Fields Of This

Transcript

OPHIRA EISENBERG, HOST:

For a game titled Fields of This, let's say hello to Kate Costanzo and Stephen Gan.

(APPLAUSE)

EISENBERG: Kate, what are your feelings on the artist Sting?

KATE COSTANZO: Well, recently I had a conversation with my boyfriend where I was under the impression that Sting was a member of the band U2...

(LAUGHTER)

COSTANZO: ...So I think it's safe to say my feelings are pretty neutral.

EISENBERG: OK, yeah, and what did your boyfriend respond to that?

COSTANZO: He just gave me one of those, oh, honey, looks (laughter).

EISENBERG: Stephen, how about you? What's your feelings about Sting?

STEPHEN GAN: Every breath I take, I dream of the blue turtle.

EISENBERG: Oh, yeah. Did you like that "Dream of The Blue Turtles?" Was that one of your favorites?

GAN: I have heard literally one song off of it.

COSTANZO: (Laughter).

EISENBERG: Which one?

GAN: "Fortress Around Your Heart."

EISENBERG: Oh, yeah, yeah, well...

(LAUGHTER)

JONATHAN COULTON, BYLINE: It's a great review you just gave of that one.

(LAUGHTER)

EISENBERG: Right.

COULTON: Ouch, that stings.

EISENBERG: What did you think of it? I've heard a song.

COULTON: Technically, I've heard one of the songs.

EISENBERG: Jonathan, Sting fan?

COULTON: Sting fan - is there a chance we're going to book him on the show ever?

EISENBERG: (Laughter) Yes.

COULTON: I'm a big fan of Sting.

(LAUGHTER)

COULTON: I like The Police, but, you know, Sting, like all of us, has had a slow gentle slide into dad music.

(LAUGHTER)

COULTON: So we have rewritten that classic Sting song "Fields Of Gold" to be about other elements on the periodic table.

(LAUGHTER)

COULTON: Your job is to tell us which elements we are singing about, and luckily John Linnell, from They Might Be Giants, is going to accompany me on the accordion.

(APPLAUSE)

COULTON: And that is the way that Sting intended for all of his songs to be played...

(LAUGHTER)

COULTON: ...Is with an accordion. All right, are you ready? It's a beautiful song...

COSTANZO: (Laughter).

COULTON: ...About the periodic table.

(Singing) You'll remember me when you hear my voice. I sound just like a chipmunk. It's the gas I sucked from a big balloon. I could float in fields of this.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

COULTON: Stephen.

GAN: Helium.

COULTON: Helium is correct.

(APPLAUSE)

EISENBERG: I do think a lot of NPR listeners will be like, finally, a part of the show that I enjoy.

(LAUGHTER)

COULTON: I know. I like when they're not just talking and talking.

(Singing) Makes the diamond hard and the graphite soft; it's present in all life forms. Gives us coal to burn, lets us grill our steaks; the earth's a field of this.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

COULTON: Stephen.

GAN: Carbon.

COULTON: You got it.

(APPLAUSE)

COULTON: (Playing guitar) It always starts this way.

(LAUGHTER)

COULTON: (Singing) It's a noble gas, highly volatile. It's in the lights on Broadway. With relentless glare from its bright red tint, I can't sleep in fields of this.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

COULTON: Kate.

COSTANZO: Neon.

COULTON: Neon is correct.

(APPLAUSE)

EISENBERG: Noble gas by day, stripper by night.

(LAUGHTER)

EISENBERG: I feel like the accordion is, like, adding some extra...

COULTON: It's really - it really is adding a lot. It's making it very special.

JOHN LINNELL: It's an instrument of evil in this case.

(LAUGHTER)

COULTON: (Singing) In my vitamins, in the chalk at school, I taste this in antacids. I can feel it now in my teeth and bones. We are filled with fields of this.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

COULTON: Kate.

COSTANZO: Calcium.

COULTON: Calcium, yes.

(APPLAUSE)

COULTON: These lyrics are taking a lot of the heart out of this song.

(LAUGHTER)

COULTON: It's usually much more of a love song.

COSTANZO: It's going right into the bone.

COULTON: It's going right into the bones.

COSTANZO: The calcium, right into the bones.

EISENBERG: Yeah, nice.

COULTON: (Singing) This one is required for fire, and it's in the water that quenches. It's a network for women, too. We can breathe in fields of this.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

COULTON: Kate.

COSTANZO: Oxygen.

COULTON: Oxygen.

(APPLAUSE)

EISENBERG: Lifetime is incorrect.

(LAUGHTER)

COULTON: All right, this is your last clue because it's the end of the song.

(LAUGHTER)

EISENBERG: Too soon.

COULTON: I know, it feels like we just started.

EISENBERG: I know.

COULTON: (Singing) You'll remember this radioactive stuff named for an ex-planet 'cause it's time to set off my giant bomb. Nothing left but fields of this, just decay from fields of this. There's nothing left but fields of this.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

COULTON: Stephen.

GAN: Plutonium.

COULTON: You got it.

(APPLAUSE)

COULTON: John Chaneski, who is Sting's best friend?

JOHN CHANESKI, BYLINE: Oh, we have a tie.

EISENBERG: Oh.

CHANESKI: They are both his best friend.

(APPLAUSE)

CHANESKI: Here's our tie-breaker, get ready. What kind of field surrounds objects that can attract pieces of iron, nickel and cobalt?

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

GAN: An electromagnetic field.

CHANESKI: Yes, an electromagnetic field. Stephen, well done, you're moving on to the final round.

(APPLAUSE)

EISENBERG: Let's welcome back They Might Be Giants as we set up for our final round.

(APPLAUSE)

EISENBERG: Hey, John, John, Marty, what are you guys going to play?

JOHN FLANSBURGH: So this song is about a real life guy named Nikola Tesla.

(CHEERING)

LINNELL: Say it right.

FLANSBURGH: Say it right or you'll have to re-record the whole vocal again.

LINNELL: Everybody says Tesla. You're forgiven for saying it wrong.

FLANSBURGH: Not the band, not the car, the man.

THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS: (Singing) Tesla brought the X-ray photo to the world, brought the AC power to the world.

Here is a mind that can see across space. Here is a mind soaring free. Light turns to sound and sound turns to waves and waves turn to all things perceived. Maybe that knowledge would drive one insane. How can that knowledge be tamed? Tesla ushered the radio wave into the world, ushered the neon light into the world.

The hotel New Yorker, he's been on the floor. The body of Nikola lies with just his papers, no family to tell; under the window birds fly. And under an X-ray of Mark Twain's skull, the plan for the death ray's design.

Tesla brought the radar detection to the world, ushered remote control into the world. He brought the bladeless turbine into the world, ushered the neon light into the world.

(APPLAUSE)

EISENBERG: That was so cool; one more time for They Might Be Giants.

(APPLAUSE) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.