Interpretations:They Got Lost (Song)

From This Might Be A Wiki

Obvious[edit]

They Might Be Giants got lost while driving around. Really, what else is there to say? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 130.113.38.148 (talk) 21:35, January 10, 2005

Oh....oh! I hear it now! Ah, dang. I was wondering what was going on. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 150.243.117.66 (talk) 15:50, September 17, 2005

Interpretation 2[edit]

I wonder if this was inspired by an actual event. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.131.248.232 (talk) 19:38, October 18, 2006

Interpretation 3[edit]

They got lost driving around when they were supposed to be at a radio station, and attempted to find the radio station by seeing how good the reception was - the closer, the clearer the audio. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.129.74.234 (talk) 17:44, December 19, 2006

Closure required[edit]

Did they ever find the station?! I need closure! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 152.3.40.206 (talk) 22:13, January 16, 2007

Easy to get lost[edit]

I'd imagine this kind of thing must happen a lot. Think about it; those tour buses can't really make hairpin turns, and if they're in a city filled with one-way streets, getting lost wouldn't be all that difficult. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Werstyq (talkcontribs) 02:23, August 4, 2007

San Antonio[edit]

I think they must have been in San Antonio. I have never met a single person from there who could tell me where I am and how to get somewhere else. The best directions I ever got was "There's a store down the block that sells maps...." —Preceding unsigned comment added by Moondog (talkcontribs) 19:05, October 20, 2014

Julie / WFNX / Signal keeps fading out[edit]

‘Julie at the station says they’ll be here any minute now, But she's running out of records and her show is ending anyhow.’ - Julie refers to Julie Kramer, longtime DJ of pioneering Boston-area alternative rock station WFNX. Boston-area is key for the next part…

‘They can hear her saying Their name on the car radio, But the signal keeps fading out no matter which way They go.’ In the video documentary “We Want The Airwaves” - now pulled due to copyright disputes - WFNX had a cult-like following in the Boston area who were known to go to great lengths (tinfoil, wire, radio position) to pull in the WFNX signal. The WFNX studio and their transmitter were located in Lynn, about 11 miles to the north of Boston. Not far, perhaps, but it was only a 5000 watt radio station, and it was later discovered that their transmitter was pointed East, out to sea, instead of South-Southwest, toward Boston. At best you could get a weak signal. But why would it keep fading out no matter which way they go?

A directive antenna has a signal pattern with a main lobe (pointing out to sea, in this case) a smaller back lobe (180 from the main lobe, in this case, maybe Lowell?), and on either side, 90 and 270 degrees, several small side lobes. So no matter what way you drove, even toward the station, you’d be driving in and out of the side lobes, so the signal would keep fading out.

Julie hosted mid-day, her show was entitled “Leftover Lunch” - so chances are John & John could have entered the building had they got there. At night, it was often just the DJ, with the exterior doors locked, so if a guest was going to be on, the DJ had to put a long record on so they could go down and let them in. Lynn is kind of sketchy, in the WFNX documentary they once found a dead body in the building lobby when the night crew was coming down. Yikes!

Always the underdog, WFNX did get their antenna pointed toward Boston and their signal strength increased, but the scrappy underdog, a side project of the alternative newspaper the Boston Phoenix (FNX) was up against WBCN, a commercial station with legendary and pioneering alternative music DJ/producer Oedipus at the helm and 50,000 watts of power. WFNX went off the air in 2012 after a 29-year run.97.77.95.30 00:32, 13 November 2021 (EST)