(She Was A) Hotel Detective
From This Might Be A Wiki
Postcard advertising the song from the TMBG Info Club
| song name | (She Was A) Hotel Detective |
| artist | They Might Be Giants |
| releases | Dial-A-Song, They Might Be Giants LP Sampler, They Might Be Giants, Then: The Earlier Years, Selections From Then, Best Of The Early Years, The Music Of They Might Be Giants: 1986-2013 |
| year | 1986 |
| first played | September 13, 1985 (97 known performances) |
| run time | 2:10 |
| sung by | John Flansburgh; John Linnell and Peter Pearmain Thomson back |
Trivia/Info
- A hotel detective is a private investigator employed by a hotel to monitor security and investigate rule violations or suspicious activity. The occupation was popularized and romanticized in noir fiction by authors like Raymond Chandler in the 1940s and '50s, though it is now largely obsolete.
- John Flansburgh has mentioned that this song was initially inspired by a lyric from Grand Funk Railroad's 1973 song "We're an American Band" — "I'm feelin' good, feelin' right, it's Saturday night / The hotel detective, he was outta sight".[1] The song's title is also similar to the 1954 book I Was a Hotel Detective by Dev Collans and Stewart Sterling.
- This song features backing vocals by Peter Pearmain Thomson, a friend of the band. Producer Bill Krauss explained in a 2019 interview with the Don't Let's Start fan podcast: "He's the environment reporter for The World on NPR. He was another friend from Lincoln-Sudbury, friends with Flansburgh and Linnell. He was probably just in town and came to hang out while we were recording." Thomson is heard shouting the lyric "Forget about it!"; the rest of the backing vocals are Flansburgh and Linnell.
- The band have released two stylistically different "sequels" to this song, which continue the story of the hotel detective. "She Was A Hotel Detective" (without parentheses) was written by John Linnell and appeared on the 1994 Back To Skull EP. "(She Was A) Hotel Detective In The Future", also written by Linnell, was released in 2006 on the They Might Be Giants Podcast and later included on the 2007 compilation album Cast Your Pod To The Wind.
- This song was issued as a single in May 1988, a year and a half after the debut album's release. It served as the second single from the album, following Don't Let's Start. The single featured a new remix of the song which contains several notable differences, including an extended intro, alternate drums, and additional backing vocals.
- John Linnell joked about the song in a 1988 interview: "The record company chipped in for John's hospital bills after he injured himself recording the guitar solo on our single 'Hotel Detective'. Now that we know his blood type, it makes performing the song a little easier."
- The music video for the song was directed by Adam Bernstein and features animation by Joey Ahlbum. It was the third of seven videos that Bernstein directed for the band. According to Bernstein, the video had an overall budget of $7,500.[2] It was released in May 1988 to coincide with the single, and features the remixed single version of the song. The band discussed the video in the 2003 Direct From Brooklyn DVD commentary:
- Linnell: "This was probably the most fights that we had with the director, 'cause we had so many little [issues]. One of the things was they practically destroyed my baritone sax while we were shooting this. And we were also really picky about the way it was lit."
- Flansburgh: "The cameraman had a lot of lighting ideas that we deemed bogus, even though in retrospect it seems all perfectly appropriate. But it was definitely a tough day. The thing that made it extra tough, actually, was that we had this idea to have these ever-changing words behind us. But the rig was really badly designed by me and John Gernard, who was our old road guy. It basically involved velcro and fishing line and it really didn't work. So we just wasted a lot of the day trying to change around these elaborate sets of words, and you can't even read the words behind us. It was a total exercise in stupidness."
- In 2018, Flansburgh wrote about the guitar he used in the music video:[3]
It was one of two custom builds made for Bo Diddley by a NY luthier right as he was coming back on the scene in the early 80s. It is NOT a copy but was not made by Bo himself (as were his 60s guitars) Pick-guard was unscrewed, flipped and taped on.
It was borrowed through a collector for the shoot. Just had it for a day! What I do remember is that it was my first understanding that Gretsch guitars had been made in Brooklyn, and that the parts to the instrument were all salvaged 'new-old-stock' from that shuttered factory.
- The band have rarely performed this song live since they began playing with backing musicians. In a 1992 interview, Flansburgh explained that he felt it didn't translate well to a full-band arrangement: "Somebody was asking me earlier today, 'are there any songs you do that you're really sick of?' I think there are songs we would like to do that don't work too well, and that's a drag. I think we probably even work harder to make those songs work. We used to do the song 'Hotel Detective'. For years it was a total showstopper and people totally loved it. It just hasn't been working at all. We don't really know why."
Song Themes
Animals, Body Parts, Cartoons, Counting, Doors, Hotel Detective Series, Hotels, Insects, Intelligence, Espionage, Memory, Occupations, People (Imaginary), Plants, Presidents, Questions, Recycled Material, Screaming, Swing Feel, Telecommunication, Title Not In Lyrics
Videos
- Watch it on
(Music Video) - Watch it on
(Music video) - Watch it on (Static upload)
Current Rating You must be logged in to rate this. You can either login (if you have a userid) or create an account with us today. (She Was A) Hotel Detective is currently ranked #510 out of 1085. (223 wikians have given it an average rating of 8.22) |
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