Talk:Canajoharie

From This Might Be A Wiki

THE COMEBACK OF ACCORDION!!! --Veggieman 15:46, 8 July 2010 (UTC)

When I first heard this, I was focused on nothing but listening intently to the horrible Youtube audio and fighting with myself over whether it's an accordion or synth. I'm still not sure, but I'm hoping for the former. There's a whole bunch of layers, though, so it could be more than one instrument too. --j2
Good point, but still. We haven't had accordion on a rock album since the Spine. --Veggieman 21:52, 11 July 2010 (UTC)
That's just another way of saying that The Else didn't have any accordion. Anyway, I think it sounds more like a synthesiser. It sounds too beep-y and perfect to be accordion, not to mention the range. But I'm probably wrong. Maybe there could be some accordion hiding in there, or maybe it's really blatant and I'm missing it. -Apollo. 22:01, 11 July 2010 (UTC)
And the Else's bonus disk definitely did have a fair bit of accordion on it... so it's not THAT much of a comeback. But it's still more than welcome! --ΰΌΊπ„žπ„†β“†β“€β“”β“›βŽˆβ’Ήβ“žβ“œβ“œβ“β“–β“”π„‡ΰΌ» 00:48, 29 July 2010 (UTC)
Dude no, do NOT try to let him off the hook for this. Do NOT. INEXCUSABLE JOHN LINNELL. --Self Called Nowhere 15:22, 21 September 2010 (UTC)

Well all right then[edit]

I'M SO DISAPPOINTED THAT IT'S NOT AS VIOLENT AND CRAZY AS I THOUGHT. Well, if I'd known we were getting a webcast of it today I would have waited to do a writeup about swamp thing dismemberment. (How did "broken and apart" end up being "look at where I'm pointing"? SO MUCH LESS INTERESTING.) Forgive me, it was such a bad recording, but I got the basics in there at least. It still involves some kind of swamp weirdness! And his skull (sort of, although it's nothing violent happening to it, DISAPPOINTINGLY). And whatever this weird rocket ship stuff is at the end there that we're just getting now. AND HOW STRONG HIS ARMS ARE. HAVE I MENTIONED THAT PART? AS LONG AS THAT'S IN THERE I CAN'T COMPLAIN TOO MUCH. And, you know, it's still an awesome song in general. Just not quite as awesome as I was hoping. --Self Called Nowhere 03:12, 3 October 2010 (UTC)

It's still pretty mind-boggling! From where we're at right now, it appears to be a Bigfoot story that takes place over a long period of time, and the Bigfoot character is an evolutionary misfire (I think it'd be so cool if the lyric were "inaccurately reconstructed me"). Is it too early to start interpreting this song? -j2
Well I don't know, people seem to be saying "fin" now (which was actually what I heard at first but I figured it had to be him saying "thing" in a weird way, which he is known to do sometimes, so I went with that) and I'm pretty sure Bigfoot(s? feet?) don't have fins. It is still a good song for sure, but I was initially just excited when I thought it was crazy and bloody and he was still writing stuff that was SO FUCKED UP. That's what I kept telling people, like in my original post here, "LOOK, LOOK, HE'S STILL HIM!" BUT, talking now with magbatz and getting an idea of what it turns out to be actually about, we think, it's kind of making me insanely excited again. Cos it seems to actually be a brilliant topic. So I GUESS I'll forgive him. Incredible thoughtful amazingness makes up for lack of blood. And maybe he'll break out some other song that involves him getting dismembered or something, haha. *fingers crossed* --Self Called Nowhere 11:05, 4 October 2010 (UTC)

My thoughts: Canajoharie is swampland (Quinn tells me this is not at all true but I'm just bein' true to maself), and the singer and his buddy (and by extension, mankind, because isn't that what all Their songs extend to) are stuck in the quagmire. The song is riddled with excellent imagery which makes me wish we had an official set of lyrics that I could trustingly fall into. The overgrowth of the underbrush starts it off-- we're in the thick of it (overly so). The narrator is just crawling out from the times before his time. They were brutes before. Nothing more than grunts. There's something going on -- something is pulling them into the swamp, like a whirlpool (or a fin on a swamp monster!). (Their?) Nature's been keeping them down in a hole, and this narrator belongs to an age where something can be done [you could say it's analogous to proto-land creatures coming out of the ocean of Eden]. With strong arm and sharp mind, you can pull yourself up by your bootstraps. So anyway, humanity's just gaining awareness of their crummy suppressed station by way of the narrator. He needs to share it with this other person if there's to be any progress. That's why every other line in the song is attempting communication with the other person, in every case for some practical end in describing their situation (sharing ideas through painting, explaining what the pointing gesture should do, and using yr imagination). The narrator's at the cusp of creating and sharing ideas and frameworks. That would be enough for one song, but Linnell also looks at the further end of the spectrum. Like from before, we're in a quagmire, between backwards, brainless origins and "civilization", still the same humanity in mid-crawl. A furthering of the way the first thinking man was working out a concept to share, people as time goes on are haphazardly trying different ways to create complex things, again all for the desperate purpose of making it out of the swamp. Experimentation and educated guesses (rocket ship and probably some unknown words) become our actions and our knowledge, and truth folds in on itself as we're all working out where we came from and reconstructing the past with our faulty minds in some backwards attempt at forward progress. And he's sentimental for times when humanity wasn't the huge mess that it's been since that great leap frontwards.

And yes I'm fully aware that the next new word we figure out will completely negate any foolish idea I have. My first thought on the song was that some kinfolk who used to be free-ranging or on a reservation were drinking and driving and not coping in the modern world. So who knows what it really is. But I really have the feeling that this will easily be one of the best They Might Be Giants songs. Maybe that Science album did do Them some good. ~ magbatz 11:50, 4 October 2010 (UTC)

Yeh see ok, THIS SOUNDS SO MUCH MORE INTERESTING. LIKE REALLY INSANELY INTERESTING, and makes a lot of sense based on our ACTUAL version of the lyrics. I think I'm backing you up on this, man. Well ok, I'll steal the whole swamp monster thing to use in a story sometime, haha. GOD WHY IS HE SUCH A GENIUS, IT'S KIND OF RIDICULOUS. (A genius with strong strong arms. NO I AM NOT GOING TO STOP MENTIONING THAT, EVER.) --Self Called Nowhere 12:25, 4 October 2010 (UTC)

More interpretation chunks, maybe[edit]

All right, I've gone through my period of grieving for the swamp monster dismemberment version of the song and I am now 100% behind Magz's excellent deconstruction above. I JUST NOW figured out the "your skiff would drag itself away" line and that got something into my head that I think unravels the song a bit more. The Wikipedia article on skiff says "small sea-going fishing boat" but the technical definition is apparently just a boat small enough to be operated by one person. So that makes me think of things like pre-Columbian America and, as I added to the trivia a bit ago, Canajoharie is not just the town in New York (and also a village within the town, whatever that means), it was originally a Mohawk settlement nearby (I have to give credit to Mr. Ant for originally alerting me to this). And what I'm thinking now is that the "swapped the proof" part is referring to the loss to the modern town of the Mohawk settlement of which there is, indeed, nothing left. YES? --Self Called Nowhere 08:07, 16 October 2010 (UTC)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORX-63i3vdU <== A simple cover/interpretation of the song from live recordings with huge help from this wiki, if anyone's interested

That's fantastic! (I hope the real version has accordion :D) -- Buzzmusic100 ("Keep your voice down...")
Sweet. Seriously --AGR
Thank you so much ;D --ΰΌΊπ„žπ„†β“†β“€β“”β“›βŽˆβ’Ήβ“žβ“œβ“œβ“β“–β“”π„‡ΰΌ» 11:03, 15 January 2011 (UTC)

Canajoharie: B-Side[edit]

I think this will become a B-side. Similar to how TMBG always played Beard/Dump live before the Else was released, then subsequently released them on Cast Your Pod to the Wind and on podcasts and stuff.

I don't know I felt like noting this. -- Jason DeLima - ! - 06:42, 22 April 2011 (UTC)

nooo! it has to be one of the 4 unconfirmed! AGR 06:55, 22 April 2011 (UTC)
Either way, so long as it's released, I don't feel as though my cover angered Them enough to strike it from the album :3 --ΰΌΊπ„žπ„†β“†β“€β“”β“›βŽˆβ’Ήβ“žβ“œβ“œβ“β“–β“”π„‡ΰΌ» 09:35, 22 April 2011 (UTC)
Are you actually basing this on anything? I see no evidence whatsoever that it won't be one of the four unnamed album tracks. It's certainly a more fleshed-out song than either of the two you mention. --Self Called Nowhere 21:40, 22 April 2011 (UTC)
Huh? Flans confirmed on Twitter over a week ago that the song is on the album. -CapitalQtalk ♪ 05:27, 23 April 2011 (UTC)
I wouldn't say he confirmed it, merely implied it. But yeah, it certainly seems likely that it's one of the four. --BlueCanary 06:09, 23 April 2011 (UTC)
Well I guess my theory is now redundant. -- Jason DeLima - ! - 23:00, 26 April 2011 (UTC)

The beginning of the chorus always reminds me of "First -- AVENUE STAAAGE!" --Wetreplies


Backwards Accordion?[edit]

Is the accordion solo backwards? It seems like it is. I might add it to the backwards section if this is correct. Anyone know? -- Shuda7 10:11, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

I've listened to it backwards (thanks Audacity) tons of times and still can't make sense of it. It sounds just as odd backwards as it does forwards. Also, I'm not even entirely sure that's accordion... Akagi 16:56, 21 September 2011 (EDT)
I, too, am suspicious of whether or not it is really accordion at all. It sounds sort of aerophone-ish (perhaps free-reedy, even), but it also sounds a lot like it came from a synthesiser. -Apollo (colloquia!) 17:26, 21 September 2011 (EDT)
Maybe it's not backwards, but have you tried changing the pitch and/or tempo? Perspixx 18:33, 24 September 2011 (EDT)

Canada Joe[edit]

Ok, no "broffense", but the title of this song should be (and is) Canada Joe. John Lindbergh confirmed this for me the other night when I called into his show, and I'm sure other wikians heard that broadcast. Canajoharie is a typo. Please fix the wiki. Thank ya! --WhatTheHeckLinnell 13:44, 16 September 2011 (EDT)
I knew it. --ΰΌΊπ„žπ„†β“†β“€β“”β“›βŽˆβ’Ήβ“žβ“œβ“œβ“β“–β“”π„‡ΰΌ» 05:29, 24 September 2011 (EDT)

Anyone else notice the Synth Bass?[edit]

So, I was listening to I think the left side only, and during the first verse, it's definitely a synth bass. The rest is Danny. I think it's actually both once Danny comes in, as this song has some crazy layering.

yeah they're definitely both in there throughout the song. -Apollo (colloquia!) 20:12, 19 February 2012 (EST)

tasty vocal[edit]

just gotta say...i love linnell slurring "when the prototype exploded on the launching site." ahhhhh...

Haha, that part is pretty fun. I wonder if there's a demo lying around somewhere that features a non-disputable accordion and non-slurred vocals? 'Twould be nice to hear a version a little less slick than this...though this is mighty good as it stands. --MisterMe 21:43, 14 October 2012 (EDT)

cajonerie[edit]

You know I used to say this was about Canada Joe (eg. like GI Joe) but now that I'm older & wiser I have to wonder.... is it really cajonerie? As in cajones, but in an adjective??? It seems likely (eg, "my arm was strong"). Just something to think about. I know canajoharie is on the map, but it might be a censorship thing, I don't know. But I urge people to think on it if it might be right: maybe cajonerie is a synonym for ballsiness?

Live?[edit]

I can't help but notice how very infrequently this song has been performed live. It's a shame--it might possibly be my favorite song, and I'd be ECSTATIC if they performed it! And to make things even weirder, five of those eight performances occurred prior to the release of Join Us...any idea why they never seem to play such a wonderful song? Warhammer Of Zillyhoo (talk) 16:17, 11 September 2013 (EDT)

Who knows. This is certainly not the only instance of an amazing song being neglected live--for instance, not playing "I've Got a Match" at the recent Lincoln shows they did, or "Stone Cold Coup d'Etat," which is (in my opinion), the very best song on Nanobots, not having been played live ever. Sometimes it just happens. --Self Called Nowhere (talk) 16:24, 11 September 2013 (EDT)
In my experience, songs not being played live are the result of Flans either not being happy with, or in some cases, totally forgetting about, the live arrangement. Three out of the eight performances of this one were done without Dan Miller. Perhaps Flans wasn't happy with the way the full band arrangement of the song sounded? Or, it had one too many mistakes occur while being performed? Pure speculation, but my best guess is that other songs from the album went more smoothly, were easier to play, or got a better response from the crowd. --BlueCanary (talk) 20:47, 11 September 2013 (EDT)

Underrated?[edit]

Am I the only person who thinks the rating of 87th overall is woefully low? This is a top 20 song for me I think.

Has anyone been to Canajoharie? I have.[edit]

If you're wondering what the song is about, go to the town. It's an amazing town with a river/creek that has natural waterfalls and whirlpools. "Canajoharie" is an Oneida word meaning "The pot that washes itself," and is a reference to the whirlpools.

Anyway, a few years ago, the local bureaucracy started discouraging people from swimming in the creek. There had been deaths, though the locals swear that the people who die while swimming in the creek are kids who get drunk/high and then jump off of rocks that the local kids know better than to jump off of. Invariably, according to local wisdom, the people who die are out of towners. I didn't verify this, and I didn't swim in the creek, but you can hike the banks and it's really, really beautiful.

So I think the song is about the ancient prehistoric nature of the natural whirlpool potholes and the millions of years it took to make them. Also, nostalgia over having been there as a kid when it was still allowed to go down in the creek. Nowadays, you can't find signs directing you to the swimming areas, because they don't allow swimming, so going back to your old haunts requires relying on memory of things that are long gone.