Certain Songs

Certain Songs #2711: They Might Be Giants – “Can’t Keep Johnny Down”

October 16, 2023 by Jim Connelly

Album: Join Us
Year: 2011

. . .

When They Might Be Giants fifteenth studio album Join Us was released in 2011, it was marketed as They Might Be Giants first “rock album” in four years, because Here Come The 123s and Here Comes Science were their previous two releases, I guess.

But one thing I knew for sure, they opened it with their best song in ages, the utterly stunning “Can’t Keep Johnny Down,” showing that Johns Linnell and Flansburgh could still kick out utterly killer pop toons a quarter-century after “Don’t Let’s Start.”

Certain Songs #2710: They Might Be Giants – “Roy G. Biv”

October 14, 2023 by Jim Connelly

Album: Here Comes Science
Year: 2009

. . .

As I mentioned yesterday, I kinda lost touch with They Might Be Giants after Apollo 18, while Johns Linnell and Flansburgh kept churning out albums and EPs and singles and comps, though I probably got 1999s download-only Long Tall Weekend at some point. That said, the next time I encountered them was doing the theme song for Malcolm in The Middle, a FOX show that depicted an alternate-universe Walter White as a seemingly harried father whose secret identity as a meth kingpin was never even once mentioned.
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Certain Songs #2709: They Might Be Giants – “I Palindrome I”

October 13, 2023 by Jim Connelly

Album: Apollo 18
Year: 1992

They Might Be Giants followed Flood with a 1991 compilation of early singles, cleverly entitled Miscellaneous T, on which landed my beloved “We’re The Replacements” as well as “Don’t Lets Start,” but the rest of it left me cold, as did their next studio album 1992’s Apollo 18, for reasons that I cannot comprehend now.

Certain Songs #2708: They Might Be Giants – “We Want A Rock”

October 12, 2023 by Jim Connelly

Album: Flood
Year: 1990

. . .

While Flood didn’t chart that much higher than Lincoln — #75 to #89, with their highest-charting was 2011’s John Henry at #32 — it certainly charted harder, being one of those records that people didn’t like, they became obsessed with, playing it for their friends. I remember at least on post-Wild Blue apartment party where Flood was the over and over soundtrack, and while it might not have charted all that high, it’s legend has been passed down over the years, and it’s the only TMBG album to go platinum. Or, hell, gold for that matter. (Though I should point out that the DVDs for their children’s albums Here Come The ABCs, Here Come the 123s and Here Comes Science all went gold, so maybe that counts?)

Certain Songs #2707: They Might Be Giants – “Particle Man”

October 11, 2023 by Jim Connelly

Album: Flood
Year: 1990

. . .

Alright, I’m going to admit something. I’ve always been kinda bumped by the opening couplet from the classic Spider-Man cartoon theme song. You know the one: “Spider-Man, Spider-Man / Does whatever a spider can.” And I’m exactly sure why, but I think it comes down to the verb “does” there. It doesn’t make sense to me. The grammar is all off or something.

Certain Songs #2706: They Might Be Giants – “Birdhouse in Your Soul”

October 10, 2023 by Jim Connelly

Album: Flood
Year: 1990

. . .

After They Might Be Giants second album, 1988’s Lincoln, did better than their self-titled first — anchored by the propulsive “Ana Ng”, made it to #11 on the US Alternative charts — they took the leap to a major label, Elektra, and set about recording with hotshot English producers Clive Langer & Alan Winstanley, who had been producing records by the like of Madness, Lloyd Cole & the Commotions and Elvis Costello for over a decade.

Certain Songs #2705: They Might Be Giants – “We’re The Replacements”

October 9, 2023 by Jim Connelly

B-side, 1987

. . .

Of course, when “Don’t Let’s Start” came out as a 12″ single — a full year after They Might Be Giants came out, I should mention — it wasn’t the A side that grabbed me, but rather the lead track on the b-side, entitled “We’re The Replacements,” which — weirdly enough — was one of two songs written about The Replacements that year.

Certain Songs #2704: They Might Be Giants – “Don’t Let’s Start”

October 8, 2023 by Jim Connelly

Album: They Might Be Giants
Year: 1986

. . .

While Johns Linnell and Flansburgh started writing songs in high school in Lincoln, Massachusetts the late 1970s, they didn’t form They Might Be Giants until they both moved to Brooklyn in the early 1980s, formally adopting the name under which they’re still recording in 2023.

Prior to actually getting a record contract, they gained their earliest notoriety by recording their songs onto an answering machine — a mechanical device that hooked up into your phone line and allowed you to ask people to leave you a message instead of texting you, Zoomers — and placing an ad for their “Dial-a-Song” service, which, along with a demo, led to their self-titled 1986 debut, which immediately established their take on pop music: every possible style of music, sometimes all at once, with funny-sad lyrics, sung with exuberance and chock-full of hooks galore.

Certain Songs #2703: Them – “Here Comes The Night”

October 6, 2023 by Jim Connelly

Album: Them
Year: 1965

. . .

I was this many years old when I learned that “Here Comes The Night,” the other great song by Them, was written by producer Bert Berns and not Morrison himself. I’d just always assumed that it was. My bad.

“Here Comes The Night” has two really cool counterintuitive things going for it. First off, it leads with the chorus, featuring a stately guitar hook — supposedly played by ace session guitarist Jimmy Page — and a full blown chorus of people who may or may not be the actual members of Them singing the title a couple of times.

Certain Songs #2702: Them – “Gloria”

October 5, 2023 by Jim Connelly

Album: The Angry Young Them
Year: 1964

. . .

The first thing you should probably know about one of the greatest singalongs in music history is that it was originally a b-side.

Despite being one of Van Morrison’s — about whom a whole lot more when we get there — earliest compositions, the record company (or somebody) decided that this primal piece of rock awesomeness would be better as the b-side of their cover of “Baby Please Don’t Go.” Not that it was surprising: the earliest Stones and Kinks singles — the best comps for Them — were also covers.