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

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.

(in a three-way tie with Hope That I Get Old Before I Die!)

And, sure, it's a predictable top 5, but that's because they all genuinely deserve it.

otm

I'm confused because Ana Ng, Angel, Hotel Detective, Crane, Birdhouse, and DLS are all "impossible to imagine not placing" candidates for me but I guess I'm most likely to be wrong about "Hotel Detective"? I assumed "We Want a Rock," my #7 and my #2 on Flood (to "Dead") was out of it for this very reason.

I guess I'm most likely to be wrong about "Hotel Detective"?

which one?

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?)

even if you had voted three times and put each of these at #1, none of them would have made it to the top 77 (Hearing Aid would have been #78. Only two people voted for You'll Miss Me.)

"You'll Miss Me" is absolute garbage, don't @ me.

Ana Ng, She's an Angel, They'll Need a Crane, Birdhouse in Your Soul, Don't Let's Start

Crane is a good song, but it's a distant fifth in this group. I'd put Palindrome, Statue or Spiralling Shape in there ahead of it.

For me, two of these five tower far above the other three, but I will wait until the results are out to reveal whether you guys picked the right ones.

which one?

From the pink album. Pretty shocked it didn't place. One thing that's going on, I think, is that what's great about it is really not as specifically TMBG as what's great about She's an Angel or Don't Let's Start. If you push me I can sort of imagine Was (Not Was) recording it (to re-up a comparison I think Doc Casino made somewhere upthread.)

soref, sapphires is gonna be my highest ranking song not to place. i think it's gorgeous, but i understand if it's a bit less lyrical or manic than what people want or expect from tmbg

I think if you had asked me to guess what would be top 5 I'd have been close to right and if you'd asked me to guess 6-10 I would have been utterly wrong. (e.g. I certainly would have put "Istanbul" and "Particle Man" in 6-10.)

I don't know what I'm going to do for display names after today, but I've been saving this one for two months until we hit the top 5

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 actually really dig all of these except maybe "spy" and voted for none of them which just shows you how damn deep the catalog is

(fact check: no wait, in fact "absolutely bill's mood" and "space suit" were the very last two on my ballot!)

5: She's An Angel
1426 points, 17 votes, 2 #1s

from The Pink Album, 1986
live version on Live!! New York City 10/14/94 and Severe Tire Damage

^ TOO LOW

This was my #1. This has been my favorite TMBG song, and arguably my favorite any song, for 20+ years now.

"they don't happen at ah-ah-all, in fact" one of the sweetest saddest lines i've ever encountered anywhere

Sweet point jump too.

"The secretary says he's on another line, can I hold for a long, long time" is a lyrical precursor to "Whistling In the Dark" and "Someone Keeps Moving My Chair" I realize now

just realized 9 of the top 10 are sung by Linnell

whoever above said that "puppet head" is a spectacular melody, true but i feel that twice as much about "she's an angel"

yeah if you plunk the melody for she's an angel on the piano, it sounds like Bach

don't really have the musical vocabulary to describe this but the way the words are placed not where you'd expect them vis-a-vis the beat on "why did they send her over anyone else how should i react these things happen" is also insanely A+, in conclusion, i placed this too low

p sure i first saw "Puppet Head" video when they were on The Joe Franklin Show

4: They'll Need A Crane
1524 points, 18 votes

1989 single from Lincoln LP, 1988. Their sixth Adam Bernstein video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yl7f6T4L2IA

making their network TV on Letterman 1989, backed by Paul Shaffer and the World's Most Dangerous Band:

John Linnell is the greatest songwriter of the past 40 years.

And this was my #2. My favorite lyrics of any TMBG song and the bridge is my favorite TMBG moment.

wow at point jump. this one is below the rest for me because of "where all the other nighmare people like to go, i mean nice people" gag -- it just feels too strained to me, unlike so many of their little verbal moves which just fall so naturally into place, like, well, "call off the wedding band, nobody wants to hear that one again, that one again," which is about as perfect as they get, in conclusion "they'll need a crane" is a land of contrasts and out of the top 4 we correctly chose which one should be #4

3: Birdhouse In Your Soul
1537 points, 17 votes, 1 #1

single from Flood, 1990. their seventh Adam Bernstein joint:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Am-BF7ObCI

early Dial-A-Song version, 1989

live on The Tonight Show 1990, backed by the big band:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zkRjrGmTl4

"You'll Miss Me" is absolute garbage, don't @ me.

I don't like it either but the version that appeared on their first flexidisc single is really intriguing and weird. Flans sings it like he's either trying to be "cool" or not wake the neighbors. Way different than the version that wound up on Lincoln

just realized 9 of the top 10 are sung by Linnell

"Puppet Head" was written by him, though Flans wrote the lyrics. Was always puzzled how Flansburgh could've written a song like that. I like him a lot, but man Linnell is just in a league of his own

This song always makes me ask: how can I sing like Linnell?

Linnell is just in a league of his own

one of my minor disappointments with this poll is that while lots of my personal faves turn out to be really popular, the majestic genius of "State Songs" remains underappreciated

crane at 18 votes, pretty undeniable. what can even be said about either it or "angel." goddamn what amazing songs, about such distant ends of the love/relationship experience.

birdhouse is TOO LOW. surely one of the greatest singles of 1989 by anybody in any genre. so startling and so affecting even on the thousandth listen. the unrequited decency of a night light "who watches over you," which could SO easily tip into pathetic nice-guy-ism. if there's any flaw it's the throwaway quality of the "longines symphonette" line which doesn't really contribute anything and points away to an obscure reference for no real reason. but everything else is perfect.

this one is below the rest for me because of "where all the other nighmare people like to go, i mean nice people" gag -- it just feels too strained to me, unlike so many of their little verbal moves which just fall so naturally into place

I like the whole 'don't call me at work again oh no the boss still hates me' bit, it's perfect imo

nightmare people kind of reminds me of the ugliness men from Someone Keeps Moving My Chair

for me the big hook in Birdhouse is that "who WATCHES OVER YOU" in the chorus, it fits so well despite being kind of out of place. like it was beamed in from another song.

as for "She's an Angel"...its probably the one I've been obsessed with for the longest time. the way it explodes from this intentionally droll verse to this profound and beautiful chorus (both of them, in fact) is really something. sadly they have never once played it when I've seen them, I always wondered how Linnell manages to sing it without running out of air.

i said where your eyes don't go has the cleverest chord progression, but you know, it's probably birdhouse. how both "i'm your only friend" section are in different keys from each other and different keys from the rest of the song but resolve in the same way, but the first time it goes into the chorus and the second time it goes into the verse. it's genius. my #4.

crane was my#2--just so crushingly sad, yet so fun to sing.

honestly my favorite part of "birdhouse" isn't a lyric at all, it's the insistent little keyboard line that transits from the opening "i'm your only friend" to the main part of the song, right as the drums come in.

for me the big hook in Birdhouse is that "who WATCHES OVER YOU" in the chorus, it fits so well despite being kind of out of place. like it was beamed in from another song.

haha yeah the first dozen or so times i heard the song, i thought the line ended with a question mark ("WHO WATCHES OVER YOU???").

I'm honestly a little surprised that 3 people didn't vote for Birdhouse at all. I'm a bit sick of it myself, and I consider it clearly the weakest of these 5 consensus top songs but not voting for it at all just seems wrong.