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

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

9: Put Your Hand Inside The Puppet Head
1132 points, 15 votes, 1 #1

on the 1985 cassette as (Put Your Hand Inside The) Puppet Head - replaced on the 1993 reissue

re-recorded for The Pink Album, 1986 - not a single, but their first video, filmed by Adam Bernstein of Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, Bored To Death, Baby Got Back, Beastie Boys, Black Steel In The Hour of Chaos and B-52s fame. Also won an Emmy for 30 Rock.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nb4Lcw3rtsE

an earlier (Put Your Hand Inside The) demo is in the first 2 minutes here

What a melody line on this song

if the puh puh puppet HEAD
was only buh buh busted IN

Puppet Head was my #2, and jumped way up as I was considering songs. Is it weird that it sort of reminds me of Bad Brains? Imagine HR screaming this at you, it sort of works.

Pretty big points jump between #10 and #9 and 15/20 voters too. I wonder if the canonical favorites will have the full 20 votes, hard to imagine anyone not voting for some of the songs yet to come.

8: Purple Toupee
1204 points, 16 votes

abandoned single from Lincoln LP, 1988. Their fifth Adam Bernstein video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EuYh3KFJwA

I was the guy who voted Puppet Head #1. At the end of the day it was just about which song I've played the most, and iTunes says its this one. Also I think "the check's in the mail, and I'll see you in church, and don't you ever change" is an all-time great pop moment

purple toupee rules, surprised to see it so high but not complaining. one of the better boomer satires in capturing a dull-witted bystander who actually didn't grasp anything at all that was happening and whose attempt at a generational anthem ends up being garbled nonsense about toupees. "we're on some kind of mission" is as anthemic as he can muster. and another beautifully-assembled musical performance, so so precise and aggressive. that's all i can think of but i'm sure there's something else.

nice

"heard about some lady named Selma and some blacks"

great song

Really like Purple Toupee but didn't really imagine it getting to top 10. Had it around the middle of my ballot but I hadn't been thinking about the amazing transition into the "We're on some kind of mission" ending and I should have placed it higher.

7: Where Your Eyes Don't Go
1205 points, 17 votes

on Lincoln LP, 1988
live on MTV c. 1989

an unassailable masterpiece, 1 spot too low according to my ballot.

possibly the cleverest chord progression in a discography overstuffed with those

6: We Want A Rock
1282 points, 16 votes, 1 #1

from Flood LP, 1990

Yesssss

WYEDG is one of my "had no idea this was so widely-agreed-upon-as-classic" tracks. it's great obv.

omg I lovvvvve "we want a rock."

top 5 spec:

5. hotel detective
4. don't let's start
3. wildcard album track i never thought would place this high
2. ana ng
1. birdhouse in your soul

oh wait she's an angel will be #3

wow very surprised we want a rock is so high. i guess everybody really does want prosthetic foreheads on their real heads.

has They'll Need A Crane placed yet? I would have also expected Hearing Aid, Sapphire Bullets of Pure Love, You'll Miss Me and a few others to be somewhere in the top 77 before we started (unless some of these have placed and I missed them?)

5. hotel detective

which one?

i hope "stand on your own head" makes it

oh shit, crane totally a lock. so one of mine is DOA? or did one place and i missed it? i def don't need to see hotel detective (the beloved tmbg classic not the forgotten b-side) place anywhere but it'd be WEIRD for it to not even make top 77.

outside of the top 5 I find the rest of these results totally baffling tbh

just wait til it turns out the top five is actually "spy," "absolutely bill's mood," "space suit," "toddler hiway" and at #1, "birds fly."

I remember long ago mentioning to someone I had this CD and they said "you have to burn me a copy, I need to get that 'everyone wants a rock to wind the piece of string around' song, it's been stuck in my head for years"

Come on guys it's 100% Ana Ng, She's an Angel, They'll Need a Crane, Birdhouse in Your Soul, Don't Let's Start, in some order.

duh

#6 through #10 is entirely populated by tracks I never would have predicted in top 10 (except maybe "Puppet Head") but I'm reasonably happy with all of them. They were all on my ballot except "Dead", though none higher than #34 ("Purple Toupee"). "Where Your Eyes Don't Go" I rated way too low, in retrospect.

Each of the Hotel Detectives got the exact same number of points from the exact same number of votes.