'85 Radio Special Thank You

From This Might Be A Wiki

song name '85 Radio Special Thank You
artist They Might Be Giants
releases Then: The Earlier Years
year 1985 (recorded)/1997 (released)
run time 1:25
sung by John Flansburgh


Trivia/Info

Another example of something we put together unsolicited. Basically, we made a tape and sent it out to radio stations as a promotional device for ourselves. We thought that instead of sending college radio a tape of ours songs, which we were sure they'd never play, we'd actually send them a piece of programming. We created this fifteen minute radio show with crazy interviews and spoken word things. the two minute version (on the box) is the most interesting part of the recording.
  • Regarding the promotional nature of the track, Flansburgh stated, "We made a cassette that was sent essentially unsolicited to a few dozen radio stations that were already friendly to TMBG. Some DJs did play it, but probably in the middle of the night on a 10 watt station..."[1]
  • The band achieved the weird effect on the track by raising and lowering the pitch really fast. This involved turning the tape reels by hand, thereby drawing tape across the heads at an uneven speed, or by turning the pitch modulation wheel on a 4 track cassette recorder around.
  • 20 seconds of silence are appended to the end of the track on the 2013 Australian reissue of the Pink Album. This may be an effort to make Untitled, which follows it, a hidden bonus track.

Song Themes

Altered Voice, Dial-A-Song Reference, Gratitude, Oxymorons, Paradoxes, And Contradictory Statements, Radio Promos, References To Other Songs Or Musicians, School, Space, Spoken Word

Videos

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'85 Radio Special Thank You is currently ranked #696 out of 1009. (28 wikians have given it an average rating of 7.77)