 😂
Been here through getting clean, now I'm here because my father's funeral is tomorrow, he fell off a ladder painting, 65 years young, painting contractor since he was like 15. This music is so healing ❤️
Lyrics:
Talking: it's pain that brings us together I think. With Paul Simon playing for the ten year anniversary of the world trade centers, the sound of silence, it's like he wrote that song how many years before that event but like that song encapsulated that moment and it's the duty of artists to go into the darkness and bring something back that's tangible for people to heal themselves with
So
*Song starts*
Things I try to lock inside too ugly to bare
Find a seam inside my dream and begin to tear
Through my eyes they come alive and beckon for a stare
In your throat I hit I note for Beelzebub to hear
And the silence weeps for which of us will leave with something worse
Oh what a beautiful curse
Take me out and put me down I'm dying for a cure
In this room a tortured few feast upon a spur
Noone sees the artist weep the bounty of his worth
And desperately try to breathe and dig until it hurts
And the silence weeps for which of us will leave with something worse
Oh what a beautiful curse
Brother can you shape these hands and teach em how to feel
Something more than how to scorn or burn you in a deal
Who needs games or tempting fate when you know how to steal
I see in you the same ol fool I was when things were real
And the silence weeps for which of us will leave with something worse
Oh what a beautiful curse
*Song ends*
Talking:
What's that one about?
People throughout the history of time have been willing to go into the darkness and live there and report back to humanity. I had alot of good friends go there and not come back or come back never the same
Why do you think some come back and some don't?
It's just the cards your dealt, it's just fate.
I think it may be beelzebub instead of bells above
Thanks for adding the lyrics
You're right Kevin, my bad
Thank you for posting these lyrics. Benjamin Tod is such a wonderful song writer and often uses metaphors instead of writing directly about a theme. I just have some minor corrections for your lyrics.
...the bounty of his work
...how to score or burn you in a deal
It does sound like “scorn” because he slightly rolled the R. This is common in Tennessee and Kentucky because of the Irish-Scottish roots and Bluegrass in that part of the US. Contextually, “score” makes more sense, basically saying he’s using his hands for evil.
Cheers!
Perhaps they stayed because it meant one less person would have to be lost and hurt in the darkness. Maybe they came back never the same because they took someone else's pain.
Benjamin Tod playing in Townes Van Zandt's house, hell yes.
Whis3?
I goggle sry
No joke right? I would love to stand in there.
@@stevewilliamson9995 My nephew goes over there sometimes. Katie Belle is a friend of his.
When the sun in pouring in from the windows, you know it’s about to touch the soul
I'm crying? I need Ben, we need Ben. Now, more than ever.
lol
The thing he said about artist's intentionally going in the darkness to bring something back to help heal the world is what got me crying and it was before the song even started. You can see the pain in this kid's eyes, but his songs helped give love back to the world..
He is the new Dylan (from the early 60s)
You guys need to get your hormones checked.
Sevens can go troll somewhere else
Dude you’ve yet to write a song that hasn’t given me the chills or tear me up a little.
Also really Cool to know that was Townes house and he played there, maybe Ben was channeling him, that scene in Heartworm Highways when Townes is playing Waiting Around To Die and that old Man in the back is crying is one of the most touching musical performances I've ever seen and to think that was the first song he ever wrote makes it even more Amazing to me, Ben reminds me so much of Townes 💚
Bucky Blue Eyes and Totally with you on it all. Amazing how it’s all plaited like a mysterious poetry. Townes’ place, the quiet energy, Benjamin’s beautiful being, and those simple strings that say so much. Man. Man oh man.
Bucky Blue Eyes that wasn't the first song Townes had wrote, it was just the first serious song he had wrote. Before that he wrote a lot of talking blues style songs. I can send you the interview where he said that if you want.
@@winstonchurchill624 I was just going by what he said in the performance I was talking about in Heartworm Highways, before he plays waiting around to die he says it was the first song he ever wrote
I'm waiting for this guy to make it to the opry..not for the sell out.. just for the achievement..I believe he needs to be recognized for how great he is
thats a pretty long shot haha
If at all it'll be because the screaming of enough demand he get the recognition he deserves. True talent is often recognized too late because the world is obsessed with trivialities. @@GemsOnVHS
5/14/24
I honestly doubted newer “artists” but these newer singer are quickly changing my mind. Ben Todd’s music has forever lived inside of me. Here in ole cold Kentucky.
Oh yeah, brother!
Joshua Rowe check out Colter Wall and Tyler Childers.
You should check out Zach Bryan. He's a young guy that has some great music and a new album on the way.
try billy strings and nick shoulders
Hill country devil too... Don't know how everyone can forget about him
You speak beautiful sadness and truth through your lyrics...I'm obsessed since day one. Thank you for sharing your heart/love/soul/honesty.....I love every inch of the vulnerability
Wow this Jewel on Gems couldn't have come at a better time, ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL BEN💙
Anyone else's life saved by the shared pain through this man's songs? I don't know you Ben, but thank you much for going into the dark to help us crawl back into the light my friend. I tip my hat forever to you
🍀Happy St. Paddys!💚
🇺🇸🤠🐎💕
How this guy writes the best songs I've ever heard time after time I'll never understand.
I clicked the notification so fast
No hesitation!
Stopped everything I was doing at work and hid just to listen!🤣😍😍
The beautiful curse he has, is the blessing of singing the "REAL struggling people's" songs. His voice and words are healing to me
This song is beautiful. This man deserves more than hes given
Just listened to this 5 times in a row I can't get enough of it
Same
Same
Check out his the mountain video....it's also good
Let's have a live stream show. Setup donations on you tube. Something!
workin on it.
@@GemsOnVHS nice
Ben never disappoints. This is hauntingly beautiful
That’s one of the most moving songs I’ve ever heard. I’ll leave it at that. Anything else would cheapen it.
By the gods I love this poet. They had to cancel the Columbus Ohio show. I hope they come back. They are on my bucket list.
I love new Ben notifications... I tend to sing and play his songs more than others. They reach out and emotionally GRAB you and pull you within them. Like food for the soul, they are songs for the soul.
Well done Ben, some of your stuff makes me want to stay in the darkness for ever while others bring me out in the light. My own inner battle I guess.
Thank you for what you do
You aren't alone man.
What Ben said is perfectly on point. About artists entertaining the darkness and bringing back some essential truth to share. Ben is in the rare class of songwriters with Elliot Smith and Townes Van Zandt. Elite.
wow brother love this song
Dropping bangers after bangers
I can’t possibly relay how much this song meant for me and mine in a difficult time. I’ve always loved lost dog in general, but this was such a gift. Thank you. Keep it up. Let the fans know how we can help.
One of the best - if not The Best - songwriters in the country right now. No doubt at all.
"One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious."
-Carl Jung
This guy never misses, good song ben.
Hobo poet. When you’ve been on the streets, his words tell a truth.
How have I never heard of you before two days ago? My love for Americana and country music and the algorithm never introduced us? Happy to have found your music here and now. Artists going into darkness statement hit me hard. Keep it up.
Big fan here ben....didn't know about ur music until 2018 but damn...those 4 years have been nothing but healing for me thanks to your music, something about wanting to hurt more when you're hurting....most people's lyrics are all "f the government, get high till I die, ect" your music is moving in a way that only someone who wants to better themselves can truly be inspired by the lyrics....
The way his mind works is honestly so amazing. It's like we feel so much and can't find words and he just puts it all into one song. He has so much soul. Keep working hard man. You are doing great things.
My favorite artist. There is no close second. The Appalachian Bob Dylan. Benjamin Todd is the Bob Dylan/Woody Guthrie of his generation. The Greatest kept secret in Folk Music. What an Artist.
"The silence weeps for which of us will leave with something worse "... i hate how deep that cuts.
Josh Roberts
1 year ago
This man has saved lives while fighting for his own. Thank you Ben.
THE BEST THERE IS RIGHT NOW!
This dude is a treasure for sure,I hope he never goes mainstream although I doubt he would ever do that
He always goes for the deep solemn lyrics. Important to have artists like this around who don't sing about fluff, sex and money.
Ben this is so powerful, thank you for reporting back these times. You change us with every song.
This man. For Years. Riffs so gentle they soften you up with lyrics that hit so heavy, right to the core.
Goddamnit man. You always make such powerful music. Thank you.
Your voice is mesmerizing to me. I listen to everything you put out. The song writing is fantastic as well. Thank You
It's a curse I'll choose any day. Thanks for the reminder.
I get so excited seeing new videos.
Faccccccts!
Im a die hard rap artist/battle rapper, but something about this mans pen is bone chillllling
This man can truly touch your soul!!!
Thank you for making real music, Benjamin. What a Legend. 🙏
Benjamin Tod Flippo's music is unapologetic raw .
When Benjamin sing his lyrics, you also hear so much more in his voice,of a person that has lived through the heartbreak of loss,regret,pain,addiction someone battling there demons.
Truly a modern American Troubadour.
Long may he continue.
I pray for are nation and for are leaders to be guided by God to do what us right for us. I thank Ben for the hope he has given me and I pray that he stays healthy during this dark hour. Greeley Colorado is always with you. Lost dog for life
Oh my gosh I’ve never heard songs that resonated so much inside my brain and heart. Pain is the key to get through to other people. Never stop singing Ben. Please.
That’s sure some beautiful music. This kinda stuff deserves more attention! 🎸🤠
Saw him in Nashville right before the tornado took out the venue he played in. Amazing performance and I’m lucky to have seen him when I did.
There's something about the way he pulls the worse feelings out of you that's healing and I think that's what makes him so unbelievably unique.
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His description of the meaning of the song was so effortless and so confident. Tod had no doubt. I only have those moments of clarity on the comedown of magic mushrooms. Tod looks like he can capture that mindset whenever, perhaps stay in there all day
Always a pleasure to listen thanks Anthony and Ben
I'm gonna dump this here because I know no one that knows me won't see this. I've been down on my luck for the past year, losing my job and struggling to provide for a pregnant girlfriend during covid. This music, this kind of "real" music has helped me see a positive side through all the negative. All the times I've wanted to quit, to just give up, I listen to this or "terrible and true" and I reflect upon my life. No matter how hard it is, there is always a worse position. As a man you have to keep pushing. And that's what I will do.
I'm a simple man. I see a new Benjamin Todd song and I click on it.
Ben has to be one of my favorite singers of all time, love the music.
Benjamin Todd is the realist thing in music today I believe
🎶 I simply am blessed for this musical journey u have taken me on again my dear good Sir 💚
“Pain brings us together “. So true my friend
Honestly tho it’s makes me so happy to see Ben this healthy after all the pain and misery he’s been through. Keep it up man the people need you more than you’ll ever know
Thanks man you don't know how much your music has helped me lots of love and peace brother
I really appreciate the sincerity in his lyrics he’s a great story teller and maybe even a better poet Thanks for doing what you do and keep singing and writing . Your a true talent
❤😂😢😂😢❤❤❤ love you 4ever. Ur always in my heart ❤️ you got me threw it once... Now ur helping me again since losing my daughter. Thank u Ben...❤😂❤😂❤
Sunday we said goodbye to our Lab and best friend of 10 years. We bring these creatures in to our lives to love them with all we have, knowing that most likely we will have to make the decision of when and how their life ends. There's no greater pain than loss because even though the loved one is gone and pain-free, you remain to carry enough pain for the both of you. What a Beautiful Curse.
Serenity in a time when it is sorely needed.
Seems like people are waking up to your music and it's beautiful. Thank God for the day ones
Thanks, Jesus is Lord. A truthful statement for all time and existence.
This guy speaks to me like no one else
I never cease to be amazed by Benjamin Tod's pure, raw, and genuine lyrical and musical talent. I hope someday you make it to Tucson, Arizona and I get to see you perform in person. Your music has impacted so many people, myself included. Thank you, Benjamin.
In state Corona Virus lockdown and couldn't be happier. Benjamin is an absolute badass....
Beautiful notion. It's hard to loose friends but thank benjamin
I'm 45 days out of darkness and this man's voice and music has helped me. When I'm 365 days out of my darkness, I will still be
Listening. Sing on Benjamin Tod sing on.
Brother I have dwelled in the darkness of man and I understand that you can bring back something beautiful from it
Been watchin benjamin for a long time...but never heard a guitar sit so well with his voice as this guitar does...awesome
Man this kid ain't got no bottom he just keeps squeezing your heart and memories everytime he puts pen to paper
Been listening to this song on replay for a while now, one of the realist tunes I've ever heard...but I think that it is important to say...it's NOT all just fate
...not all "just the cards you' re dealt."
We all have the power to change our destiny...to dig until it hurts....to accept someone teaching us to feel life. To come out of the darkness.
There is obviously always fate...always the cards you're dealt, and we have to play that hand...but make no mistake about it, we DO have the power to change that fate, but you gotta dig..dig until it hurts, and then dig some more.
Benjamin you are amazing keep doing what you're doing
You can see straight into my soul.
Thank you.
These men do great work!
Wow. Instant fan. Beautiful. Painful. And all the the insignificant things in-between.
Benjamin is easily my favorite male artist of past 5 years or so
Been saying for a long time that Ben is our generations Townes and here he is playing in Townes old house. How damn cool is that!
Heart tugging and haunting as ever, Gems and Ben. I'm grateful to have this and the Gems back catalog in this time of uncertainty. Thank you to Anthony and Ben (and the all rest) a million times over. I truly appreciate you all. Cheers
-Ben Padgett (Skeddy) @padgettguitars