When Al mentions being teleported go last Thursday that’s actually a reference to the song I Lost Thursday, crazy how he pulled off that reference 20+ years before it was released
@@DontLetsStartAPodcastAboutTMBG I think the subtlety between Golden Grahams and Franken Berry is that both are owned by General Mills, it's like TMBG wanted to promote a limited time General Mills cereal, but Weird Al prefers an everyday General Mills cereal.
@@RavenclawNimbus given every verse starts with "I was [blank]ing" and ends with someone in the story launching into the chorus I think you might be correct lol
@@RavenclawNimbus ...and additionally, given that they actually bring it up in this video in the section starting at 27:30. I responded to this comment less than halfway through the video and literally right after I picked it back up a week later I hit that section lol
They should just work together so that we can hear them play music extremely professionally. I mean, just who HASN'T collaborated with They Might Be Giants? It's frustrating the obvious collab is held over our heads eternally until we die.
Another style reference is the syncopated lyrics. "Send me back to last Thursday night so I could pay my phone bill on time" for example is almost entirely offbeats, and TMBG do that all the time. I've listened to this episode about five times. Cheers!
Wow, thanks so much! And you are right about the way he sings that...it's hard to put into words these things though! Hope you check out the non-weird al regular podcast too!
The fact that Al uses more detailed lyricism in the last chorus may be a reference to Linnel's tendency to sing about the same idea but become increasingly verbose as the song goes on. The most obvious songs are probably Snail Shell and End of the Rope, the former being the only one Al could have heard at the time.
The snare hits over the "noisy ice machine" bit reminds me a LOT of "You guys must be into the Eurythmics" in Rhythm Section Want Ad. It evokes that more than any other TMBG song, to me.
I'm awestruck. At first glace I was like "oh man, I love the hell out of this song, I love Weird Al, I love TMBG, but 73 minutes?" YES. Every minute. This was a brilliant and insightful listen. Thank you. Keep it up. Please. I'm gonna go listen to She's An Angel now. I think that's my #1. All my love.
Thanks so much. I think we cut like 20 minutes out of it too. There was too much to talk about. I actually have a hard time listening to She's An Angel these days, too much sadness associated with the song :(
"They offered to transport me back to any point in history that I would care to go. And so I had them send me back to last Thursday night so I could pay my phone bill on time." Interesting story about this line: One time I was getting behind in my credit card payments and also my phone payments (I was being quite lazy), so they cut my phone service which also cut my internet service. Because of this, I had to go to a lot of trouble to pay my credit card bill (I payed them online) so I could repay my phone bill, so they could reconnect my phone and internet. A few days later, Everything You Know Is Wrong came up randomly on my iPod, and I realized just how handy that would have been to get transported back in time to pay my phone bill on time! Now every time I hear this song, I think of that situation I was in.
This is the best thing you've put out to date. The sheer number of rapid-fire references is astounding. I liked this song, but couldn't put my finger on most of these references. Thank you for this! Keep up the great work!
Holy moly. This is so much analysis so deep into two of my huge interests. I was raised on TMBG’s kids’ albums, and My Evil Twin was one of the songs on my first iPod. I was shocked to discover that they were FAR from just a kids’ band, and I think that so much of what they’ve done has shaped a lot of who I am as a person. I will definitely be subscribing! This is such a cool podcast you guys have here!
Thanks so much. Just to clarify, besides this exclusive episode, the audio podcast available on all the podcast streaming things is the MAIN show. The UA-cam channel is like clips of the show. We did a BIG segment on My Evil Twin on the main podcast! Hope you enjoy! Lots of stuff being worked on at the moment...
I can't believe I just listened to this entire video. I've barely even heard of TMBG. I did grow up listening to some Al, although by no means was I ever a devotee. Really well done guys. I'm definitely going to have to check out some Giants now. Thanks so much for making this video. Cheers!
Thank you so much! I hope you enjoy TMBG! Go for Lincoln, that's the one that blew my mind originally! Also everybody loves Flood if you want the safe choice!
I just listened to your interview with Weird Al about this which was really great and went back to watch this - I feel like this video really had the unanticipated effect on me of managing to make me fall in love with they might be giants all over again!!!! You guys said it best - they really do just have so many great songs!
The sax part in the bridge always reminded me a LOT of the sax playing in "Siftin'" which yeah is a rarity now, but in the '90s, fairly easy to find the "I Palindrome I" EP so I always assumed it was intentional. Nice to have this all sonically laid out though! Heck of a job you all did!
Wow, I had no idea how much was embedded in these lyrics. I'd always assumed it was just another one of Al's classic random-bizarre themes, but there's a reference in every line to a specific TMBG song! You have to really know TMBG in order to get them. That's what separates Al from most other parody artists, he not only parodies specific songs but does style parodies and genre parodies and crams those songs full of references to the bands and genres he's spoofing. Weird Al truly is a musical genius.
This is a wonderful video. Regarding the weird key change at the "end of the chorus", This seems specifically to point at the "They Might Be Giants" track from flood where they do a similar thing at the end of the chorus. TMBG tend to do weird key shifts throughout the verse and bridge, and much less so in the chorus (John Henry especially stands out as being harmonically complex. Most of the tracks have key changes beautifully intermixed, with "Why must I be sad" + "I should be allowed to think" + "O do not forsake me" being saturated with them)
Yeah! Great examples! Hope you checked out our latest podcast episode all about O Do Not Forsake Me, with an interview with lead vocalist Wilbur Pauley!
Holy smokes this video is incredible!!! As a superfan of both Weird Al and They Might Be Giants, I gotta say this is very thorough. A small correction, however, is that the names of Al’s band members are Jon on drums, Steve on bass, Jim on guitar, Rubén on keyboards, and Weird Al on accordion.
This was pretty interesting to me as I never realized that this was a homage to TMBG. As someone that's more familiar with Firesign Theater than TMBG I always assumed it was a homage to the former, not just because of the title but because it follows a similar structure to much of Firesign's audio stuff with a narrative of just a stream of bizarre surreal events.
The thing is, it is VERY TMBG to be referencing multiple things at once in a big pop culture blender until you don't even know what's happening anymore. So I'd put forth that the way Al referenced both Firesign Theater AND the TMBG songs is exactly the kind of thing TMBG would do.
coming on the 2nd watch thru, i appreciate the small point to sensurround as an example in the beginning :) it's one of my favorite Very Obscure tmbg songs
That's the kindest thing anyone can say. Believe me I've thought of it but I'd only be an "expert" in a few. This one, the Talking Heads one (Dog Eat Dog), the Pixies one (First World Problems), the Ben Folds one (Why Does This Always Happen To Me) and I think I could take a decent crack at the Oingo Boingo (You Make Me) and REM (Frank's 2000 inch TV) ones too. Frankly I was very surprised there hadn't been something like this out there already! I do think THIS song is especially loaded and complex and full of devotion for the subject matter perhaps more than most of his other style parodies, and even Al has basically said that too in that AV Club article quoted here, how he's especially proud of this effort. (also hi posting from my other account, by mistake, woops!)
@1:06:20 - this somehow reminds me of that point in a documentary I saw about them when Linell *literally* says "We're the Shitty Beatles..." and they both laugh, because it's so accurate.
Despite being something of a fan of Weird Al, this song, and They Might Be Giants, I never made this connection- You certainly were thorough. Good job!
Weird Al also introduced The Statue Got Me High video on Al TV back in April 1992, on MTV; that one video and Al’s introduction to it, got me into being a lifelong hardcore TMBG fan, after having been the same about Al up until then.
For some reason this song made me think of TMBG, but I never gave it much thought. Mind blowing! I have been a fan of both Al and TMBG for decades and never knew this song was an homage to the Johns.
@@DontLetsStartAPodcastAboutTMBG I know! Thank you so much for making this video. It made my day discovering this. I'll be looking forward to your future videos!
i always heard a lot of similarities lyrically between this song and Rest Awhile, particularly in the third verse, but i think that song did come after weird al's song, which is really wild. this is an excellent breakdown and has definitely gotten me interested in listening to more of your podcast; i don't normally do the podcast thing actually but i fucking love tmbg so much and i love digging into the stories of the band and songs. thanks so much for sharing your love and insight with the world, guys! keep up the great work!
10 minutes in and I can tell I'm going to be bingeing this whole podcast. I've never really had friends who liked this band but I'm always brimming to talk about it so this is perfectly in my niche. :)
(hi it's my other account, too lazy to sign out!) WOW THANKS! This is the kind of comment I love! This isn't even one of our strongest episodes because it was so much about me playing tons and tons of song clips (as opposed to us talking to each other), and also I wasn't feeling well! I hope you enjoy the show!
@@jordancooperlalala you both have a good conversational rhythm and a lot of knowledge that doesn't come off as pedantic or gatekeeping, I'm really excited to hear more :)
Thanks for this, I listen to EYKIW a lot and have always thought it would be fun to try to deconstruct which TMBG references it's doing - and you guys did it way better than I ever could've, so this was extremely satisfying listening. One thing you didn't bring up is when Al rephrases a line to make it twice as fast [ "and every single thing you thought was so important doesn't really matter anymore, because the simple fact remains that..." ] -- I was trying to think of a TMBG song that does this [for all I know it's something Weird Al does a lot, too] and came up with Dinner Bell [from the slower "I don't want a pizza I don't want a piece of peanut brittle..." to "I don't know whether I'd be having a bottle of vinegar..." etc]. Both Al and TMBG have a lot of rapidfire lyrics where they cram a lot of syllables into a melody, so that's another common quality
As a huge TMBG fan I smile so wide everytime I listen to Everything you know is wrong it’s just such a well written tribute. I got a lot of the references but man I’m impressed by all the other references I didn’t even think of!
Thanks, that's the best compliment I could get. It's very challenging doing a TMBG podcast and trying to catch things and surprise even the hardcore TMBG fans out there. In fact it's nearly impossible.
I've had Jordan's "XTC vs Adam Ant" episode of This Is Pop on my podcast player forever, and I finally got around to listening to it. Plunged me back down the TMBG rabbit hole. I saw them live a few times back in the 80s when it was just them and a reel to reel tape, then once in the 90s with the full band. I kinda fell off the train a bit after John Henry. I've been checking out back episodes of your DLS podcast. Then this just coincidentally (OR IS IT) pops up in my UA-cam suggestions? Cool stuff. I remember hearing Weird Al a lot back on the the Doctor Demento show but I never really checked out his albums. I listened to EYKIW and think I might have to give the genre parodies a closer look, they speak to me more than the direct song parodies now. ANYWAY.... hi!
Wow this is the best kind of message! So much to cover: first of all thank you so much, it's just a huge compliment that me yacking on a podcast got you interested in checking out more music. I mean that's just all I want the show to achieve. Second, there's been a ton of great TMBG material after John Henry. I really love the albums Join Us, Glean, I Like Fun and their newest one BOOK. Check those out! Third -- getting someone to appreciate Weird Al is also a really big deal! He's a genius. Sometimes his stuff is super stupid and silly, but there's so much musical talent under everything, and he's got a lot of great original songs that I love as much as any serious song (and some of them do kind of emotionally affect me, like One More Minute or Melanie or Biggest Ball of Twine In Minnesota)
@@DontLetsStartAPodcastAboutTMBG i did get back into TMBG a little bit in the mid 2000's as my daughter was at the age where Here Come The ABCs and Bed Bed Bed were useful tools, both for learning alphabet/going to sleep, and not driving me crazy in the process! ("Go For G" was our family's unofficial theme song for a while. Rarely a day went by without one of us singing it.) We gave so many copies of that DVD as birthday presents. I watched the recent Weird: The Al Yankovic Story film (sheer delight) but I didn't feel an urge to revisit his music.
@@jdrukman Ah yes, the kids stuff.... I'm not gonna push anyone to get into Weird Al, but if you want to hear some great original songs that are also expert loving tributes to bands like this video is about: Dare To Be Stupid (Devo) Dog Eat Dog (Talking Heads) You Make Me (Oingo Boingo) Virus Alert (Sparks) Pancreas (Brian Wilson) Hardware Store (nothing but awesome song) I'll Be Mellow When I'm Dead (nothing but my favorite Al original, one of his only like "real" songs, as in keeping it real...it's about his feelings and is kind of punk!) Midnight Star (I forget but its a fan-beloved song) Nature Trail To Hell (horror movie parody and awesome song) Mr. Popeil (B-52s) Good Enough For Now (my band almost covered this, hilarious, mean and relatable relationship song) Good Old Days (James Taylor) Frank's 2000 Inch TV (REM) I Remember Larry (a mix of things, but great original song) Your Horoscope For Today (ska) Genius In France (Al's epic Frank Zappa tribute) Close But No Cigar (perfect Cake tribute)
Hearing TMBG described as something other than a comedy band is so startling and alien to me. Like we are talking about the dudes who wrote Cowtown, right? I grew up with TMBG as a 90's kid and when my college aged sister introduced me to Flood and Apollo 18 I was blasted with surreal comedic nonsense. Granted I've always had a very strong appreciation for them musically as... y'know, Weird Al is great, but like "hey Bad kinda sounds like Fat" only really goes so far. It's only later as I get older that I can start to appreciate TMBG on other levels. But like that's coming from someone with an extreme sentimental attachment to this music and the memories I have associated with it and in the way it reminds me of my sister, and has had this from a really young age. Like I've lived and breathed TMBG for a long, long time, of course I'm aware that there's more going on than just non-sequitors about weird heads and nonsense animals. You have to admit that on a surface level... TMBG is just weird and funny. Like I know Ween isn't a explicitly a comedy band but... if all you've ever heard is "push the little daisies" then you're going to have a real hard time believing that. But for real thank you for doing this episode about Weird Al so that it would be picked up by a wider audience so the algorithm could show it to me. Listening to the clips in the episode really reignited my love for TMBG and now have this whole podcast about them to listen to.
Thanks so much. I'm on the other end of things here. I can't imagine thinking that TMBG is a comedy band, including Cowtown, which has never been a funny song to me but rather a complex, confusing and haunting song (I mean is "we yearn to swim for home but our only home is bone" "ha-ha" funny?) But I may be just so used to that stuff that "the joke isn't funny anymore" and I just hear good music with lyrics about death and alcoholism and depression. They have a few funny songs but mostly they keep that stuff off the albums. In fact my least favorite TMBG songs (or albums) are the ones that seem too comedic, because it seems to betray their ethos that they are not a novelty band. Their 2000s material got goofier and goofier and they were starting to lose me, but they've started fixing that with I Like Fun and Book, two fairly depressing and serious, dark albums. I'm not saying humor isn't utilized, but as someone who does the same thing myself in many serious songs I've written, there's a big difference between utilizing humor in your lyrics (because even our darkest moments in life have humor in them) and being a comedy act. Ghost World utilizes humor but it's a comic book/movie that is deeply sad and alienated at its core and ultimately leaves you feeling ponderous and depressed. Sopranos (or Mad Men) is the same way, sometimes the funniest show on television but it's not like anyone thinks of it is a comedy show, it's bleak existential dread and incredibly sad. And it's hilarious. It seems the algorithm and my plan worked!! I am amazed how many views this thing has got! And if you want to know something, this is like...OUR WORST EPISODE! Usually we are way more funny and have a lot more energy...I was actually in kind of a bad mood when we did this! Really tired and not feeling well! I hope you enjoy our podcast! Right from the very first episode we dive into the comedy issue and it comes up constantly. I have a lot of clips from TMBG discussing this too.
@@DontLetsStartAPodcastAboutTMBG You know, one of my favorite songs from them is ‘The Statue Got Me High’ which I believe is pretty much just a funny song Like Linnell himself has admitted that the song just came to be because he thought it was funny imagining a guy being absolutely mind blown by a simple statue
I know that. We are using the term Weird Al and his fanbase uses for these sorts of songs over the decades. Feel free to google to see its prominent usage as opposed to "pastiche."
Interestingly (for me at least), the second time I got into Weird Al, I had also gotten into TMBG, roughly at the same time, late '90's. Learning (much later) that Everything You Know Is Wrong was a pastiche of TMBG, made me get interested in TMBG, again.
So uh first time listeners first time caller. I loved every thing from bad hair day and was aware of wmbg a bit from their prolific tv songs but i didnt know this ... Good. Show.
Thanks so much. I don't think it will ever be an episode of the audio show. I think just the nonstop music clips make it a different sort of thing, it was envisioned as a slideshow and also as a special UA-cam exclusive. If you REALLY want I can send you the file...!?
As a casual weird al and TMBG listener, I have always wondered about this song but never bothered to try and figure out which songs Al was referencing.
I never knew about this. An actual parody would be out of the question. Weird Al’s voice is so similar to the John Flansburgh’s, plus the accordions, how could anyone tell the difference?
39:00 This trick is used as the bases for one of their future songs on the first kids album "Lazyhead and Sleepbones". The whole song is lines exactly like this one in "My Evil Twin" like: "When Lazy Head says it's "number one", Sleepy Bones says it's "best"", and "When Sleepy Bones says that something "isn't", Lazy Head says, "It's not"".
Finally I got an evening to myself after staying with family during the holiday period, and I have watched this video! I’ve been looking forward to this since the 25th! Amazing analysis as always, I find your deep-dives into references so fascinating. As someone who doesn’t know a whole lot about Weird Al but definitely appreciates his music (and even more now!) this video was a treat! Hilariously I also felt the same as you, when I was watching this and hearing all the songs in succession I was like “damn…. TMBG ARE incredible and I love/appreciate their music so much!” Even though I already think that on a daily basis haha. But it’s so interesting to see them from another angle like this, from another musician’s perspective on their work! I’ll probably end up in a Weird Al wormhole of listening and research now haha. I really appreciate what you both do for the podcast, the research and prep must be immense and just want to acknowledge that!! I pledged to your anchor.fm just before Christmas as you guys really deserve it for all the hard work you do and wonderful entertainment you bring to my ears! Keep on keeping on and can’t wait for more episodes :)
Thanks for this really nice comment. Yeah, because I was imagining a non-TMBG fan listening to this and what they must think of all of the crazy, catchy, varied, fun TMBG clips, I was just like "wow they have so many great songs." Thank you for the pledge! We have a lot planned for the show. Though we are in a hiatus (again) due to life stuff and I am across the country for a while, nowhere near the podcast studio...
@@DontLetsStartAPodcastAboutTMBG I always end up doing the same when listening to the podcast as well! Even if it's a song I know I love, I hear your discussion and I'm like "damn... I really DO love this song!" or even better if it's a song I've slept on, your research and discussions always give me a new appreciation! No worries at all, you guys deserve it! Don't worry about the hiatus - I'm still actually working my way through listening from the start... I truly savour each episode so I'm deliberately listening at a very slow rate. Do the things you gotta do and look forward to new episodes when you're ready! Although I still probably won't be caught up by then haha
Every time I check into a hotel, if I pass the ice machine on my way from the elevator to my room, I say to myself, "Did I get the room next to the noisy ice machine for all eternity?"
Interestingly, Weird Al uses the same 1-and-2-and-1 to punctuate the outro in Skipper Dan. That had me thinking it was an Al thing, or maybe it is common to another artist he was parodying, or maybe it just subconsciously crept in.
Yeah, there's a lot of just-Al-things in this song, but as I say, I think in this case it was quite conscious as "TMBG also do this so I'm going to lean extra hard on it." I really think the ending was most likely swiped from those Apollo 18 songs especially, as that seems to be the core album this is based on! And I Palindrome I was the big single at that time too. In my opinion, this was not subconscious but fully conscious! I also think Weezer and TMBG are not TOO dissimilar so it makes sense. I've probably done that kind of ending on my own songs too without really thinking of any sort of inspiration (which I rarely do when writing a song.)
How could I possibly have known it when I'd never heard of Firesign Theatre before? :) In any case, we discuss it (partially) being a Firesign Theatre reference in the video, including quotes from Al himself.
in reference to 41:55 and the sort of "key change" chord pattern here - what that calls to mind for me is the chords to "They Might Be Giants" directly after the line "and what are we gonna do unless they are?" where it does the same flat VI - flat VII - I progression. perhaps there are other examples of this also, but that's the one that i thought of.
You can do the reverse with SO many TMBG songs. The depth of the Johns' musical knowledge is interwoven throughout their catalogue, with references as old as the 1930s to as new as contemporary. I'm not even shocked anymore when I discover some obscure deep track that the ostensible Giants referenced or quoted somewhere.
Was interested to see if you were gonna do a segment on the I Remember Larry 'controversy' but even without mentioning that, I think you did a good job. Being able to find all those parallels showed that Al knows the sort of things the bands he's into likes to talk about.
I did plan to do that, but this became too long, and also I need to focus less on Weird Al and more on TMBG...Way too much to do for the podcast lately. But yeah, I think a sequel video about that could be really fun. Maybe around the same time this year?
I just came from listening to the Weird Al interview episode (awesome) and wanted to add that the way the music in Everything You Know Is Wrong pauses for a beat before bursting into the chorus has always reminded me of Linnell’s song Maine. I don’t know if Weird Al would have had access to it at the time, but the Hello release came out in 1994, so it’s possible.
All my life I thought the lyrics in "stuck in a closet with Vanna White" were "Nana-banana-bananas"- now, having paused this video to read the lyrics, I see that he was saying "night after night after night". Everything I know is wrong.
It's like a TMBG song but not 'everything right is wrong again' that's a VERY different tempo - and Al is blistering on his own Polka thing. TMBG is nearly a slow march with intercuts. How you missed that is beyond me. That said - making an interesting HOUR of this - pure magic!
The part at the end of the first chorus that feels like a key change is what I'd probably call "modal mixture". Basically it's D-major but some of the chords borrow notes from the minor scale. It's a feature I assume is common in TMBG, but for me I think of the chorus and the fadeout of "Ana Ng" where the B-flat chord shows up in the context of a segment mostly in G-major, acting as a sort of "bluesy" moment. Speaking of "Ana Ng", one of the instruments of the bridge in Weird Al's song gives me autoharp vibes, though I think it's probably a keyboard sound.
still listening but - Albuquerque is practically a direct parody of dick's automotive by the rugburns! The song even mentions bio-dome, and the rugburns are on the soundtrack for that! everybody who likes weird al should check them out, super underrated band
@@jordancooperlalala it was very well detailed and easy to follow as someone who isn't too musically literate. I'm a huge tmbg fan but I would have never picked up on all these details
Haha I didn't know I was signed into a different account when I replied. Yeah you know, I'm not very musically literate either, I'm all self taught and mostly go by instinct. I never wanted the podcast to be too technical with composition stuff...boring!
It's from a live show on The Ridiculously Self Indulgent, Ill Advised Vanity Tour. It was a tour where instead of doing all the usual parodies and costumes, he performed original songs and changed the setlist every night. One other thing he did every night was he would perform a cover song from a random artist. One of the songs he covered on that tour was Particle Man.
I was just thinking about this song and about analyzing it, you beat me to the punch, but did a better job than I think I could do on a moments notice. (Edited out some thing about going to a weird al concert)
Thank you! I was wondering why more Weird Al fans haven't done this sort of thing with his style parodies. I've always been really interested in the topic!
FWIW, your list of Weird Al style parodies was missing one: "Waffle King" is a style parody of Peter Gabriel, apparently with a little Don Henley thrown in too.
Great podcast! Another structural reference I noticed that I believe you skipped is Everything You Know Is Wrong is sung with hardly any time to take a breath. Just try singing along to it! This is similar to some TMBG songs, such as Don't Let's Start.
I am ashamed that it took me as long as it did to realize this song was a TMBG style parody. On another note: 2:23 I had no idea Biggest Ball of Twine was supposed to be a Gordon Lightfoot style parody! Next time I sing it, I'll have to use Gord's voice. That will bring it a whole new meaning to me!
It took me a long time too and that's while being obsessed with both Al and TMBG at the same time for many years. My wife was playing the Kinks "Ducks on the Wall" in the car the other day and I went "holy crap, Weird Al style parodied this!" I'm always discovering new ones.
I'm the guy who asked Weird Al about the Firesign Theatre reference and his answer made me feel stupid because I'd lost the CD case.
When Al mentions being teleported go last Thursday that’s actually a reference to the song I Lost Thursday, crazy how he pulled off that reference 20+ years before it was released
Fitting that he got it in advance because the reference made to it is in time travel.
Al has many talents!
@@DontLetsStartAPodcastAboutTMBG I think the subtlety between Golden Grahams and Franken Berry is that both are owned by General Mills, it's like TMBG wanted to promote a limited time General Mills cereal, but Weird Al prefers an everyday General Mills cereal.
"I forced an Al to listen to every They Might Be Giants song recorded before 1996 and then asked it to record its own. Here is what it came up with."
I guess that I is not a capital i but a small L
An AL lmao
A weird Al?
Weird AI
I feel like the "face of my hibachi dealer" is a reference to "ghost of my dance instructor"
I honestly think the whole song has lyrical similarities to Turn Around. I have a feeling he was heavily inspired by that when writing
@@RavenclawNimbus definitely
@@RavenclawNimbus given every verse starts with "I was [blank]ing" and ends with someone in the story launching into the chorus I think you might be correct lol
@@jacketofdiamonds yes, exactly!
@@RavenclawNimbus ...and additionally, given that they actually bring it up in this video in the section starting at 27:30. I responded to this comment less than halfway through the video and literally right after I picked it back up a week later I hit that section lol
I've been waiting almost 30 years to hear TMBG cover this song live.
Keep waiting!
They should just work together so that we can hear them play music extremely professionally. I mean, just who HASN'T collaborated with They Might Be Giants? It's frustrating the obvious collab is held over our heads eternally until we die.
Another style reference is the syncopated lyrics. "Send me back to last Thursday night so I could pay my phone bill on time" for example is almost entirely offbeats, and TMBG do that all the time.
I've listened to this episode about five times. Cheers!
Wow, thanks so much! And you are right about the way he sings that...it's hard to put into words these things though! Hope you check out the non-weird al regular podcast too!
i feel asleep to this then had a dream you guys interviewed henry rollins
The Keychange thing made me think again of Someone Keeps Mo-Ving My Cha-a-a-air.
YES.
i never realized that song was a TMBG style parody! thanks for enlightening me on this
It was an honor and a privilege!
The fact that Al uses more detailed lyricism in the last chorus may be a reference to Linnel's tendency to sing about the same idea but become increasingly verbose as the song goes on. The most obvious songs are probably Snail Shell and End of the Rope, the former being the only one Al could have heard at the time.
I was trying to explain this but it was hard to do for some reason...Thank you!
The snare hits over the "noisy ice machine" bit reminds me a LOT of "You guys must be into the Eurythmics" in Rhythm Section Want Ad. It evokes that more than any other TMBG song, to me.
AHH! Great catch! I wish I put that in there!
I'm awestruck. At first glace I was like "oh man, I love the hell out of this song, I love Weird Al, I love TMBG, but 73 minutes?"
YES. Every minute. This was a brilliant and insightful listen. Thank you. Keep it up. Please. I'm gonna go listen to She's An Angel now. I think that's my #1. All my love.
Thanks so much. I think we cut like 20 minutes out of it too. There was too much to talk about.
I actually have a hard time listening to She's An Angel these days, too much sadness associated with the song :(
🎼🎵I found out she's an angel.I don't think she knows I know.I'm worried that something might happen to me if anyone ever finds out 🎶🤗❤️
We are cracking the code of creating TMBG music
"They offered to transport me back to any point in history that I would care to go. And so I had them send me back to last Thursday night so I could pay my phone bill on time."
Interesting story about this line: One time I was getting behind in my credit card payments and also my phone payments (I was being quite lazy), so they cut my phone service which also cut my internet service. Because of this, I had to go to a lot of trouble to pay my credit card bill (I payed them online) so I could repay my phone bill, so they could reconnect my phone and internet. A few days later, Everything You Know Is Wrong came up randomly on my iPod, and I realized just how handy that would have been to get transported back in time to pay my phone bill on time! Now every time I hear this song, I think of that situation I was in.
HA! That kind of thing happens with me and random song lyrics ALL OF THE TIME. It's very eerie.
This is the best thing you've put out to date. The sheer number of rapid-fire references is astounding. I liked this song, but couldn't put my finger on most of these references. Thank you for this! Keep up the great work!
Thank you ;)
Found this because in my addled memory I misremembered "Everything You Know Is Wrong" as a TMBG song, so uh...
You weren't far off!
Holy moly. This is so much analysis so deep into two of my huge interests. I was raised on TMBG’s kids’ albums, and My Evil Twin was one of the songs on my first iPod. I was shocked to discover that they were FAR from just a kids’ band, and I think that so much of what they’ve done has shaped a lot of who I am as a person. I will definitely be subscribing! This is such a cool podcast you guys have here!
Thanks so much. Just to clarify, besides this exclusive episode, the audio podcast available on all the podcast streaming things is the MAIN show. The UA-cam channel is like clips of the show. We did a BIG segment on My Evil Twin on the main podcast! Hope you enjoy! Lots of stuff being worked on at the moment...
@@DontLetsStartAPodcastAboutTMBG ooh, that sounds even better! I’ll cast an eye out for that main show, then.
Hope you enjoy :)
As a massive fan of both, I’m utterly disappointed in myself that this never occurred to me.
I can't believe I just listened to this entire video. I've barely even heard of TMBG. I did grow up listening to some Al, although by no means was I ever a devotee.
Really well done guys. I'm definitely going to have to check out some Giants now. Thanks so much for making this video. Cheers!
Thank you so much! I hope you enjoy TMBG! Go for Lincoln, that's the one that blew my mind originally! Also everybody loves Flood if you want the safe choice!
I think Apollo 18 is amazing
One of us! One of us! One of us!
it's embarrassing how long it took me to realize everything you know is wrong was a weird al style parody
Took me a long time too!
I just listened to your interview with Weird Al about this which was really great and went back to watch this - I feel like this video really had the unanticipated effect on me of managing to make me fall in love with they might be giants all over again!!!! You guys said it best - they really do just have so many great songs!
The sax part in the bridge always reminded me a LOT of the sax playing in "Siftin'" which yeah is a rarity now, but in the '90s, fairly easy to find the "I Palindrome I" EP so I always assumed it was intentional.
Nice to have this all sonically laid out though! Heck of a job you all did!
I love Siftin'
I was always sure it was one of the johns ghost guesting on the song.
"That [Barry Sax] is a clue!" As just an out of context statement, this really got a laugh from me.
Wow, I had no idea how much was embedded in these lyrics. I'd always assumed it was just another one of Al's classic random-bizarre themes, but there's a reference in every line to a specific TMBG song! You have to really know TMBG in order to get them. That's what separates Al from most other parody artists, he not only parodies specific songs but does style parodies and genre parodies and crams those songs full of references to the bands and genres he's spoofing. Weird Al truly is a musical genius.
This is a wonderful video.
Regarding the weird key change at the "end of the chorus", This seems specifically to point at the "They Might Be Giants" track from flood where they do a similar thing at the end of the chorus.
TMBG tend to do weird key shifts throughout the verse and bridge, and much less so in the chorus (John Henry especially stands out as being harmonically complex.
Most of the tracks have key changes beautifully intermixed, with "Why must I be sad" + "I should be allowed to think" + "O do not forsake me" being saturated with them)
Yeah! Great examples! Hope you checked out our latest podcast episode all about O Do Not Forsake Me, with an interview with lead vocalist Wilbur Pauley!
@@jordancooperlalala O I will not forsake you. Gonna check it out now
Got this recommended today. Subscribed to the podcast and listened to the whole video. Amazing stuff, keep up the good work.
Thank you so much! These kinds of comments KEEP ME GOING!
TMBG is like Weird Al coffee
Darker, more serious, more complex
Holy smokes this video is incredible!!! As a superfan of both Weird Al and They Might Be Giants, I gotta say this is very thorough.
A small correction, however, is that the names of Al’s band members are Jon on drums, Steve on bass, Jim on guitar, Rubén on keyboards, and Weird Al on accordion.
Mr. Poeil. B-52's style parody. Took me decades to realize that.
This was pretty interesting to me as I never realized that this was a homage to TMBG. As someone that's more familiar with Firesign Theater than TMBG I always assumed it was a homage to the former, not just because of the title but because it follows a similar structure to much of Firesign's audio stuff with a narrative of just a stream of bizarre surreal events.
The thing is, it is VERY TMBG to be referencing multiple things at once in a big pop culture blender until you don't even know what's happening anymore. So I'd put forth that the way Al referenced both Firesign Theater AND the TMBG songs is exactly the kind of thing TMBG would do.
41:40 dude Al's rendition of classical gas is one of my favorite things he's ever made, thanks so much for including this.
Oh yeah! I was watching that video as I was editing and just amazed.
coming on the 2nd watch thru, i appreciate the small point to sensurround as an example in the beginning :) it's one of my favorite Very Obscure tmbg songs
Nice. Yeah, it may be in my top 10.
Man I want videos like this for all of Weird Al's Style parodies
That's the kindest thing anyone can say. Believe me I've thought of it but I'd only be an "expert" in a few. This one, the Talking Heads one (Dog Eat Dog), the Pixies one (First World Problems), the Ben Folds one (Why Does This Always Happen To Me) and I think I could take a decent crack at the Oingo Boingo (You Make Me) and REM (Frank's 2000 inch TV) ones too. Frankly I was very surprised there hadn't been something like this out there already! I do think THIS song is especially loaded and complex and full of devotion for the subject matter perhaps more than most of his other style parodies, and even Al has basically said that too in that AV Club article quoted here, how he's especially proud of this effort. (also hi posting from my other account, by mistake, woops!)
@1:06:20 - this somehow reminds me of that point in a documentary I saw about them when Linell *literally* says "We're the Shitty Beatles..." and they both laugh, because it's so accurate.
And there really is a band named The Shitty Beatles!
Despite being something of a fan of Weird Al, this song, and They Might Be Giants, I never made this connection-
You certainly were thorough. Good job!
Weird Al also introduced The Statue Got Me High video on Al TV back in April 1992, on MTV; that one video and Al’s introduction to it, got me into being a lifelong hardcore TMBG fan, after having been the same about Al up until then.
I always assumed this song was some kind of firesign theater reference because I recognized the title, didn't realize it was a TMBG song
For some reason this song made me think of TMBG, but I never gave it much thought. Mind blowing! I have been a fan of both Al and TMBG for decades and never knew this song was an homage to the Johns.
That's incredible!
@@DontLetsStartAPodcastAboutTMBG I know! Thank you so much for making this video. It made my day discovering this. I'll be looking forward to your future videos!
i always heard a lot of similarities lyrically between this song and Rest Awhile, particularly in the third verse, but i think that song did come after weird al's song, which is really wild. this is an excellent breakdown and has definitely gotten me interested in listening to more of your podcast; i don't normally do the podcast thing actually but i fucking love tmbg so much and i love digging into the stories of the band and songs. thanks so much for sharing your love and insight with the world, guys! keep up the great work!
10 minutes in and I can tell I'm going to be bingeing this whole podcast. I've never really had friends who liked this band but I'm always brimming to talk about it so this is perfectly in my niche. :)
(hi it's my other account, too lazy to sign out!) WOW THANKS! This is the kind of comment I love! This isn't even one of our strongest episodes because it was so much about me playing tons and tons of song clips (as opposed to us talking to each other), and also I wasn't feeling well! I hope you enjoy the show!
@@jordancooperlalala you both have a good conversational rhythm and a lot of knowledge that doesn't come off as pedantic or gatekeeping, I'm really excited to hear more :)
@@greeplurch Oh interesting...it takes a lot of self control to not come off as pedantic or gatekeeping!
Close'n'play? Not CLOTHES AND PLAY?? My life is a lie.
ua-cam.com/video/AAKZ-O70wNg/v-deo.html
Thanks for this, I listen to EYKIW a lot and have always thought it would be fun to try to deconstruct which TMBG references it's doing - and you guys did it way better than I ever could've, so this was extremely satisfying listening.
One thing you didn't bring up is when Al rephrases a line to make it twice as fast [ "and every single thing you thought was so important doesn't really matter anymore, because the simple fact remains that..." ] -- I was trying to think of a TMBG song that does this [for all I know it's something Weird Al does a lot, too] and came up with Dinner Bell [from the slower "I don't want a pizza I don't want a piece of peanut brittle..." to "I don't know whether I'd be having a bottle of vinegar..." etc]. Both Al and TMBG have a lot of rapidfire lyrics where they cram a lot of syllables into a melody, so that's another common quality
We DID bring that up. It was cut out of the episode though. My example for that part was The World's Address.
@@DontLetsStartAPodcastAboutTMBG oh good catch, its in that one too...! And a little bit in Dead, overlapping.
As a huge TMBG fan I smile so wide everytime I listen to Everything you know is wrong it’s just such a well written tribute. I got a lot of the references but man I’m impressed by all the other references I didn’t even think of!
Thanks, that's the best compliment I could get. It's very challenging doing a TMBG podcast and trying to catch things and surprise even the hardcore TMBG fans out there. In fact it's nearly impossible.
I've had Jordan's "XTC vs Adam Ant" episode of This Is Pop on my podcast player forever, and I finally got around to listening to it. Plunged me back down the TMBG rabbit hole. I saw them live a few times back in the 80s when it was just them and a reel to reel tape, then once in the 90s with the full band. I kinda fell off the train a bit after John Henry. I've been checking out back episodes of your DLS podcast. Then this just coincidentally (OR IS IT) pops up in my UA-cam suggestions? Cool stuff. I remember hearing Weird Al a lot back on the the Doctor Demento show but I never really checked out his albums. I listened to EYKIW and think I might have to give the genre parodies a closer look, they speak to me more than the direct song parodies now. ANYWAY.... hi!
Wow this is the best kind of message! So much to cover: first of all thank you so much, it's just a huge compliment that me yacking on a podcast got you interested in checking out more music. I mean that's just all I want the show to achieve. Second, there's been a ton of great TMBG material after John Henry. I really love the albums Join Us, Glean, I Like Fun and their newest one BOOK. Check those out! Third -- getting someone to appreciate Weird Al is also a really big deal! He's a genius. Sometimes his stuff is super stupid and silly, but there's so much musical talent under everything, and he's got a lot of great original songs that I love as much as any serious song (and some of them do kind of emotionally affect me, like One More Minute or Melanie or Biggest Ball of Twine In Minnesota)
@@DontLetsStartAPodcastAboutTMBG i did get back into TMBG a little bit in the mid 2000's as my daughter was at the age where Here Come The ABCs and Bed Bed Bed were useful tools, both for learning alphabet/going to sleep, and not driving me crazy in the process! ("Go For G" was our family's unofficial theme song for a while. Rarely a day went by without one of us singing it.) We gave so many copies of that DVD as birthday presents. I watched the recent Weird: The Al Yankovic Story film (sheer delight) but I didn't feel an urge to revisit his music.
@@jdrukman Ah yes, the kids stuff....
I'm not gonna push anyone to get into Weird Al, but if you want to hear some great original songs that are also expert loving tributes to bands like this video is about:
Dare To Be Stupid (Devo)
Dog Eat Dog (Talking Heads)
You Make Me (Oingo Boingo)
Virus Alert (Sparks)
Pancreas (Brian Wilson)
Hardware Store (nothing but awesome song)
I'll Be Mellow When I'm Dead (nothing but my favorite Al original, one of his only like "real" songs, as in keeping it real...it's about his feelings and is kind of punk!)
Midnight Star (I forget but its a fan-beloved song)
Nature Trail To Hell (horror movie parody and awesome song)
Mr. Popeil (B-52s)
Good Enough For Now (my band almost covered this, hilarious, mean and relatable relationship song)
Good Old Days (James Taylor)
Frank's 2000 Inch TV (REM)
I Remember Larry (a mix of things, but great original song)
Your Horoscope For Today (ska)
Genius In France (Al's epic Frank Zappa tribute)
Close But No Cigar (perfect Cake tribute)
Whenever I describe TMBG to someone I say it's kinda like if Weird Al wrote his own songs lol crazy that he actually did a style parody of them
Hearing TMBG described as something other than a comedy band is so startling and alien to me. Like we are talking about the dudes who wrote Cowtown, right? I grew up with TMBG as a 90's kid and when my college aged sister introduced me to Flood and Apollo 18 I was blasted with surreal comedic nonsense. Granted I've always had a very strong appreciation for them musically as... y'know, Weird Al is great, but like "hey Bad kinda sounds like Fat" only really goes so far. It's only later as I get older that I can start to appreciate TMBG on other levels.
But like that's coming from someone with an extreme sentimental attachment to this music and the memories I have associated with it and in the way it reminds me of my sister, and has had this from a really young age. Like I've lived and breathed TMBG for a long, long time, of course I'm aware that there's more going on than just non-sequitors about weird heads and nonsense animals. You have to admit that on a surface level... TMBG is just weird and funny. Like I know Ween isn't a explicitly a comedy band but... if all you've ever heard is "push the little daisies" then you're going to have a real hard time believing that.
But for real thank you for doing this episode about Weird Al so that it would be picked up by a wider audience so the algorithm could show it to me. Listening to the clips in the episode really reignited my love for TMBG and now have this whole podcast about them to listen to.
Thanks so much. I'm on the other end of things here. I can't imagine thinking that TMBG is a comedy band, including Cowtown, which has never been a funny song to me but rather a complex, confusing and haunting song (I mean is "we yearn to swim for home but our only home is bone" "ha-ha" funny?) But I may be just so used to that stuff that "the joke isn't funny anymore" and I just hear good music with lyrics about death and alcoholism and depression. They have a few funny songs but mostly they keep that stuff off the albums. In fact my least favorite TMBG songs (or albums) are the ones that seem too comedic, because it seems to betray their ethos that they are not a novelty band.
Their 2000s material got goofier and goofier and they were starting to lose me, but they've started fixing that with I Like Fun and Book, two fairly depressing and serious, dark albums. I'm not saying humor isn't utilized, but as someone who does the same thing myself in many serious songs I've written, there's a big difference between utilizing humor in your lyrics (because even our darkest moments in life have humor in them) and being a comedy act. Ghost World utilizes humor but it's a comic book/movie that is deeply sad and alienated at its core and ultimately leaves you feeling ponderous and depressed. Sopranos (or Mad Men) is the same way, sometimes the funniest show on television but it's not like anyone thinks of it is a comedy show, it's bleak existential dread and incredibly sad. And it's hilarious.
It seems the algorithm and my plan worked!! I am amazed how many views this thing has got! And if you want to know something, this is like...OUR WORST EPISODE! Usually we are way more funny and have a lot more energy...I was actually in kind of a bad mood when we did this! Really tired and not feeling well! I hope you enjoy our podcast! Right from the very first episode we dive into the comedy issue and it comes up constantly. I have a lot of clips from TMBG discussing this too.
@@DontLetsStartAPodcastAboutTMBG
You know, one of my favorite songs from them is ‘The Statue Got Me High’ which I believe is pretty much just a funny song
Like
Linnell himself has admitted that the song just came to be because he thought it was funny imagining a guy being absolutely mind blown by a simple statue
I had no idea that TMBG was a comedy band. I've heard maybe 2 of their songs before now.
@@Nakia11798 well I think the idea of the comment is that they aren’t really a comedy band
They’re just a band with a little humor
I just listened to Fingertips again. I think Al's song is an homage to the Apollo 18 album songs.
I first read the channel name as "Don't Let's Start a Podcast About TMBG"
That’s the joke!
A "style parody" is called a pastiche.
I know that. We are using the term Weird Al and his fanbase uses for these sorts of songs over the decades. Feel free to google to see its prominent usage as opposed to "pastiche."
Interestingly (for me at least), the second time I got into Weird Al, I had also gotten into TMBG, roughly at the same time, late '90's. Learning (much later) that Everything You Know Is Wrong was a pastiche of TMBG, made me get interested in TMBG, again.
With the “guitar stabs” one that came to my mind was ‘I Palindrome I’
finally finished watching/hearing this thing. pretty informative! interesting stuff.
Thank you! This topic is one of the only things I know about.
Dramatic zoom-in on Dinner Bell (43:12) was brilliant.
thank you
So uh first time listeners first time caller. I loved every thing from bad hair day and was aware of wmbg a bit from their prolific tv songs but i didnt know this ... Good. Show.
Thanks so much! Bad Hair Day is a killer album. Check out TMBG! You'd probably like their stuff! THEN LISTEN TO OUR SHOW!
The song I Remember Larry always reminded me of them too, especially the melody of the chorus sounding like See the Constellation's
Amazing! Please make this available on the podcast feed do we can listen 🎧 on the go. Thanks!
Thanks so much. I don't think it will ever be an episode of the audio show. I think just the nonstop music clips make it a different sort of thing, it was envisioned as a slideshow and also as a special UA-cam exclusive. If you REALLY want I can send you the file...!?
As a casual weird al and TMBG listener, I have always wondered about this song but never bothered to try and figure out which songs Al was referencing.
And now you know...the rest of the story!
@37:40 passing tones are pitches that move between the analyzed chords usually by half steps or whole steps
This is delightful, and that’s always been my favorite Weird Al song. Which I will never see in concert.
I never knew about this. An actual parody would be out of the question. Weird Al’s voice is so similar to the John Flansburgh’s, plus the accordions, how could anyone tell the difference?
I’m enjoying this too much. Ahh! I need to work!!!
Thanks for the Xmas surprise! Happy holidays guys.
Thank you :) The holidays can be stressful for many, I hope this is a good distraction! It was for me!
I know Factory Showroom came out after Bad Hair Day, but this song feels right at home on that record.
Great episode guys!
Thank you, Pegwarmers!
Dude I had the same Kids in the Hall shirt and They Might be Giants shirt.
Man. Don’t Let’s Start is my favorite TMBG song.
I never get tired of it
I would argue most Weird Al fans are TMBG fans and vice versa
Very well done deep dive into two of my favorite bands and one of the best songs ever!!!!
39:00 This trick is used as the bases for one of their future songs on the first kids album "Lazyhead and Sleepbones". The whole song is lines exactly like this one in "My Evil Twin" like: "When Lazy Head says it's "number one", Sleepy Bones says it's "best"", and "When Sleepy Bones says that something "isn't", Lazy Head says, "It's not"".
Finally I got an evening to myself after staying with family during the holiday period, and I have watched this video! I’ve been looking forward to this since the 25th! Amazing analysis as always, I find your deep-dives into references so fascinating. As someone who doesn’t know a whole lot about Weird Al but definitely appreciates his music (and even more now!) this video was a treat! Hilariously I also felt the same as you, when I was watching this and hearing all the songs in succession I was like “damn…. TMBG ARE incredible and I love/appreciate their music so much!” Even though I already think that on a daily basis haha. But it’s so interesting to see them from another angle like this, from another musician’s perspective on their work! I’ll probably end up in a Weird Al wormhole of listening and research now haha.
I really appreciate what you both do for the podcast, the research and prep must be immense and just want to acknowledge that!! I pledged to your anchor.fm just before Christmas as you guys really deserve it for all the hard work you do and wonderful entertainment you bring to my ears! Keep on keeping on and can’t wait for more episodes :)
Thanks for this really nice comment. Yeah, because I was imagining a non-TMBG fan listening to this and what they must think of all of the crazy, catchy, varied, fun TMBG clips, I was just like "wow they have so many great songs."
Thank you for the pledge! We have a lot planned for the show. Though we are in a hiatus (again) due to life stuff and I am across the country for a while, nowhere near the podcast studio...
@@DontLetsStartAPodcastAboutTMBG I always end up doing the same when listening to the podcast as well! Even if it's a song I know I love, I hear your discussion and I'm like "damn... I really DO love this song!" or even better if it's a song I've slept on, your research and discussions always give me a new appreciation!
No worries at all, you guys deserve it! Don't worry about the hiatus - I'm still actually working my way through listening from the start... I truly savour each episode so I'm deliberately listening at a very slow rate. Do the things you gotta do and look forward to new episodes when you're ready! Although I still probably won't be caught up by then haha
Every time I check into a hotel, if I pass the ice machine on my way from the elevator to my room, I say to myself, "Did I get the room next to the noisy ice machine for all eternity?"
Stabs = "gated" guitar 🎸
Not quite what we were referring to
Interestingly, Weird Al uses the same 1-and-2-and-1 to punctuate the outro in Skipper Dan. That had me thinking it was an Al thing, or maybe it is common to another artist he was parodying, or maybe it just subconsciously crept in.
Yeah, there's a lot of just-Al-things in this song, but as I say, I think in this case it was quite conscious as "TMBG also do this so I'm going to lean extra hard on it." I really think the ending was most likely swiped from those Apollo 18 songs especially, as that seems to be the core album this is based on! And I Palindrome I was the big single at that time too. In my opinion, this was not subconscious but fully conscious! I also think Weezer and TMBG are not TOO dissimilar so it makes sense. I've probably done that kind of ending on my own songs too without really thinking of any sort of inspiration (which I rarely do when writing a song.)
Everything You Know is Wrong...that is definitely a Firesign Theatre reference. Surprised you didn't know this.
How could I possibly have known it when I'd never heard of Firesign Theatre before? :) In any case, we discuss it (partially) being a Firesign Theatre reference in the video, including quotes from Al himself.
in reference to 41:55 and the sort of "key change" chord pattern here - what that calls to mind for me is the chords to "They Might Be Giants" directly after the line "and what are we gonna do unless they are?" where it does the same flat VI - flat VII - I progression. perhaps there are other examples of this also, but that's the one that i thought of.
Yeah! Right on the money!
No idea if this gets mentioned later but the double time part of the chorus invokes a hey Mr dj ending vibe
You can do the reverse with SO many TMBG songs. The depth of the Johns' musical knowledge is interwoven throughout their catalogue, with references as old as the 1930s to as new as contemporary. I'm not even shocked anymore when I discover some obscure deep track that the ostensible Giants referenced or quoted somewhere.
Exactly what we do on our podcast, in every single episode :)
I didn't realize this song existed! That's awesome, great episode 👍👍👍
Oh that is very exciting!
... Well this explains why this is one of my favorite Weird Al songs, cause I love TMBG. Wild!
best of both worlds!
I thought it was one of the johns doing the horn work because it was so close to their music.
@44:55 I think you mean "A snake head eating the head from the opposite side"...
Exactly!
Was interested to see if you were gonna do a segment on the I Remember Larry 'controversy' but even without mentioning that, I think you did a good job. Being able to find all those parallels showed that Al knows the sort of things the bands he's into likes to talk about.
I did plan to do that, but this became too long, and also I need to focus less on Weird Al and more on TMBG...Way too much to do for the podcast lately. But yeah, I think a sequel video about that could be really fun. Maybe around the same time this year?
Wait, there’s controversy surrounding I Remember Larry?
Yes, but I dare not jump the gun here. A lot to say about it. I'd like to record something.
41:50 The modulation at the end of the chorus is in "They Might Be Giants" from Flood. "And what're we gonna do unless they are...."
Love the question mark variation logo!!!
We made those for our Grab Bag episodes ;)
The first horns in the song made suspect it was TMBG inspired.
My name is Jordan. I don’t have a TMBG podcast, but I do share a birthday with John Flansburgh.
Seems like a LOT of Thermostat in Al's song
I just came from listening to the Weird Al interview episode (awesome) and wanted to add that the way the music in Everything You Know Is Wrong pauses for a beat before bursting into the chorus has always reminded me of Linnell’s song Maine. I don’t know if Weird Al would have had access to it at the time, but the Hello release came out in 1994, so it’s possible.
Interesting observation! I have a feeling Al probably didn't know about Maine back then, but it is a very Linnell thing to do in general.
All my life I thought the lyrics in "stuck in a closet with Vanna White" were "Nana-banana-bananas"- now, having paused this video to read the lyrics, I see that he was saying "night after night after night". Everything I know is wrong.
It's like a TMBG song but not 'everything right is wrong again' that's a VERY different tempo - and Al is blistering on his own Polka thing. TMBG is nearly a slow march with intercuts. How you missed that is beyond me. That said - making an interesting HOUR of this - pure magic!
I'm sorry, what exactly did I miss?
The part at the end of the first chorus that feels like a key change is what I'd probably call "modal mixture". Basically it's D-major but some of the chords borrow notes from the minor scale. It's a feature I assume is common in TMBG, but for me I think of the chorus and the fadeout of "Ana Ng" where the B-flat chord shows up in the context of a segment mostly in G-major, acting as a sort of "bluesy" moment.
Speaking of "Ana Ng", one of the instruments of the bridge in Weird Al's song gives me autoharp vibes, though I think it's probably a keyboard sound.
That Ana Ng B flat is a great example! I'm very familiar with that B flat!
still listening but - Albuquerque is practically a direct parody of dick's automotive by the rugburns! The song even mentions bio-dome, and the rugburns are on the soundtrack for that! everybody who likes weird al should check them out, super underrated band
Woh, interesting!
Great episode, very interesting deep dive and easy to understand
Thank you! You know, I get so lost making these I sometimes have no idea if it's easy to follow or not.
@@jordancooperlalala it was very well detailed and easy to follow as someone who isn't too musically literate. I'm a huge tmbg fan but I would have never picked up on all these details
Haha I didn't know I was signed into a different account when I replied. Yeah you know, I'm not very musically literate either, I'm all self taught and mostly go by instinct. I never wanted the podcast to be too technical with composition stuff...boring!
Great episode, loved how thorough it was. Question: where is the audio at the end of the episode from? Al covering Particle Man?
Yep! ua-cam.com/video/S2B1xztGDoY/v-deo.html
It's from a live show on The Ridiculously Self Indulgent, Ill Advised Vanity Tour. It was a tour where instead of doing all the usual parodies and costumes, he performed original songs and changed the setlist every night. One other thing he did every night was he would perform a cover song from a random artist. One of the songs he covered on that tour was Particle Man.
I was just thinking about this song and about analyzing it, you beat me to the punch, but did a better job than I think I could do on a moments notice. (Edited out some thing about going to a weird al concert)
Thank you! I was wondering why more Weird Al fans haven't done this sort of thing with his style parodies. I've always been really interested in the topic!
FWIW, your list of Weird Al style parodies was missing one: "Waffle King" is a style parody of Peter Gabriel, apparently with a little Don Henley thrown in too.
I know it is...I wasn't listing all of his parodies. I believe I only mentioned two others I was particularly a fan of? There are dozens of them.
The bridge is LITERALLY from Purple Toupee. Especially the “La la, la la la” Did y’all mention that?
Oh you did haha
Only one way to find out :)
Great podcast! Another structural reference I noticed that I believe you skipped is Everything You Know Is Wrong is sung with hardly any time to take a breath. Just try singing along to it! This is similar to some TMBG songs, such as Don't Let's Start.
Oh yes, very good point. My go-to for that would have been Nightgown of the Sullen Moon, or perhaps Dinner Bell (again.)
I am ashamed that it took me as long as it did to realize this song was a TMBG style parody. On another note:
2:23 I had no idea Biggest Ball of Twine was supposed to be a Gordon Lightfoot style parody! Next time I sing it, I'll have to use Gord's voice. That will bring it a whole new meaning to me!
It took me a long time too and that's while being obsessed with both Al and TMBG at the same time for many years. My wife was playing the Kinks "Ducks on the Wall" in the car the other day and I went "holy crap, Weird Al style parodied this!" I'm always discovering new ones.
weep day knowledge- they took mr. tambourine man and sliced it into mr. tambo and urine man