Tag Archives: the spine

#1372: They Might Be Giants – Thunderbird

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I’ve written about They Might Be Giants’ The Spine, or at least songs you can find on that album, many times at this point. Trying to think of a different way I could put a spin on my experiences with it, without referring to those older posts. I’m sure I’ve mentioned it’s the first physical TMBG album I owned, despite the kind of middling consensus about its quality. I may have said I got it just to hear the transition between ‘Au Contraire’ and ‘Damn Good Times’ without a gap of silence. I think I’ve said I like it a lot, may have called it “underrated” or something along those lines. It was the They Might Be Giants album the band were working on while I was finding out more about them in those early years of 2004, that might be a thing I haven’t said before. It wouldn’t be until 2009 that I got The Spine in my hands. While I don’t think ‘Thunderbird’ was a song on there I liked immediately, it wasn’t too long until it eventually burrowed itself into my head.

From what I can recall, when The Spine was the most recent or second-most recent TMBG release, ‘Thunderbird’ was one of the highest-ranked numbers from the album on the TMBG Wiki’s Song Ratings list. I think just from seeing that, it made me want to listen again and find out why fans liked it so much. I’m a guy from the UK, so when I hear ‘Thunderbird’ I think of that TV show with the puppets and Tracy Island. I did think the song was a sort of superhero theme song for a while. It sounds like one. It’s all upbeat and very driving. A power-pop tune with John Linnell providing a soaring vocal take. But then I found out that’s how the song catches you out, because the title refers to the alcoholic beverage and told from the point of view of a person who gets a huge sense of confidence after drinking it regularly. An alcoholic. I didn’t want to put ‘alcoholic beverage’ and ‘alcoholic’ in the same sentence. A happy-sounding song anchored by a not-so-happy situation. Got a Beach Boys reference in the slow breakdown and everything. As only They Might Be Giants could achieve so easily.

Until its release, ‘Thunderbird’ had been in the works for a while in the TMBG camp. The band had actually subliminally released it, in a way, in the form of ‘On Earth My Nina’ on 1999’s Long Tall Weekend. Linnell reversed ‘Thunderbird’, wrote down the words he thought he could hear, and sang them using the resulting melody line out of the backwards music. It’s definitely a way of making a song. But the band did also make a full demo of the track, also recorded in 1999. Back then, it featured an additional verse. You might say it rocked a little harder too. They performed it live between ’99 and 2001. It could have been on Mink Car in 2001. The band were really saving it, thinking about when to unleash it. I’m glad all the versions of it that are out there exist. It’s cool to note the differences. Like that demo, it really stomps. It has its own flavour. I’ve seen some say it’s flat-out better than how it finally ended up. But I really like how it is on The Spine. I couldn’t compare. I won’t. I’ll take whatever they’ve got.

#1268: They Might Be Giants – Stalk of Wheat

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They Might Be Giants’ 1990 album Flood includes a track that is more or less the band’s theme song in the form of ‘They Might Be Giants’. The number contains the lyric, “They might be rain, they might be heat, they might be frying up a stalk of wheat.” Then fourteen years later, a song under the name of that little phrase at the end there appeared as the penultimate offering on The Spine. Whether John Linnell was thinking of the specific lyric or just wrote this song coincidentally has never been confirmed. It’s not a big deal to think about, really. What matters is, I like ‘Stalk of Wheat’ quite a bit. On an album where the songs are very much on the usual rock band setup, ‘Stalk of Wheat’ arrives out of left field as this swinging showtime number with horns and this thing called a Flex-a-Tone.

The image that usually comes to my mind when listening to ‘Stalk…’ is a man performing it onstage in a theatre of some kind, suit and top hat on, pulling out the jazz hands for extra effect in places. An entertaining situation, I’d say. But when you look into ‘Stalk of Wheat’ a little further, you’ll see that the narrator conveyed isn’t having such a great time. Nothing is working out for this person. Journeys feel too far of a travel, they have no one to turn to who can lend a helping hand. Once they were a young buck who had big plans, but now only have those dark thoughts that linger. And with no money and no job that would help raise funds of any kind, they’re at a point in life where they have no idea in hell that would make things better.

All that being said, the song’s so damn catchy, you’ll find yourself singing along to a person’s downfall in record timing. Filled to the brim with these easy rhymes, wordplay, alliteration and earwormy melodies, and set to the upbeat, happy-go-lucky tempo, it’s the sort of track that wouldn’t sound out of place in a musical. You’ve got the backing vocals chiming in with parts of a lyric before Linnell finishes them off, very much like how a backing character will randomly put their two cents in during a song. And speaking of the lyrics, they range from sincerity to the absurd. A ‘moose denied’ or a ‘bunny that’s broke’ aren’t phrases you’ll find in everyday usage. But in the context of this song, they sound just swell. Just another reason why The Spine shouldn’t be looked down on when looking into the band’s catalogue. And there’s a video of the two Johns performing it live on a TV show back in the day. Ain’t that nice?

#1260: They Might Be Giants – Spine

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They Might Be Giants’ The Spine was the first album by the band that I owned physically. A lot of TMBG fans might ask why. The Spine, for whatever reason, isn’t considered to be one of their greatest moments. Was released in a bit of a wilderness period they were going through. Honestly, my request for the LP stemmed from desperately wanting to hear the transition between ‘Au Contraire’ and ‘Damn Good Times’ in an uninterrupted fashion. And it contained ‘Experimental Film’, which I found through Homestar Runner. I always had good times with the cartoon. But within the album is a number of strong songs, ones that I consider to be up there as some of the group’s best. Others not so much. But that’s how it usually goes with music.

Now a lot of people may argue that ‘Spine’ wouldn’t go in the category of best songs by They Might Be Giants. And I would probably agree. But there was a point where I was just singing it to myself out of the blue and on a frequent basis. So this obviously meant that I liked it without even really trying. ‘Spine’ is only 30 seconds long and is more of a transition piece between the album opener, aforementioned ‘Experimental Film’, and third song ‘Memo to Human Resources’. But even as that, I still get a kick out of it. It’s the first of two songs about the essential anatomic structure in our bodies. This one sung by John Linnell. ‘Spines’ by John Flansburgh comes around later on. I have it in my head that the two songwriters coincidentally wrote songs about the spine in their own respective free times, and once one had found out that the other had done the same, then it only seemed reasonable that the album they’d do next would be named The Spine.

In the six lines ‘Spine’ is made of, I think John Linnell is trying to depict a man going through a stressful time of some kind. Mentions of dragging feet across a back and walking fingers through a mind. Doesn’t sound like things are going according to plan in this narrator’s world. The band’s performance sounds quite heavy, but I put that to the fact that everything’s bunched up in the centre channel. Gives the whole atmosphere a very crowded feel. Initially, I thought it was a whole other singer on the track. Maybe someone the Johns knew and thought would do a good job. Really, it’s just John Linnell really delivering the words from his stomach, as opposed to the more nasal tones he usually provides. Just as soon as you feel the song progressing and feel like it’s going somewhere, it ends and you’re left wanting at least a minute more. At least when you’re in my shoes, that’s the case. But I can make do with what we have.

#882: They Might Be Giants – Museum of Idiots

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Another gem from They Might Be Giants’ The Spine. I wrote about another track from that album earlier in this ‘M’ section. While I think I came to some sort of conclusion as to what ‘Memo to Human Resources’ was about, to this day I’m still a bit flummoxed when it comes to ‘Museum of Idiots’. I do remember an interpretation saying that it was from the point of view of a tree in a forest, but I was left even more confused after reading that than before. The track is the first on the second half of The Spine, beginning a run of tracks until the album’s end that may just be one of my favourites in the band’s whole catalogue.

In comparison to ‘Memo’, written by John Flansburgh, ‘Museum’ is another of John Linnell’s offerings – a composition in waltz time marked by moments of quiet keyboards juxtaposed with a blaring wall of horns. If there’s a guitar present here, it’s definitely buried in the mix. And there’s nothing wrong with that. There’s a joyous and uplifting feeling I get from those triumphant brass instruments here, like there’s this big parade going through town or something. Linnell arranged all of the horn part Though the lyrics seem to be from the perspective of someone or something that’s a bit of a dimwit. Or an idiot, if you didn’t already get that from the song’s title.

Actually, come to think of it. This song might just be another example of a sad but funny moment in They’s discography. This person holds out hope that their “Honey” will need them at some point, and they’ll be ready waiting for them whenever that happens. But the likelihood of it is very low. Maybe the museum contains all those heartbroken people who would do anything for the person who won’t reciprocate those feelings, and because they can’t get over them they’re left feeling like idiots. I don’t know, it hurts to think about these things. But I ask you to at least listen to this one before making some sort of decision for yourself.

#827: They Might Be Giants – Memo to Human Resources

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Today’s song is taken from They Might Be Giants’ 2004 album The Spine. I’m not quite sure what the consensus take on this album is among They fans, but it’s a favourite of mine. I wouldn’t say it surpasses the group’s first four albums though I reckon it’s quite a solid collection of songs. Some very strong ones on here. It’s the first to feature drummer Marty Beller who’s been in the band ever since, so there’s that. It’s the beginning of the five-man group as we know them today.

‘Memo to Human Resources’ is the third song on there. I’ll admit it took me a while to get into it. I was 14 when I heard the whole record for the first time and wasn’t fully equipped with the attention span to keep me through a long period of listening through an album just yet. But I listened to it one day and it clicked, I can’t say much else. The track’s got a very weary feel to it. Sturdy band performance, no one really puts a foot wrong. Judging by what I’ve seen on This Might Be a Wiki, some people think it’s about a man who’s suicidal. Though I’ve had the idea that it’s about a person who’s having an intervention.

The person sits alone in the back as someone searches through the bathroom shelf, maybe for a bottle or some drugs, and they don’t want to accept the advice given to him by “the people”. We don’t know who these people are, but in this case I think it’s maybe some of his family or friends. When the intervention’s over, he thinks about what’s happened in the house and ultimately feels good about it. Still, it’s a bit of a downer from the point of someone at the bottom of the bottle. Thankfully, it doesn’t last too long. Only two minutes.