Live in 2004:

According to this link, this was the final song Camper Van Beethoven played in concert before breaking up in 1989. Considering the very nature of “Ambiguity Song”, this certainly left the door open to the eventual reunion.

One of the things I like about this track is that it sounds like it could almost be a campfire or church singalong. Indeed, I would love to drive by an Episcopalian Church one day and here the congregations’ voices bursting with the lyrics of this song.

Several years back, I visited the Marshall Islands and spent a lazy Sunday on the tiny atoll, Namdrik. One of the conditions of visiting was that I needed to attend the church service. None of the buildings (including the church) on the atoll that I saw had glass windows – each window was just a big square opening on the wall with a top-hinged shutter that was held open by a 2×4.

Anyhow, me and my friends are in the church, which has no piano or organ, and suddenly, the congregation burst into song. Well, I know that the Marshallese culture was musical, but I had no idea what that meant until I heard them singing a hymn all together – in like seven part harmony. It was jaw dropping.

I don’t think this would be an especially good song for them, since its much simpler than the songs they sang, but I do think it would be good for American Episcopalians. They like to sing, but its best to keep it simple with them.

I keed! I keed!

This is the last song I currently have in my library from Telephone Free Landslide Victory, which is not to say the whole album isn’t worth listening to. In fact, the album has a bunch of outstanding instrumentals, none of which I’ve included for reasons that even I can’t fathom. I owe myself some self-reflection in regard to this someday.