Rat Patrol

From This Might Be A Wiki

Illustration from the Long Tall Weekend liner notes

song name	Rat Patrol
artist	They Might Be Giants
album	Long Tall Weekend, They Got Lost, TMBG Clock Radio
year	1999
first played	Apr. 12, 1996 (6 known performances)
run time	2:04
sung by	John Linnell, John Flansburgh provides backup vocals.

From tmbg.com, "This song cause quite a bit of division-even among those within the inner sanctum of TMBG. The effect of Linnell's very twitchy vocal is further heightened when I come in with my personal caterwauling. We can't really justify this track. We're just grateful it's finally on a CD."
The usage of "Rat Patrol" originally comes from the name of a TV show from the sixties. However, it has been re-used over time as the name of a Clash bootleg that contains the original version of their 1982 album Combat Rock, and also a freak bike club.
From the Summer 1999 Info Club newsletter: "This witchy rocker spotlights some really witchy singing, duelling guitar lines from Flans and Eric Schermerhorn and a truly blazing guitar solo from Eric as well. Not the same as the embryonic version heard on Dial-A-Song, this will get any rocker's mojo workin', whether you're into Hatchet or Pantera."

Current Rating

Rat Patrol is currently ranked #203 out of 813. (54 wikians have given it an average rating of 8.74)