The Song Fight Bulletin Board

Continuing this theme...

What is your favorite They Might Be Giants song?

Oh god, there are so many! "Don't Let's Start" is the first one that comes to mind. Saw them perform this one live at a 'Life is Good' festival in Canton, MA a few years ago. I was one of, maybe, 4 adults rushing the kids' stage (their post that day) through a sea of bouncing children! It was awesome.

I can respect Holly's answer; "Don't Let's Start" is a close second for me, but my winner is "Ana Ng."

I have heard clips of many of their songs, but the one I just love (and have heard in full many times) is Particle Man. It was a staple of the Dr. Demento show, and almost a precursor to nerdcore!

My fave kids song of theirs is Seven. My fave adult song is still Birdhouse in Your Soul

SPYDER

no not really (but I do enjoy that one a lot)

I dunno There's so many good ones to choose from

funny thing is just before I saw this topic "Album Raises new and Troubling Questions" came on.

I have to agree with Jon Eric, "Ana Ng" is my favorite TMBG song. I also greatly enjoy the Self cover of the song.

"Dead" (also subject to change on a whim, Flood is solid through and through and "Ana Ng" too and oh yeah, "There a House at the Top of a Tree" for the kids)

Back in 1986 or 1987 I had the family VCR rolling when TMBG's "Don't Let's Start" video came on MTV's 120 minutes, and I watched that thing over and over and over. I've been a big fan ever since. The first TMBG concert I attended was for their Lincoln tour, which must have been 1989.

Difficult to choose a favorite, but I'd probably have to say "No One Knows My Plan". Obtuse, paranoid, vivid, hyper... I just love it.

Does 'Fingertips' count as one song? If so, then that.

So hard to pick one. I guess I have to go Famous Polka.

"Fingertips" is 18 tracks at the end of Apollo 18, but when they play it live, they always play those same 18 songs, all in a row, in the same order. I'd count it as one song.

Which is funny because (according to the liner notes) they originally intended for that album to be played on shuffle (ideally in a disc changer with as many other albums as possible) so that the Fingertips tracks would get randomly inserted into whatever the hell else you were listening to.

Birdhouse in Your Soul, Istanbul, Particle Man, The Mesopotamians.
For some reason I can't explain I love "Minimum Wage". It's just odd.
-bill

PS On a related note, I played a boardgame called Istanbul last night, and it had this song in my head all evening.

It's funny that "Istanbul" is one of their most well-known and memorable songs, considering it's a cover. I blame Tiny Toons.

It's a cover?! This is news to me, but not unwelcome news. And yep, Tiny Toons is where I first heard it and "Particle Man" and that "Money" song. Classic episode. I have now shown my age.

I knew it was a cover, but I hadn't heard the original, so thanks for that link. I like the cover better. A big part of doing a cover is picking the right song to cover.
-bill

An interesting piece of Fingertips trivia: Did you know that for the 20th anniversary of the Apollo 18 album a couple years ago, a bunch of amateur gamers/game developers got online and made eighteen short games for the eighteen Fingertips songs?

HeuristicsInc wrote:I knew it was a cover, but I hadn't heard the original, so thanks for that link. I like the cover better. A big part of doing a cover is picking the right song to cover.
-bill

Yeah. I like both the original and the Flood version, but the TMBG is a bit better just because it has a lot more interesting stuff going on.

I don't like the version they did for "Album Raises New and Troubling Questions" though. It was an interesting idea but it lost a lot of what made the song so much fun.

One more bit of Fingertips trivia: The band LMP recorded a song called "Mysterious Whisper" where the chorus consists of the 'Mysterious Whispers' section of Fingertips - they essentially built an entire song around that 8 bar sample. I thought it turned out great, but it's hard to find now (it isn't even listed on their website).

I love so many of their songs. When I hear that pounding rhythm on Ana Ng is gets me so hyped. I'm amazed by the song Dirt Bike, somehow it manages to provoke an emotional response in me, even though it's about a stupid dirt bike. Genius. I love everything on the Pink Album, you never forget your first love.