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State Songs

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State Songs album cover
State Songs
Studio album by John Linnell
First released October 26, 1999 Tracks 16
Label Rounder / Zoë Length 45:10

For the five song 1994 Hello Recording Club EP by John Linnell, see State Songs (Hello EP).

[edit] Purchase

Contents

Seller Format Price Purchase!
Amazon CD $16.98
$16.98!
TMBG Merchandise Store CD $14.00

[edit] Track Listing

  1. Illinois
  2. The Songs Of The 50 States
  3. West Virginia
  4. South Carolina
  5. Idaho
  6. Montana
  7. Pennsylvania
  8. Utah
  9. Arkansas
  10. Iowa
  11. Mississippi
  12. Maine
  13. Oregon
  14. Michigan
  15. New Hampshire
  16. Nevada

[edit] Trivia/Info

Publicity material: "John Linnell, one half of the conspicuous rock duo with John Flansburgh, They Might Be Giants, has created his first solo album. Find out why critics are already hailing State Songs as an album that's big as all outdoors and all over the map."

Linnell: "I decided to start writing songs with the name of the states as a way of avoiding having to come up with song titles. I suddenly had fifty song titles and I could write fifty songs based on that. This is always one of my problems with writing lyrics is I'm just so lazy I don't want to have to think up all the words and what it means. ... It's just a way to create more music without having to get bogged down in verbal ideas."

Linnell: "One other reason I was interested in writing state anthems is because I like the style they usually employ in state anthems. Sort of archaic and kind of square."

Q: "You call this sort of a 'Ringo Walk' project."
A: "That's a term we've really been beating to death recently. It refers to the part of the movie A Hard Days Night where Ringo is walking around by himself and they're playing 'This Boy'. It's this special Ringo moment in the movie where he realizes he doesn't need his friends and he just wants to walk around on his own. John and I realized that, you know, we all need those times. ... [H]e really liked this record."

"I don't think that the songs are liable to be adopted as the state anthems of the actual states, sadly. I was thinking initially that that might be a nice thing, but thinking about it I think songs like 'Oregon is bad' are not likely to go down very well in Oregon."

(source: All Things Considered 1999.10.12)

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