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Purple Toupee

From This Might Be A Wiki
Music video for Purple Toupee
Screenshot
Screenshot
song namePurple Toupee
artistThey Might Be Giants
releasesLincoln, Lincoln Sampler, Purple Toupee (EP), Then: The Earlier Years, Best Of The Early Years, Direct From Brooklyn, Dial-A-Song: 20 Years Of They Might Be Giants, A User's Guide To They Might Be Giants: Melody, Fidelity, Quantity
year1988
first playedJun. 23, 1987 (102 known performances)
run time2:40
sung byJohn Linnell; John Flansburgh sings parts during the chorus, and the bridge.

Trivia/Info

  • John Linnell: "[Purple Toupee uses] a couple of Prince songs as a springboard, "Purple Rain" and "Raspberry Beret". I guess part of the idea was that, at the time, it seemed like there was this 60s revival in the works. It reminded me of all the other revivals that had taken place that were reviving times that I wasn't around for. They must have been complete shams based on what the 60s revival was. It seemed like it was based on this utterly one-dimensional caricature of the time that it was supposed to [be] representing or reviving. That still goes on now. That's sort of what "Purple Toupee is about. - In Their Own Words
  • On the Lincoln Sampler, there is a stray accordion note in the right channel at the very end of the song.
  • In the Gamecube game Custom Robo, there is a character that wears a purple toupee which he found during the summer.
  • Al Stewart has a song called "Red Toupee." After performing it in a concert (18-Jul-99), he said, "That song was going to be part of a concept album about toupees. They Might Be Giants have a song called Purple Toupee, and we're just looking for another 10 songs and then we can release it."
  • The Nelories, who released a CD for the Hello CD Of The Month Club, released a song called Hell Toupee that was intended as a tribute to this song on their EP Indie Pop Car Baby.
  • The music video for the song was filmed at Astroworld Park on Coney Island in Brooklyn.

Song Themes

1964 World's Fair, Age, Artificial Body Parts, Cities, Clothes, Colors, Death, Forgetting, Remembering, History, I Am, Kingdom Of Loathing Reference, Precious Metal, Presidents, Size, Trade Names

Videos

Watch it on MySpace Video

 
Current Rating

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Purple Toupee is currently ranked #28 out of 846. (516 wikians have given it an average rating of 9.04)
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