Welcome To Tally Hall (Song)

Welcome To Tally Hall

Written by	Joe Hawley, Rob Cantor, Zubin Sedghi
Appears on	Welcome To Tally Hall (EP), Complete Demos, Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum
Sung by	Joe Hawley, Rob Cantor, Zubin Sedghi
Genre	Rock
Language	English
Links:	YouTube Spotify Bandcamp Acoustic Demo (Bandcamp) Early Rehearsal (YouTube) Demo (Bandcamp) Reprise Demo (Bandcamp)

Welcome To Tally Hall (abbreviated as WTTH) is a song arranged by Joe Hawley with lyrics by Joe, Rob Cantor, and Zubin Sedghi

The music video for Welcome to Tally Hall debuted in the 4th episode of Tally Hall's Internet Show.

History

Welcome To Tally Hall started life as an acoustic demo from Joe Hawley, which was released on Admittedly Incomplete Demos in 2015.^[1] The demo has two sections, a chorus which was used for the final recording, and an instrumental guitar solo section used for the brass section in the final version.

It would later be recorded for the Welcome To Tally Hall (EP) with fleshed out lyrics and the same recording was included on Complete Demos. When recorded for the 2005 and 2008 versions of Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum, A new intro and outro were added, there were some slight word changes like changing "homophonic" to "heterophonic", as well as tonal changes to the opening motif of the song, which was not chiptune-style originally.

On April 15th 2022, a reprisal demo of the song, with a different melody was added to Admittedly Incomplete Demos. It is currently unknown when this demo was recorded, and there is speculation among the community that the track is a new recording of an old idea. It's possible that it was written to act as a closing track for Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum^[2] but this is mostly speculation.

Music Video

The music video for Welcome To Tally Hall features the band playing around in a photo booth. With the exception of the intro and outro, the entire video is comprised of many photographs. The photographs were seemingly all taken throughout the last week of September 2008, as evidence by the back of the photographs used in the video.^[3] With the Good & Evil deluxe package, most pre-orders would include a photograph from the music video as a bonus.

The video is also notable as one of the earliest appearances of the vests, being made days after the vests first appearance at The Late, Late Show on September 16th.^[4]^[5]

Trivia

The Ford Windstar is a minivan sold from 1995 to 2003, renamed the Freestar in 2004.
Eddie Thatch refers to the pirate Blackbeard
WWTHD? stands for What Would Tally Hall Do?, which references a popular Christian motto from the 90's
'gnac refers to cognac, a brandy named after a town in France.
Bill Laimbeer is a retired basketball player and current WNBA coach.
Ebonics refers to English speech patterns primarily spoken by African Americans.
The track was engineered to trigger subwoofers with a synth bass drum that would be inaudible on most speakers.^[6]

Lyrics

Can I get a T?
And if you hit me with the A-L-L-Y
Then you'd see why
The Hall is here for y'all
The mini mall is calling us all in

So kids
Pack up your mom's car
Back up the Windstar
Kick it in drive and arrive
At the mega mart
Slide the side hatch with pride 'cause your ties match
On booty duty like your name was Eddie Thatch

WWTHD?
We like to kick it at the university
But all work and no play makes us crazy
So we jump in the bumping SUV

Hit the street get the sweet tunes on
Do a donut on your mama's front lawn
And sooner than you know
You've found the rock 'n' roll show
At the Tizzy Hizzy we'll be gone

We're in the mini-mall
Working the carnival
We like to play it all
Welcome to Tally Hall

Who's to blame?
The automated players, I proclaim

Yellow tie the suave fellow writes
Heterophonic tunes of how love bites
Red the proud loud guy we adore
Is my amp too high?
No, turn it up more
So Grey in the back sipping 'gnac can hear
He's knocking down the shots like Bill Laimbeer

Send home the locksmith: Greens got the keys
To unlock the rock in the act, if you please
Now open the case
Give Blue the bass
And jiggle your boodiggle all over the place

We're in the mini-mall
Working the carnival
We like to play it all
Welcome to Tally Hall

We're in the mini-mall
Working the carnival
We like to play it all
Welcome to Tally Hall

Can I get a click?
Flick off of the switch
And we'll ignite the night in pitch

Singing songs you like to hear
And the world will disappear
Then we'll be glowing in the dark
Lighting up the park

Revealing that the Hall is the place that aims to please
With unpredictable games and antiquities
They're collectibles so delectable
The unreliable style's undetectable

Like I might rap like an English chap
Take you by the knickers and I'll bum your slap
You didn't think we had the gall
Well bloody welcome to Tally Hall

We're stereosonic
We're animatronic
We're rapping with the robo-electronic Ebonics
A quick distraction
A mechanic attraction
Got a penny in your pocket for the slot
Rock

Hey ho don't you know
It's a good old-fashioned puppet show
That's right, quite the set
We're the marionette quintet

We think were playing in a band
But we'd love to give you all a hand

We're in the mini-mall
Working the carnival
We like to play it all
Welcome to Tally Hall

We think were playing in a band
But we'd love to give you all a hand

Acoustic Demo Lyrics

We're off to Tally Hall,
Off in the mini mall
Come again
We're off to Tally Hall,
Off in the mini mall
Come again
We're off to Tally Hall,
Off in the mini mall
Come again
We're off to Tally Hall,
Off in the mini mall
Come again
We're off to Tally Hall,
Off in the mini mall
Come again

Pre-Welcome To Tally Hall EP Rehearsal Lyrics

Can I get a T?
And if you hit me with the A-L-L-Y
Then you'd see why
The Hall is hipper than y'all
The mini mall is calling us all in

So kids
Pack up your mom's car
Back up the Windstar
Kick it in drive and arrive
At the mega mart
Slide the side hatch with pride 'cause your ties match
On booty duty like your name was Eddie Thatch

WWTHD?
We like to kick it at the university
But all work and no play makes us crazy
So we jump in the bumping SUV

Hit the street get the sweet tunes on
Do a donut on your mama's front lawn
And sooner than you know
You've found the rock 'n' roll show
At the Tizzy Hizzy we'll be gone

We're in the mini-mall
Working the carnival
We like to play it all
Welcome to Tally Hall

What's the name?
The Tally Hall boys, I maintain

Yellow Rob, the suave fellow writes
Homophonic tunes of how love bites
Joe, the proud, red guy we adore
Is my amp too loud?
No, turn it up more
So Steve in the back sipping 'gnac can hear
The playboy snob never does appear. (?)

Andrew's got green over a shirt named polo
Deems a high-pitched note as his solo
Pack it back, that just won’t do (?)
My name is Zubin and my tie's blue

We're in the mini-mall
Working the carnival
We like to play it all
Welcome to Tally Hall

We're in the mini-mall
Working the carnival
We like to play it all
Welcome to Tally Hall

Can I get a click?
Flick off of the switch
And we'll ignite the night in pitch

Singing songs you like to hear
And the world will disappear
Then we'll be glowing in the dark
Lighting up the park

Revealing that the Hall is the place that aims to please
With unpredictable games and antiquities
They're collectibles so delectable
The unreliable style's undetectable

Like I might rap like an English chap
Take you by the knickers and I'll bum your slap
You didn't think we had the gall
Well bloody welcome to Tally Hall

We're stereosonic
We're animatronic
We're rapping with the robo-electronic Ebonics
A quick distraction
A mechanic attraction
Got a penny in your pocket for the slot
Rock

Hey ho don't you know
It's a good old-fashioned puppet show
That's right, quite the set
We're the marionette quintet

We think were playing in a band
But we'd love to give you all a hand

We're in the mini-mall
Working the carnival
We like to play it all
Welcome to Tally Hall

We think were playing in a band
But we'd love to give you all a hand

Tabs/Chords

Unavailable, if you have made tabs or chords of the song please add them!

Personnel

Music: Joe Hawley
Lyrics: Rob Cantor, Joe Hawley, Zubin Sedghi

Studio Version

Vocals: Rob Cantor, Joe Hawley, Zubin Sedghi
Additional Vocals: Marvin Yagoda, Andrew Horowitz
Electric & Acoustic Guitars: Rob Cantor, Joe Hawley
Keyboard: Andrew Horowitz
Drum Kit & Percussion: Ross Federman
Bass: Zubin Sedghi
Cello: Rachel Hsieh, Anna Schultz
Saxophone: Bobby Streng
Trombone: Melissa Gardiner
Trumpet: Jeff Blim, Michael Nickens
Viola: Laurel Borden,
Violin: Shawn Jaeger

Complete Demos Version

Engineer: Joe Hawley
Vocals: Joe Hawley, Rob Cantor, Zubin Sedghi
Acoustic Guitar: Rob Cantor
Electric Guitar: Joe Hawley
Trombone: Alaina Alster
Trumpet: Adam Dixon
Tuba: Brian Kaufman
Piano & Keyboards: Andrew Horowitz
Drum Kit & Percussion: Steve Gallagher
Bass: Zubin Sedghi