Where Your Eyes Don't Go

From This Might Be A Wiki

song name Where Your Eyes Don't Go
artist They Might Be Giants
releases Lincoln, Lincoln Sampler, Then: The Earlier Years
year 1988
first played March 28, 1988 (125 known performances)
run time 3:06
sung by John Linnell


Trivia/Info

  • John Linnell once said that this song was written about a dream he had as a child.
  • The verse of the song is musically based on the classic American folk song "I've Been Working on the Railroad," specifically the "Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah" portion. The exact tune appears in the song before the last sung stanza, and Linnell actually sings this stanza during the melody in the song's original demo, heard on The Frank O'Toole Show in 1987.
  • According to Flansburgh in a 2022 Tumblr post, the guitar solo was inspired by the Perry Mason theme song.
  • British author (and TMBG fan) Terry Pratchett said that this song was the scariest he's ever heard. He also includes a line in the book Reaper Man that seems to be a reference to it:
'Should we worry when he's in front of us?' said Ridcully, 'Or is it worse because we know he's behind us?'

Song Themes

Body Parts, Dreams, Eyes, Fade Out, Heads, In Back, Insanity, People (Real), Not In Common Time, Questions, Recursion, References To Other Songs Or Musicians, Zombies Or The Undead

Videos

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Where Your Eyes Don't Go is currently ranked #18 out of 1005. (293 wikians have given it an average rating of 9.22)