[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

They Might Be Giants - “We Want A Rock”

Earlier this year, They Might Be Giant’s commercial breakthrough Flood was certified platinum, just shy of the album’s 20 year anniversary this coming January. To mark the occasion, the band has recently began doing performances of the album, and I accordingly decided it was time to revisit the album. The big hits—“Birdhouse In Your Soul”, “Istanbul (Not Constantinople)”, “Particle Man”—remain charming and satisfying, as do “Whistling In The Dark”, “Twisting” (dB’s namedrop!), and “Someone Keeps Moving My Chair”. The album provides a great snapshot of the offbeat pop that would eventually evolve into something called “alternative” music.

That is all good, but it’s “We Want A Rock” that really floors me. The wonderful melody and accordion performance transform the inscrutable lyrics—“everybody wants prosthetic foreheads on their real heads”—into something with a resonating sentiment. It only took a couple plays for me to identify with the song’s people who “want a rock to wind a piece of string around”. Although the lyrics seem silly and nonsensical, the meaning of the song, according to John Linnell, is quite simple:

This sounds really abstract, but in order to begin wrapping a piece of string around itself, you need something to start with. Like a rock. I guess you can make a ball of string starting from nothing if you just make a tiny loop at the end of the string. But it seems theoretically impossible. It’s a metaphor for getting started.

Okay, I don’t think I would have thought of that metaphor after 20 years, but that’s not going to stop me from joining a rock-and-string sing-along.

tristn posted this on Oct 16 2009. it has 61 notes and 1,836 plays Tagged: #they might be giants

Notes

  1. fuckyeahtmbg reblogged this from tuneage
  2. nedison reblogged this from tuneage and added:
    Just got back from TMBG’s...Show at First Ave. GOOD TIMES.
  3. theymightbegiants reblogged this from tuneage
  4. inkyeagle reblogged this from tuneage
  5. peacockharpy reblogged this from postpunk and added:
    Of course, as someone who winds balls of yarn all the time, I can testify from experience that you don’t need a rock to...
  6. gkojaz reblogged this from tuneage
  7. rsktum reblogged this from tuneage and added:
    なつかしい。
  8. mattgcn reblogged this from boesed and added:
    This song is half the reason Flood is to be my next TMBG purchase
  9. velveteenrabbit reblogged this from postpunk
  10. neavers reblogged this from boggle
  11. radarchive reblogged this from tuneage
  12. thejokell reblogged this from tuneage
  13. whatson reblogged this from tuneage
  14. This was featured on Tumblr Radar
  15. the-mu reblogged this from dontcookbilly and added:
    “Guys, its about sex.” - TMBW contributor whose name I forgot a long time ago.
  16. dontcookbilly reblogged this from postpunk
  17. ghostlikeswazy reblogged this from tuneage
  18. braidsbraided reblogged this from paulytamale and added:
    Well geez, anything TMBG-related is an auto-reblog, I suppose. I think they’re still my favorite band, and have been...
  19. paulytamale reblogged this from postpunk
  20. boggle reblogged this from postpunk and added:
    YES! It’s like they knew how much I needed THIS at THIS EXACT MOMENT. Someone in this town is trying to burn the...
  21. postpunk reblogged this from tuneage and added:
    Rock [Here’s a post I contributed to tuneage—SYNERGY! The song really just came to me after a stretch of forced...
  22. y00h00 reblogged this from tuneage
  23. pegobry reblogged this from tuneage
  24. dandywolves reblogged this from tuneage and added:
    When I used to play Kingdom of Loathing (which I always tell myself I am going to start doing again, but then never do,...
  25. about-today reblogged this from tuneage and added:
    Rock This is also one...my favorite tracks off...classic...
  26. menstrom reblogged this from tuneage and added:
    TMBG: Making nerdy cool for twenty years.
  27. handstamp reblogged this from tuneage
  28. boesed reblogged this from tuneage and added:
    Thank you very much for blogging this, sir. It’s always been a favorite of mine.
  29. r-y-a-n reblogged this from tuneage
  30. tuneage posted this