Tag Archives: turn

#1429: They Might Be Giants – Turn Around

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At some point, on this blog, things will always come back around to They Might Be Giants. Unlike two days ago’s post, the songs of TMBG have probably been in every letter series on this place. I’d have to check, but it’s probably a safe bet. There’s still a few left to go on here on their part, but it’s the last time a song, specifically from the band’s fourth album Apollo 18, will be appearing. Those first four albums where Johns Linnell and Flansburgh performed exclusively as a duo mark a little golden era in the band’s history. Apollo 18 was the last of that tetralogy. The two Johns self-produced it. Kinda sees them testing the waters of what it would sound like to be a real, full-sound, rock band ensemble, with their usual synthetic rhythm section sounding at its most authentic here, boosting the energy and atmosphere on songs like ‘Dig My Grave’ and ‘See the Constellation’. But of course, you still get those numbers in between that remind you you’re still listening to a They album. And I think it’s fair to say ‘Turn Around’ counts as one of them.

My own experience with the tune starts at a very simple place. Behind the old family Vista computer, sometime in 2010, when listening through Apollo 18 for the first time. And I don’t think it was a revisit on another day that got me thinking, “Hmm. This ‘Turn Around’ song is actually pretty good.” I think I understood it there and then on the first go. Though that might just be me wanting to sensationalize things and make a good story. I’m fairly certain that’s how it went down. If you hear the song, it’s pretty understandable as to why it would be a first-time listen, “Oh, yeah” moment. It’s really easy to sing along to/memorise. Once you get down the melodies of the first verse and chorus, you’re pretty much set for the rest of the song’s duration. John Linnell takes the lead vocal, safe to assume he wrote the thing. On ‘Turn Around’, he addresses a theme that’s a popular one in a stream of TMBG songs. The theme of death. Each verse sees an unsuspecting narrator confronted by a spectre, who then tell the respective narrators to “turn around” and look at an actual human skull on the ground behind them. Now, imagine if that happened to you in real life. You’d be reasonably spooked. But the spookiness depicted in the song is very much undermined by the swinging, jaunty tempo and the generally chipper way the music is delivered.

This is a big aside, but lately I’ve been wondering… did John Linnell hear Bonnie Tyler’s ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart’ one day, maybe laugh, have a little joke about it and then proceed to write his own song based around it? ‘Cause the way the “turn arounds” are sung in both numbers are very, very similar. I think a key’s difference. Maybe I’m just a loony. Whatever the origin of inspiration, it doesn’t stop the fact that They Might Be Giants’ ‘Turn Around’ is an earworm-and-a-half. An early recording of the track is just made of the chorus looping endlessly. Say we lived in a world where Apollo 18’s ‘Turn Around’ didn’t exist and there was just a vacant melody to hum to yourself while you’re busy doing other things. That chorus alone would do me fine, could probably sing that for the rest of the day. I am glad that it was further worked on and became the song it is. I can’t imagine it without that plinking guitar line Flansburgh executes during the choruses or the dramatic entry of the extra Linnell harmonies and blasting saxophone for the last verse and chorus. They all take the track to that little upper level. Plus, I don’t think I would have ever known of the word ‘obsequious’ if it wasn’t for its use in the lyrics.

#1428: Travis – Turn

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We’re very deep into this series, but it’s nice that, even at this point, there will still be some entries that come from out of nowhere or will maybe only show up once before never appearing again. Case in point, Travis. Don’t think I’ve ever mentioned the band’s name on here once. Never had a reason to. But then here comes ‘Turn’. I’ll get it to it in a second. Thinking about Travis, they were definitely a band that was around when I was growing up in the early, early 2000s. I more remember the time when ‘Sing’ was the band’s new single, with its video showing on The Box, and when they went on Top of the Pops and took the food fight from the video onto the stage. And that would have been in 2001. By then, the band were already a household name in the UK anyway. ‘Why Does It Always Rain on Me?’ Need I say more. That had established itself as the band’s signature song, and it was on their second album, The Man Who, released in 1999. Which brings us back round to the subject of today’s post.

‘Turn’ is on The Man Who too, and like ‘Why Does It Always…’ was released as a single from that album – the final one as the new millennium was slowly coming over the horizon. I didn’t know the song existed until years and years later. Which one exactly, I wish I could recall, but I must have been in the teenage range. I do remember just watching TV, think it was the Q music channel, and the video for ‘Turn’ came on. It’s an interesting one. In it, a bet is made by the bandmembers for frontman Fran Healy to do pushups for the whole day. The story doesn’t have anything to do with what the song’s about. But seeing those closeups of Healy straining with each push, his arms violently shaking while he lip-syncs “I want to live, I will survive” even made me want to pat him on the back and tell him he could do it. All goes down to good acting. He wins the bet, and just has he does his last push-up, a stranger is confronted and assaulted by a group of men. Healy has no strength left to get up of the floor and help the stranger. That’s where the video ends, and I was left with the classic “That can’t be where it finishes!” feeling. To the presumable teenager I was, it was a captivating watch, and the song sounded very nice too.

But what is ‘Turn’ about? Essentially, it’s Fran Healy’s statement of intent. He bluntly states what he wants to do in his life, and hopefully he can do it in a world that learns to turn. I’m thinking that means a world where everyone’s able to just get along with one another, but that’s not a very catchy or emphatic way of capturing the notion in song. Although it was released in 1999, the song had been around as early as 1993. Take into account that Healy would have been 19-20 years of age that year, the song is very much one from the point of view of a young man who has his dreams and the future way ahead of him. ‘Turn’ is the list of what Healy wants to happen. The best part of the whole song? Healy’s vocal. The intensity increases from verse to pre-chorus to those big, big choruses, and those climaxes are so hard to sing. He does let bass guitarist Dougie Payne take lead vocal on the second verse whenever they do it live. But on the studio take, it’s all Healy. I don’t know how he does it. So much power and passion behind the delivery, really tugs at the heartstrings.