Lie Still, Little Bottle

From This Might Be A Wiki
YouTube
"Lie Still, Little Bottle" live on Record Guide, 1988
YouTube
Official video
Flansburgh performing the song live with the stick

song name Lie Still, Little Bottle
artist They Might Be Giants
releases Lincoln, Ana Ng (Single) [UK 12" Release], Then: The Earlier Years
year 1988
first played May 10, 1987 (259 known performances)
run time 2:06
sung by John Flansburgh


Trivia/Info

  • In concert, Flansburgh sometimes keeps time and rhythm by banging an amplified tree branch on the stage as he sings this song (there's some footage of him doing it in Gigantic). The fans, of course, love this, and have shouted, "The stick! The stick!" as a way of requesting this song.
  • "This song has been commonly misunderstood, this song is called 'Lie Still, Little Bottle' and people seem to think it's about alcoholism, but we are family entertainment, and this song is about, uh...amphetamines and barbiturates, actually, so please, don't get the wrong idea. It's fictitious." - John Flansburgh, February 10, 1992
  • This song features Dr. Kenneth Nolan on the drums.
  • John Flansburgh on the song in the AV Club:
We had this song called "Lie Still, Little Bottle" where John would play saxophone and I would sing, and it was just a couple of riffs and a vocal line. When we went to record the song in the studio and were looking for an interesting arrangement, we basically applied "Sixteen Tons" by Tennessee Ernie Ford in terms of the sonics, because there’s a part where there’s just a low piano note and a part with a clarinet line.

Song Themes

Addiction, Compulsion, Body Parts, Coffee, Colors, Drinking, Drugs, Friendship, Hands, Mind Control, Hypnotism, Recycled Material, Size, Swing Feel

Videos

  • Watch it on Youtube.png - official video

Current Rating

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Lie Still, Little Bottle is currently ranked #389 out of 1005. (128 wikians have given it an average rating of 8.45)