Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. XXX--They Might Be Giants: Don't Let's Start

How many song titles, do you suppose, are there that start with back to back contractions?  I spent about thirty seconds on it, and came up with zip.

Hard to believe that it's been nearly twenty years since They Might Be Giants released their debut album, entitled, surprisingly enough, They Might Be Giants.  While technically a band, the duo of  John Flansburgh (guitar) and John Linnell (vocals/multi-instruments) have been the heart and soul of They Might Be Giants.  The quirky band has had a long and fruitful career--spanning more than two decades, they won a couple of Grammy Awards, released children's albums (the Beautiful Boy loved all three of them--have to admit I kind of liked them, too), and had a few gold records along the way.  They're probably best known for their uptempo cover version of "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)" (#61--with a bullet!--on the Billboard Hot 100), and their oddball music videos.

"Don't Let's Start" was the first single ever released by TMBG--and what an auspicious start it was.  While it had no chart success (neither did the album) the music video of the song (it was #89 on MTV's Top 100 Videos of All-Time in 1999--admittedly a double edged sword award) gained TMBG a few fans who would eventually turn into a devoted following.

As for the song itself, it's filled with staccato bursts of jangly guitars, some driving drum beats, and the gutturally nasal (um, is such a vocal possible?) vocals of John Linnell.  The lyrics have been described as dark/depressing, but the band cautions reading too much into them (they claim the lyrics were often devised just to match up with the melody).  Funny thing about the melody, though--for such somber lyrics, the music sure is upbeat (as are Linnell's vocals).  To tell you the truth, this is a very hard song to pinpoint--which is probably what makes it so great.  That and a couple of my all-time favorite lines:  "No one in the world ever gets what they want/And that is beautiful/Everybody dies frustrated and sad/And that is beautiful."

I'm really not a very maudlin person, but those are just a couple of great lines in so many different ways.

I have no idea what "Deputy dog dog a ding dang depadepa" means but it ranks right up there with "Coo coo ca-choo" ("I Am the Walrus"/"Mrs. Robinson") for brilliant rock lyric gibberish.

Enjoy (actually a pretty great video, too):

Peace,
emaycee