Talk:The Communists Have The Music

Is there a source for the Girlie Action press release? I can't seem to find it anywhere. --User:Royalninja

I'm on the Girlie Action mailing list; it was a direct email sent out to journalists — oddly enough, i can't find it on their site. It looks like the wiki has a small archive of press releases; i can put it there later, though TBH, the 7" thing is the most interesting bit; the rest is mostly just "communists exists, new UK tour is selling out," mainly the stuff Flans has already mentioned in the various Vibe Reports. - Rev. Syung Myung Me (talk) 15:50, 15 September 2018 (EDT)

Found the web version! https://mailchi.mp/girlie/they-might-be-giants-evening-with-internatl-tour-launches-920-7-single-the-communists-have-the-music-arrives-oct-5th?e=fd4b78486d - Rev. Syung Myung Me (talk) 16:33, 17 September 2018 (EDT)

A very good song...but

I think the last new song that i HAD to listen to again and again after first hearing it was Can't Keep Johnny Down. Well, until I heard this. Great piano; brilliant lyrics and thankfully not overproduced, this is effortless pop. Two niggles, one not finding a rhyme for outfits (I reckon backbeats - if sung correctly would have worked) and the lack of a proper bridge. The first niggle, is petty, the lyrics are top drawer, but the lack of the bridge is my only real moan. In recent years, this tune would have been padded to 4 minutes, but, at 2.28 or something, the first thing you want to do is listen to it again. I realised that I've already listened to this song more than I listened to the last album. One final thing. Linnell's voice. How good does he sound? Lincoln's being remastered and I don't think he sounds any different to 1988. Plus, how many bands are punching this hard with a single of a new album this far in? (Mr Tuck)

When I first heard the song, I heard the line as "And the fascists have the outfits/But I don't care for the optics" which amused me. It was a bit of a letdown when I realized the "rhyme" was just "outfits" repeated. --Salt-Man Z (talk) 15:02, 27 December 2018 (EST)

Linnell also rhymes "music" to itself in the same part. Not sure whether either of you would be persuaded, but to my mind these identical rhymes are not a lapse of aesthetic. After so much density and dexterity in the verses, to transgress such a basic tenet of versecraft twice seems like deliberate nonchalance: he knows he has proven his mettle, and so won't be accepting a knuckle-rapping from the schoolmarm. --Nehushtan (talk) 21:06, 11 August 2020 (EDT)

Historical figures in the video

The video is great fun, full of red scare & spy-vs-spy jokes. I wish I knew whether the major characters are some of the chief 1950's historical participants... I want to guess that the puppet combatants at 1:06 were important congressmen or maybe noted talking heads. Those faces are at the edge of my memory (especially the one on the right) but they are not embedded in my brain like Nixon's & Eisenhower's. Neither one resembles Joe McCarthy (to me). Does anyone recognize them? --Nehushtan (talk) 17:39, 11 August 2019 (EDT)