Certain People I Could Name

From This Might Be A Wiki
Illustration from the Long Tall Weekend liner notes

song name Certain People I Could Name
artist They Might Be Giants
releases tmbg.com (1998), Long Tall Weekend, They Got Lost, TMBG Clock Radio, Idlewild
year 1999
first played March 14, 1996 (7 known performances)
run time 3:30
sung by John Linnell


Trivia/Info

  • From tmbg.com, "A piano driven song with subtle charm from the Factory Showroom era. Don't really know how this got put aside, but I suspect it was probably more due to its mid-tempo than its high quality."
  • John Linnell says this song was inspired by noticing the similarities between a friend of his and a Kurosawa film.
  • As evidenced by early live performances, the line "as a lizard stalks a helpless creature" was originally "as the lizard eats a helpless creature." Additionally, instead of the line "eyes with no expression watch the unsuspecting prey" Linnell would sing "as the camera moves to close-up on the reptile's mouth" in concert, lyrics which are also present in the demo.
  • The recording of this song on Long Tall Weekend was first present on the leaked cassette known as the The Complete Factory Showroom Sessions in 1996.

Song Themes

Addiction, Compulsion, Animals, Bodily Mutilation, Counting, Criminal Activities, Death, Eyes, Heads, In Back, Mathematics, Not In Common Time, Occupations, Pointing, Problems With Liner Notes, Questions, The Senses, Stories, Time, War, Military

Videos

Current Rating

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Certain People I Could Name is currently ranked #127 out of 1020. (143 wikians have given it an average rating of 8.89)