See The Constellation

From This Might Be A Wiki

song name See the Constellation
artist They Might Be Giants
releases Apollo 18, Flood + Apollo 18
year 1992
first played June 29, 1992 (36 known performances)
run time 3:27
sung by John Flansburgh, John Linnell harmonizes on the chorus and outro


Trivia/Info

  • The beginning guitar riff pays homage to "Pleasant Valley Sunday" by the Monkees, according to John Flansburgh in a Radio They Might Be Giants description.[1]
  • The "1, 2, 3, 4...4...4" etc. is a sample of a Dee Dee Ramone countoff, from the song "Commando" on the 1977 Ramones album Leave Home. Flansburgh is an outspoken Ramones fan, and has called them "real role models" for They Might Be Giants.[2][3]
  • The song's opening line echoes the opening of the Warren Zevon song "Poor Poor Pitiful Me", but Flansburgh has stated, "The railroad track line was actually directly inspired by an imaginative promotional photo of another Elektra artist," Sara Hickman.[4] He claimed "the contrary elements of the image really spoke to me."[5]
  • The song that is heard underneath the fade-out is Side 2 from Dial-A-Song. John Flansburgh said in 2012 when asked about this:
I am not positive, but I am guessing it's an unfinished track from that project called "I Miss Side Two" (that had already been scrubbed by the time the track was being mixed) and it was just folded in for psychedelic texture. But just listening to it now it's so timidly placed it almost sounds like an accident...
  • Though unconfirmed, some fans believe "Weird Al" Yankovic is paying homage to this track in the song, "I Remember Larry," a Hilly Michaels style parody. Similarities are especially noticeable in the chorus which has an almost identical melody, as well as in the ending fadeout. Incidentally, the song is from his 1996 album, Bad Hair Day, which also contains the admitted TMBG style-parody, "Everything You Know Is Wrong."

Song Themes

Colors, Counting, Eyes, Heads, Numbers, Questions, References To Other Songs Or Musicians, Science, Screaming, Songs With Samples, Space

Videos

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See The Constellation is currently ranked #101 out of 1005. (167 wikians have given it an average rating of 8.96)