Interpretations:I'll Be Haunting You

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Interpretation 1[edit]

"I'll be haunting you as you are staring into outer space" might be a reference to About Me: "You might be staring at the stars, but you'll be thinking about me." --DoubleDenial (talk) 22:32, 11 June 2019 (EDT)


Interpretation 2[edit]

My own opinion? This song is sung by Richard Nixon, to Bill Clinton.

They Might Be Giants has such a unique aesthetic and lyrical precedent with regards to outer space. While this is what I attribute to most of the imagery of space in this song, Nixon did preside over the moon landings, a certain aspect of his legacy that has certainly been incinerated. This is due to the one thing he shares with Bill Clinton, more than anything else: impeachment.

Impeachment is certainly a word permanently skywritten in Nixon's legacy, and reading the lyrics of I'll Be Haunting You through this lens reveals a lot of little pieces of supporting evidence. Nixon mentions the "oath you swore in 1993", which with all likelihood is Clinton's first Presidential Oath of Office. This is the oath that Clinton was accused of breaking during the impeachment proceedings. A "remix that rises like a phoenix from the ground" certainly sounds like a description of the second presidential impeachment trial of the 20th century. And perhaps relevantly? Nixon died during the Clinton administration. If there was any president he was going to haunt, Clinton would be the one.

At its most fundamental, this is a song sung about a man with a legacy in ashes haunting a man who swore an oath in 1993, and who would remember his haunter, perhaps any time he looks up into the heavens, or to the moon.

-FiveFingers

I'll Be Seeing You[edit]

I think this song's lyrics bear a lot of resemblance to I'll Be Seeing You. The lines "I'll be looking at the moon, but I'll be seeing you" and "When you look up you'll remember me and then I'll be haunting you" in particular are very close. I think this song is a Giants-y spin on the same theme, if not a direct reference.

-AngleBlueprint

Edgar Allan Poe story[edit]

The third verse makes use of some elements of Edgar Allan Poe's story The Telltale Heart: a staring eye, a sound that only one person can hear, and a "telltale" pounding. The story, like the song, is about a dead person who 'haunts' a living one. --Nehushtan (talk) 19:33, 12 August 2020 (EDT)

Dying Astronaut[edit]

Except for the "1993" line, a lot of this made me think of the final rage of Cosmonaut Vladimir Kamarov. While I don't think it's particularly him, due to that like, I can definitely see it referencing a doomed astronaut's final words, re-entering in a doomed spacecraft.