Hate The Villanelle
From This Might Be A Wiki
Dial-A-Song (2015) artwork
| song name | Hate The Villanelle |
| artist | They Might Be Giants |
| releases | Dial-A-Song (2015), Glean |
| year | 2014 |
| first played | June 6, 2014 (3 known performances) |
| run time | 1:52 |
| sung by | John Linnell |
Trivia/Info
- This song is a villanelle, a nineteen-line poetic form that has five tercets followed by a quatrain, with a rhyme scheme of ABA for each tercet and ABAA for the quatrain. In addition, there are two refrains which are both included in the first and last stanzas and placed in an alternating manner in the other.
- John Flansburgh on the song, from a radio interview on February 11, 2015:[1]
It actually is a villanelle, which is like a poetic form—it's like a sonnet. And I put that lyric together, and then just sort of presented it to Linnell as like a finished thing, and said if you want to have at it with putting music to this, that would be a fun way to do it. In part because just putting the lyrics together in and of itself was like such a homework assignment. I feel it's actually a pretty good villanelle: it has the entire exact right number of syllables, all the rhymes are true rhymes—they're not close rhymes, which is a big problem for me.
- Robin Goldwasser was the one who brought the "miracle of the poetic form that is the villanelle" to the band's attention.[2]
- Flansburgh spoke more about the writing of this song in a 2024 Tumblr post:[3]
The form was something my wife Robin had talked about a lot, and once I came up with the title line, I felt like I had to commit to finishing it. In the beginning the form feels kind of loose because, while the rhyme scheme is really prescribed and kind of odd, the meter is flexible. So while the meter is not prescribed, once you establish it, you do have to stick to it. But there are so many complications with the rhyme scheme that makes laying out a lyric kind of treacherous. Trying to write a villanelle quickly would equate with doing a crossword with the DOWN clues with no regard for how the answers are fitting in with ACROSS. You are going to jam yourself up pretty fast. The two primary lines need to work off each other and have a bit of energy or edge, or their many repeats can feel anodyne and become lulling. But if they are too specific it loses its poetry and kinda turns into a chant if not just a matched pair of non-sequiturs.
- This song debuted with a live performance as part of NPR's Ask Me Another in June 2014. At the show, Flansburgh introduced the song with, "It's a true story about writing this song."[4] Listen to NPR's official audio recording of the song and episode here.
- John Flansburgh also said that the song was inspired by "Do not go gentle into that good night" by Dylan Thomas.[5]
- Interestingly, the words villain and villanelle both derive from the same Latin word, villanus, meaning a peasant or farmhand (a bumpkin, if you will).
Song Themes
Altered Voice, Bells, Body Parts, Criminal Activities, Escape, Hands, Jail And Imprisonment, Mathematics, Poetry, Questions, Recursion, Religion, Supernatural, Rhymes, School, Self-Reference, Traded Tracks, Writing
Videos
- Watch it on
- Watch it on - recorded live on June 6, 2014
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. Hate The Villanelle is currently ranked #698 out of 1023. (90 wikians have given it an average rating of 7.82) |
