Dig My Grave
From This Might Be A Wiki
| song name | Dig My Grave |
| artist | They Might Be Giants |
| releases | Apollo 18, TMBG Clock Radio, Flood + Apollo 18 |
| year | 1992 |
| first played | February 1, 1992 (338 known performances) |
| run time | 1:08 |
| sung by | John Flansburgh |
Trivia/Info
- This song's title was inspired by Tony Schwartz's 1958 Folkways Records LP The World in My Mail Box, a compilation of folk songs submitted from around the world that included four versions of a song called "Dig My Grave." John Flansburgh discussed writing and recording the song in a 1992 interview:
The title is actually taken from a number of folk songs that have that same title. In New York, you can buy the Folkways record catalogue for about a dollar at Tower Records. I mean every record has been cut-out and on sale in their bargain bins for pennies. So I bought all these Folkways records and one of the records had a number of songs on it called "Dig My Grave" and it was pointing out how the same song could be transformed by going from one place to another. They had a New Orleans version of "Dig My Grave" and a Maine folksong version of it and all these various versions. They were like different songs. I thought it would be interesting to do a complete update. The only thing it has in common is the title, really, but that's a good title. [...]
On the very first song, "Dig My Grave," the vocal is sung through a fuzzbox. I don't think there's a legitimate producer who would be... well, I can't imagine there'd be too many that would be overjoyed when the band comes in and says. "We want the song to have a horrible vocal — a really, really ugly sound. So, what do you think, huh?" There tends not to be that kind of spirit behind things. But it sounds really cool.
- The vocals were processed through a rackmount Chandler Tube Driver distortion unit that John Linnell had in his home studio.[1] The vocals on "You'll Miss Me" were also processed through a foot pedal version of the same unit. In a 1989 interview, Flansburgh stated: "[The Chandler Tube Driver] is, by the way, one of the finest things available for the guitar. It's half of my live sound. The Chandler company makes really inventive and interesting stuff. The Tube Driver is ingenious. They overdrive a tube to put inside a Marshall amplifier, only it's a foot pedal. I mean, it's so obvious, it only took twenty years."
- Flansburgh further explained this song's influences in another 1992 interview:
"Dig My Grave" I wrote after I saw a lot of thrash metal bands play. Some of my friends are into thrash metal and they took me to the shows. It was the first time in a few years that I actually got a chance to see a lot of bands perform. So I think a little bit of that seeped in. The title of the song is actually taken from a bunch of folk songs that all have the title "Dig My Grave." I have this record that collects four of five versions of a song called "Dig My Grave" and they're really mild folk songs. I thought it was great and so I wrote another song called "Dig My Grave."
- This was the first song written by Flansburgh to be used as an album opener.
Song Themes
Altered Voice, Death, Eyes, Religion, Supernatural, The Senses, Titles And Honorifics
Videos
- Watch it on
– Recorded live on November 29, 2008 by CapitalQ - With "I Palindrome I"
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. Dig My Grave is currently ranked #653 out of 1118. (162 wikians have given it an average rating of 8.03) |
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