AKA Driver

From This Might Be A Wiki

song name	AKA Driver
artist	They Might Be Giants
album	John Henry, AKA Driver (Promo)
year	1994
first played	Sep. 14, 1993 (69 known performances)
run time	3:14
sung by	John Flansburgh; John Linnell harmonizes during chorus

Originally titled "NyQuil Driver", but TMBG changed the title because NyQuil is a registered trademark name. The lyrics were also not printed in the liner notes. According to the tmbg.com archives - "It was an brief education for us in the difference between protected speech and trademark infringement. Although it was a possibility that we could have gotten away with it, or settled with the Nyquil manufacturers for a small amount of money, the path of least hassle was simply omitting the name from the package. According to our lawyer you can say pretty much anything in a song about a product, and that expression is a protected part of every American's freedom of speech. However when you title a song after a trademarked product and then start selling your recording (which is also a product) you run the risk of the trademark holder suing you for infringing on their trademark. To make matters tougher on ol' Nyquil Driver, trademark holders are compelled by the law to protect their trademark or they run the risk of their product name falling into the public domain." - John Flansburgh
This song was a collaboration between the Johns, Tony Maimone, and Brian Doherty

Current Rating

AKA Driver is currently ranked #82 out of 805. (139 wikians have given it an average rating of 8.96)