YOUTH CULTURE POLLED MY DOG: They Might Be Giants (first 21 years) POLL RESULTS

Five of my top 10 have placed, 2 more definitely will, doesn't seem inconceivable that all 10 will.

Agreed, eephus. I think I have a higher tolerance for overexposure than most people, so that didn't bother me when putting together my ballot.

i love the weird, unannotated moral universe or mythology "particle man" presents. there are four archetypes. triangle man hates and defeats two of the others. universe man is "usually" kind to, we assume, all of them, but also seems to be an arbiter of time/fate (i remember one fan interp that held that his "watch" represented nuclear war). of triangle's two foes, particle seems to have it better than person, but we don't really know because particle man is defined mainly by unknowability. it's like a garbled, broken version of rock-paper-scissors with all these other signifiers floating unexplained, a puzzle with no answer, a fable from another dimension that we can't comprehend because none of the allegorical figures scan for us. and just goofy enough that a warner bros cartoon makes perfect sense: coyote trying to kill roadrunner seems about as fundamental and just-so-story as "triangle man hates person man."

When he's underwater does he get wet?
Or does the water get him instead?

^^ fundamental philosophical question right there

that opening line is an all-timer: "There were 87 Advil in the bottle, now there's 30 left/I ate 47 so what happened to the other 10?"

I remember someone suggesting that this might be (part of) the inspiration for Particle Man: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatland

i remember that take too! it's a good one... one, two, three dimensions, with universe man perhaps encompassing all?

good lord too low for I've Got A Match

most straightforward/plausible explanation for "particle man" imo is that they were doing a sort of dream-logic surrealist version of a kids' tv show theme a la "spider-man," iow what would this sound like if the person in charge of describing this fight-packed super show's empty-vessel characters kept wandering off onto tangents prompted by the material (what's he like, is he a dot, who came up with this?). a bit like the orson welles "frozen peas" tape, but gentler and more philosophical.

(in this light, universe man's watch is just some dumb action accessory they want to sell toys of, so that's definitely in the script)

14: Nightgown Of The Sullen Moon
934 points, 12 votes

b-side to They'll Need A Crane, 1989

Should have been top 10! I think this may be my favorite TMBG song musically. I only voted it at #3 due to lyrics but still it's totally insane that they threw this off as a B-side.

13: Doctor Worm
971 points, 12 votes, 1 #1

single, 1998:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbmtni4q2_o

Dial-A-Song with QuickCam video, 1997
live on Penn & Teller's Sin City Spectacular c. 1999
Ka-Blam! video with worm by Kaz, 1999

14: Nightgown Of The Sullen Moon
934 points, 12 votes

WOW. Of the ones in my top 10, this was one of two I kind of thought wasn't gonna place. One thing I'm learning from this poll is that maybe the B-sides / deep cuts I think of myself as idiosyncratically loving are in fact the same ones everyone loves.

It was one of my top 5 that I was 99% sure was going to place!

Meanwhile I’m surprised to see ‘Doctor Worm’ so high but I got no beef with it

12: Kiss Me, Son Of God
994 points, 13 votes, 2 #1s

live on WFMU, 1987
b-side on Hotel Detective EP, 1988 (one voter specified this version)
re-recorded with The Ordinaires backing for Lincoln LP, 1988
covered by Frank Bennett, 1998

I must have been a frightfully serious young adult by the time Dr Worm was released as I think its perceived childishness (not sure how I gauged this) extinguished my residual enthusiasm for TMBG, after a decade. It didn't help that JJJ put it on high rotation. Today I'm totally digging the horns and the "tell me if you think I'm getting better..." section.

XP: yay for #12!

"Nightgown" was my #1, "Doctor Worm" my #15, and I'm on my way out the door so I'll have to save my gushing for later...

Spotify's recommended playlist additions are amusing. Their algorithm must have very nearly nailed the top 10!

Kiss Me, Son Of God was my number one—was always a favorite, mainly for the quartet arrangement, but given current events, I really couldn’t pick anything else

it came WAY up from where I might have had it otherwise due to current events

11: Twisting
1014 points, 14 votes

on Flood LP, 1990
Dial-A-Song c. 1989, with unfinished lyrics

Did others also seek out the Young Fresh Fellows and dBs as a result of "Twisting"?

Yep. And as I mentioned in the other thread "XTC vs Adam Ant" prompted me to check out those two bands

"Kiss Me Son of God" didn't make my ballot but the lyrics are great

OTOH, I didn't know the Replacements were an actual band for years!

Re: YFF and dB's: Speaking personally, no.

10: Dead
1026 points, 12 votes

on Flood LP, 1990
covered by Steve Burns c. 2006

What the hell, I forgot to vote for "Twisting"!!! But now I'm glad I did because as much as I like it, I like "Dead" even better and I prefer this order....!

are ppl around for a power through the top ten, or should we hold off?

I'm around

And I'm pretty busy tomorrow so I vote yes

I guess most of America's carving pumpkins and Australia's at the beach

Oh god "Dead" speaks close to me and pops into my head at appropriate times

"doctor worm" and "nightgown" is actually a fun pairing in a way - linnell's most sympathetic "deluded narrator" song, and his giddiest new-love song. "doctor worm" today strikes me as a kind of answer song to "deacon blues" - another guy of limited talent, musical aspirations, and the hope that someday somebody else besides him will call him by his stage name. for fagen/becker this is a sneering satire, partially of themselves, with notes of sympathy creeping around the edges of the takedown. doctor worm's heart is on his sleeve, the johns root for him, and he's having fun even in his worm's-life obscurity: he likes to play the drums. and he has a friend with him. a portrait of the johns, ten or twelve years earlier, making a racket in their apartment for themselves and for whatever randos might call their answering machine. good morning, how are you, you've reached dial-a-song.

"nightgown of the sullen moon" is still as fresh and sweet and mindblowing as it was the first time i heard it. what a perfect evocation of the heart-exploding rush of love. beautifully rendered in the second person so that as we age we can relate as much to the kind singer as we once did to the starry-eyed protagonist (i believe it was tom ewing who made this observation about "dancing queen" and it obtains here, though without the brush of sadness or envy). even more than "she's an angel," when i hear this i rememeber what it *felt* like to be 16 and hear this song and believe in these feelings.

and that bouyant, insistent but bright and bouncy backing track lifting everything forward, the phasing/flanging effect lending a shimmery wobble to the computerized, jittery ride on the clouds. i've listened to it four times in a row writing this and it doesn't get old.

like the police's great "moon" song, and mrs. dalloway's breathless repetition to herself "she is under his roof!", it's set in the time before and after time spent with the person of one's dreams. you fall in the door, the moonlight leans in through the windows, you are giddy and no one else with their drug-trip metaphors could understand. your head is on the moon. it's not necessary to breathe. forever is a long time. your head is on the moon.

and i selfishly vote for slow, meandering trip through the top ten - gonna be busy with halloween stuff today n tomorrow. but it's always best decided by what's most fun for the poll runner cause you're putting in the work!

To ask a naive question, what is the origin of "Doctor Worm" being such a canonical TMBG track? Is it just because they always play it in concert? It doesn't appear on a proper album ever, right?

this poll shows that being on a studio album with a label's promo budget isn't a requirement for canonicity!

I dare say it's just been a perennial because it bangs. It was a commercial single in the UK, and I assume it was a "college radio" "airplay hit" in America? The listeners of the national youth radio network in Australia voted it the 13th best song of 1998, though it took them three years to tour afterwards.

(I'll hold off on the top nine until Monday US time.)

I don't think "Dr. Worm" is popular because they play it a lot - the band probably noticed that people responded well and starting playing it a lot and it's a reinforcing cycle. It's one of their best live songs, certainly. They are a band as defined by their live shows as their albums, if not more, so any song has the chance to become popular with fans in that way. "Why Does the Sun Shine?" is another of these

I didn't have satellite tv at this point, but I was informed from a friend that Dr Worm got a degree of traction in the UK/Europe upon release, even if it never became a 'proper' hit. It deserved to be hit #2 moreso than Boss Of Me by some margin.

"Why Does the Sun Shine?" is another of these

which they played live for twenty-two years before putting it on a “proper album”. There’s still hope for Doctor Worm!

Glad I wasnt the only one who voted "til my head falls off" at #1 :)

Its basically "lie still little bottle" on steroids!

Dr Worm video was showing at MOMA in S.F. when I was there like 15 years ago. Still can't work out why that was but nevertheless it's a cool and charming video. None of my children ever responded to the actual TMBG children's albums but both love Dr Worm after watching it on youtube.

Well this is a coincidence: I listened to Flood for the first time this week and now I discover TMBG is being polled on ILM! Anyways, love the album, glad to see it's doing well here, and I'm hoping We Want a Rock places before the poll ends

Also hoping Ana Ng is #1 because that song is perfect

Just realised now I didnt think to include "youre on fire" which isone of the only newer singles I know.

Though I did watch that odd little one with Nick Offerman being voodoo doll stabbed recently, it was... interesting.

Actually, I voted for "We Want A Rock", come to think of it. There are way more than 9 more tracks I'd have guessed would rank higher than 78th. Only maybe six of them feel like certain top ten material to me. (Though I certainly don't have my finger on the pulse of fan sentiment.)

it occurs to me now that the show I saw last week did not include "Ana Ng" "Don't Let's Start" OR "Istanbul"

holy shit, wait ... yes, they did play "Istanbul" (I forgot) and apparently "Don't Let's Start" which I don't remember at all. i must've dozed through it? (i was very, very, very tired and, yes, dozed off a couple times in the second set.)

^ not dancing hard enough

Just realised now I didnt think to include "youre on fire" which isone of the only newer singles I know.

don't worry, it came out 11 years after this poll