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

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.

i guess overexposure is why i didn't vote for birdhouse even higher, it really is a tiny, tight little rube goldberg machine of hooks, both lyrical and instrumental

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.

o rly

2: Don't Let's Start
1677 points, 19 votes

1987 single remixed from The Pink Album; their second Adam Bernstein collab
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJQnZZ-Wmao

early, short version from the 1985 cassette, later unedited on Then

live on MTV 1988, following Shoehorn With Teeth:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxniOZvNDUU

1: Ana Ng
1786 points, 20 votes, 3 #1s

single from Lincoln LP 1988; their fourth Adam Bernstein vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7Mw1CQR1Pc

Dial-A-Song c. 1988
live version from Live!! New York City 10/14/94 )with bridge overdubbed for STD 1998)
live from At Large album, 2011

had no idea there was a video for Crane

the bridge makes the song imo

0 #1 votes for "Don't Let's Start" is a little surprising though in a poll with so few entries anomalies like that are expected. It was my #4.

Ana Ng is the correct answer, I think. It's not my personal favorite (tho it's close), but it's songwriting of the highest level and the bolero-like rhythm makes it unlike anything else they've done.

#2 and #1 are my #2 and #1 and two of the songs that mean the most to me in my life, not sure what more I can say.

The highest placing post-"Flood" song being at #17 is harsh but fair.

yea so many great things about that song. personally my favorite is the backing vocals on the chorus...the "Listen Ann" part

also love the opening lines, perhaps the most convoluted way to say "this is about a girl on the other side of the world" possible

Except maybe thanks to the somewhat conservative guy in my high school who sometimes wore a tie to school and in some ways got on my nerves but one day correctly intuited that I needed to hear what was playing on his walkman which was "ana ng," four minutes later I was the man you see before you today

Listen Ana hear my words
They're the ones you would think I would say if there was a me for you

great #1. there is no better encapsulation in their catalog of what makes them unique and special: intense and clever wordiness that does not crowd out real feeling (anguish, loneliness, longing for connection, awareness of the desperation of the hail-mary gamble while still making it, how strange it is to believe that there's someone out there for you while also having full knowledge of how large the world is)....... and that incredible shift from the abstraction-of-a-rock-band starkness of the verse to the absolute explosion of MIDI glory that comes pouring out with the arrival of the chorus. and then back AGAIN to the stop-start just a few seconds later for "walked in the glow of each other's majestic presence." and then you get to go on the ride AGAIN with "listen ana..." it's like a whirlpool, and it never ends.

also typically, one of the best turns of phrase isn't one of the showingly clever ones, just a wonderfully non-cliched way of saying something. "and in back of the edge of hearing, these are the words that the voice was repeating."

I didn't submit a ballot, but thanks to all who did and sic for compiling and posting links. I listened to every song in the list. Lincoln & Flood were big in my college radio days but then I forgot all about them until the mickey mouse clubhouse and here come the ABCs came along with my kids, who loved them. So we went to see them on the current tour (kids now in high school) and it was amazing! Got a signed copy of the new one "I like fun" at the show and it's great too! I think 2 or 3 songs off of it wouldn't be out of place in the top ten here had they been released in the 90s.

yea if indeed a 2002-present poll is done I think that one would be more interesting - I have no idea what the top 5 would look like.

Aaah okay, "Where Your Eyes Don't Go" was one was wasn't sure about placing. Its greatness always seemed self-evident, but don't recall anyone ever mentioning it. (Again likely a result of my fandom peaking in more isolated pre-internet days.) Seems I voted for most of the top ten then.

for fun, here's the list according to voters on the TMBG wiki: http://tmbw.net/wiki/Special:Ratings

And here's the list of their most-played songs in concert: https://www.setlist.fm/stats/they-might-be-giants-3bd6a404.html

This is the lowest rated TMBG song on that list ahahahahaha

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnXeuc_XMA4

smh at "Dog Walker" being at 845th place. if Ween recorded that for Pure Guava everyone would say it was genius

This is the lowest rated TMBG song on that list ahahahahaha

it's also the 7th-lowest rated song tbf

I avoided listening to "Ana Ng" until now. Still great innit. I think somewhere around "Who was at the DuPont pavilion? Why was the bench still warm? Who had been there?" was where tween me mumbled "Who the hell is this? I want this record" or similar.

So Ana Ng is the *only* song we all voted for? Interesting.

(a canonical I skipped was "boss of me" bcs I'm fricking sick of it).

boss of me was never getting within a mile of my 99-track ballot

"boss of me" is work for hire as far as i'm concerned

let's do ween next

Weeny W. Weengarten

this is the 92nd poll and there are another 65 in the queue already but if Weeny wants to run it he can add his name to the list

The highest rated track I did not vote for was “Dead”. My two top 10 tracks to miss the top 78 were “Certain People I Could Name” and “Mrs. Train”

Here are the next 77:

78 AKA Driver 324 points, 8 votes
79 Stand on Your Own Head 308 points, 7 votes
80 Thermostat 305 points, 5 votes
81 She Was A Hotel Detective 305 points, 5 votes
82 (She Was A) Hotel Detective 305 points, 5 votes
83 Hope That I Get Old Before I Die 301 points, 5 votes
84 Exquisite Dead Guy 300 points, 7 votes
85 Unsupervised, I Hit My Head 295 points, 5 votes
86 The Guitar (The Lion Sleeps Tonight) 277 points, 5 votes
87 Hopeless Bleak Despair 276 points, 4 votes
88 Dig My Grave 272 points, 5 votes
89 Pet Name 266 points, 6 votes
90 Certain People I Could Name 264 points, 4 votes
91 I Am Not Your Broom 260 points, 3 votes
92 Alienation's For The Rich 258 points, 6 votes
93 The Songs of the 50 States 257 points, 4 votes
94 Mrs Train 257 points, 5 votes
95 The Edison Museum 252 points, 4 votes
96 I Can Hear You 252 points, 5 votes
97 Your Own Worst Enemy 249 points, 4 votes
98 We're The Replacements 247 points, 6 votes
99 She's Actual Size 245 points, 5 votes
100 Now That I Have Everything 244 points, 4 votes
101 Hearing Aid 244 points, 5 votes
102 O, Do Not Forsake Me 243 points, 6 votes
103 Working Undercover For The Man 235 points, 4 votes
104 The Biggest One 235 points, 5 votes
105 Sapphire Bullets Of Pure Love 229 points, 3 votes
106 First Kiss 222 points, 2 votes for First Kiss, 2 for Another First Kiss
107 Theme From Flood 217 points, 5 votes
108 When It Rains it Snows 215 points, 4 votes
109 (She Thinks She's) Edith Head 214 points, 5 votes
110 The Big Big Whoredom 213 points, 5 votes
111 Space Suit 212 points, 4 votes
112 Become A Robot 212 points, 5 votes
113 Why Must I Be Sad? 210 points, 5 votes
114 Violin 205 points, 3 votes
115 Unrelated Thing 201 points, 4 votes
116 Out Of Jail 201 points, 5 votes
117 Where Do They Make Balloons? 200 points, 3 votes
118 Spy 200 points, 4 votes, inc one specifying the Why Does the Sun Shine? EP version
119 Lie Still, Little Bottle 200 points, 4 votes
120 Rabid Child 198 points, 4 votes
121 Cage & Aquarium 196 points, 5 votes
122 Hypnotist Of Ladies 191 points, 4 votes
123 Hovering Sombrero 189 points, 4 votes
124 Robot Parade 188 points, 3 votes, inc. one for "rock version"
125 My Man 178 points, 2 votes
126 Hot Cha 170 points, 3 votes
127 Montana 167 points, 2 votes
128 Mr. Klaw 163 points, 2 votes
129 Welcome To The Jungle 162 points, 3 votes
130 The Day 157 points, 3 votes
131 Nixon's The One 156 points, 2 votes
132 Spider 155 points, 3 votes
133 I’m Def 155 points, 3 votes
134 Thunderbird 152 points, 2 votes
135 Mink Car 148 points, 3 votes
136 Maine 147 points, 3 votes
137 I'll Sink Manhattan 147 points, 3 votes
138 Hall Of Heads 147 points, 5 votes
139 I've Got a Match 145 points, 3 votes
140 I Hope That I Get Old Before I Die 140 points, 4 votes
141 Chess Piece Face 139 points, 3 votes
142 Sleepwalkers 137 points, 2 votes
143 Rest Awhile 137 points, 3 votes
144 You'll Miss Me 134 points, 2 votes
145 Absolutely Bill's Mood 134 points, 4 votes
146 It’s Not My Birthday 129 points, 2 votes
147 Cyclops Rock 124 points, 5 votes
148 Finished With Lies 119 points, 3 votes
149 Bed Bed Bed 117 points, 2 votes
150 Iowa 116 points, 2 votes
151 I Am A Human Head 115 points, 2 votes
152 S-E-X-X-Y 113 points, 2 votes
153 Pennsylvania 105 points, 2 votes
154 Drink! 104 points, 2 votes

What's up with It's Not My Birthday at 146 when it was also at #33 with 630 points?

ah dammit, that'll be apostrophes again

also I forgot to put the equalses so I've redone the list and will have that deleted

It's nuts how 100-150 all still basically get me nodding my head saying "yeah, great song"

ah dammit, that'll be apostrophes again

after recount with apostrophes merged new #1 is "I'm Def"

It's Not My Birthday is now 22a

the hopefully-correct next 77 now neatly covers everything that could have been somebody's #1

78 We're The Replacements 344 points, 8 votes
79 AKA Driver 324 points, 8 votes
80 Stand on Your Own Head 308 points, 7 votes
81= Thermostat 305 points, 5 votes
81= She Was A Hotel Detective 305 points, 5 votes
81= (She Was A) Hotel Detective 305 points, 5 votes
84 Hope That I Get Old Before I Die 301 points, 5 votes
85 Exquisite Dead Guy 300 points, 7 votes
86 Unsupervised, I Hit My Head 295 points, 5 votes
87 The Guitar (The Lion Sleeps Tonight) 277 points, 5 votes
88 Hopeless Bleak Despair 276 points, 4 votes
89 Dig My Grave 272 points, 5 votes
90 Pet Name 266 points, 6 votes
91 Certain People I Could Name 264 points, 4 votes
92 I Am Not Your Broom 260 points, 3 votes
93 Alienation's For The Rich 258 points, 6 votes
94= The Songs of the 50 States 257 points, 4 votes
94= Mrs Train 257 points, 5 votes
96= The Edison Museum 252 points, 4 votes
96= I Can Hear You 252 points, 5 votes
98 Your Own Worst Enemy 249 points, 4 votes
99 She's Actual Size 245 points, 5 votes
100= Now That I Have Everything 244 points, 4 votes
100= Hearing Aid 244 points, 5 votes
102 O, Do Not Forsake Me 243 points, 6 votes
103= Working Undercover For The Man 235 points, 4 votes
103= The Biggest One 235 points, 5 votes
105 Sapphire Bullets Of Pure Love 229 points, 3 votes
106 First Kiss 222 points, 2 votes for First Kiss, 2 for Another First Kiss
107 Theme From Flood 217 points, 5 votes
108 When It Rains it Snows 215 points, 4 votes
109 (She Thinks She's) Edith Head 214 points, 5 votes
110 The Big Big Whoredom 213 points, 5 votes
111= Space Suit 212 points, 4 votes
111= Become A Robot 212 points, 5 votes
113 Why Must I Be Sad? 210 points, 5 votes
114 Violin 205 points, 3 votes
115= Unrelated Thing 201 points, 4 votes
115= Out Of Jail 201 points, 5 votes
117= Where Do They Make Balloons? 200 points, 3 votes
117= Spy 200 points, 4 votes, inc one specifying the Why Does the Sun Shine? EP version
117= Lie Still, Little Bottle 200 points, 4 votes
120 Rabid Child 198 points, 4 votes
121 Cage & Aquarium 196 points, 5 votes
122 Hypnotist Of Ladies 191 points, 4 votes
123 Hovering Sombrero 189 points, 4 votes
124 Robot Parade 188 points, 3 votes, inc. one for "rock version"
125 My Man 178 points, 2 votes
126 Hot Cha 170 points, 3 votes
127 Montana 167 points, 2 votes
128 Mr. Klaw 163 points, 2 votes
129 Welcome To The Jungle 162 points, 3 votes
130 The Day 157 points, 3 votes
131 Nixon's The One 156 points, 2 votes
132= Spider 155 points, 3 votes
132= I’m Def 155 points, 3 votes
134 Thunderbird 152 points, 2 votes
135 Mink Car 148 points, 3 votes
136= Maine 147 points, 3 votes
136= I'll Sink Manhattan 147 points, 3 votes
136= Hall Of Heads 147 points, 5 votes
139 I Hope That I Get Old Before I Die 140 points, 4 votes
140 Chess Piece Face 139 points, 3 votes
141= Sleepwalkers 137 points, 2 votes
141= Rest Awhile 137 points, 3 votes
143= You'll Miss Me 134 points, 2 votes
143= Absolutely Bill's Mood 134 points, 4 votes
145 Cyclops Rock 124 points, 5 votes
146 Finished With Lies 119 points, 3 votes
147 Bed Bed Bed 117 points, 2 votes
148 Iowa 116 points, 2 votes
149 I Am A Human Head 115 points, 2 votes
150 S-E-X-X-Y 113 points, 2 votes
151 Pennsylvania 105 points, 2 votes
152 Drink! 104 points, 2 votes
153 Window 101 points, 2 votes
154 Wicked Little Critta 100 points, 2 votes

Highest ranker I didn't vote for is "Where Your Eyes Don't Go." Highest on my ballot that didn't place is "Montana" (my #8.)

i considered voting for "i'm def," for some reason it really tickled me back then

wonder how many of those voting for the pastichey b-side hotel detective meant to vote for the honking o.g. great results anyway. love how many votes some of these deep deep cuts got.

thunderbird, out of jail, sapphire bullets and i'll sink manhattan were ROBBED tho