I Should Be Allowed To Think

From This Might Be A Wiki

song name I Should Be Allowed to Think
artist They Might Be Giants
releases John Henry, Dial-A-Song: 20 Years Of They Might Be Giants, John Henry + Factory Showroom
year 1994
first played December 3, 1993 (7 known performances)
run time 3:09
sung by John Linnell; John Flansburgh sings lead on the bridge


Trivia/Info

  • Described by Linnell as "one of the sort of unreliable narrator lyrics" (from an interview promoting Gigantic)
  • The opening line of the song, "I saw the best minds of my generation/destroyed by madness, starving, hysterical..." comes from the opening line of Allen Ginsberg's epic poem, "Howl" (full text). According to Pat Dillett in Podcast 27A:
The poet graciously gave permission for the band to quote the poem, and in a gesture that harkens back to a simpler time, asked for nothing in return.
  • An excerpt of this song was read by Andy Richter in Gigantic.

Song Themes

Colors, Egoism And Pretentiousness, Fade Out, Gleeful Irreverence, Intelligence, Espionage, Mind Control, Hypnotism, Music, Oxymorons, Paradoxes, And Contradictory Statements, Paranoia, Poetry, Problems With Liner Notes, Reading, Telecommunication, Writing

Videos

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I Should Be Allowed To Think is currently ranked #50 out of 1005. (195 wikians have given it an average rating of 9.09)