Clarinet
The clarinet is a single-reed woodwind instrument that has been featured extensively in They Might Be Giants' music since the late 80s. John Linnell has played the soprano clarinet, bass clarinet and contra-alto clarinet throughout TMBG recordings and live performances. Kurt Hoffman and Stan Harrison have also contributed clarinets to both studio recordings and live performances.
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Soprano clarinet[edit]
The soprano clarinet is the most common clarinet type and has appeared in studio recordings since 1987 with "The Famous Polka." A year later, it notably served as the now iconic intro to "Cowtown." John Linnell recounts the process of creating this intro in "Everything Sticks Like A Broken Record," a track-by-track breakdown of the Lincoln album featured in Bandbox Issue #103:
The technical feat on "Cowtown" is that, in the very beginning of the song, there are two clarinets and each is playing every other note. That was another sort of stunt, like the noise gate in "Ana Ng." The two clarinets are hocketing one note. That part is probably unplayable by one clarinet, but I could write it out for two clarinets and it's actually not that complicated.
A type of soprano clarinet known as the saxonette (contrary to its saxophone sounding name) was featured on both "Trouble Awful Devil Evil" and "Hello Mrs. Wheelyke" in 2015. John Linnell can be seen playing the saxonette in the music video for the latter. John Linnell plays the soprano clarinet during live performances of the former, such as here.
Songs featuring the Soprano Clarinet[edit]
- Ant
- Boat Of Car (Other Thing)
- Cowtown
- Dinner Bell
- Hello Mrs. Wheelyke
- If I Wasn't Shy
- McCafferty's Bib
- Music Jail, Pt. 1 & 2
- O Tannenbaum
- Reprehensible
- The Darlings Of Lumberland
- The Famous Polka
- The Oblongs Theme
- The Statue Got Me High
- The Vowel Family
- Trouble Awful Devil Evil
Bass clarinet[edit]
The bass clarinet is a rather large instrument, that looks as if it would be part of the saxophone family of instruments. The bass clarinet first appeared in studio recordings in 1992 with Cabbagetown. Since then, it has seemingly been the most used clarinet type on recordings by a very small margin. John Linnell can often be seen playing the bass clarinet at live shows on songs such as "(She Was A) Hotel Detective," "Black Ops," and "Cloisonné."
Songs featuring the Bass Clarinet[edit]
- (She Was A) Hotel Detective (Live)
- About Me
- Bed Bed Bed Bed Bed
- Black Ops (Alt. Version)
- Cabbagetown
- Cloisonné
- Electric Car
- Extra Savoir Faire
- Fingertips ("I Hear The Wind Blow," "I Walk Along Darkened Corridors")
- In The Middle, In The Middle, In The Middle
- Jessica
- Michigan
- Nanobots
- Nouns
- Sleepwalkers
- The Darlings Of Lumberland
- The Songs Of The 50 States
Contra-alto clarinet[edit]
The contra-alto clarinet is the most recent instrument in TMBG's arsenal of clarinets and as a result, has been featured on few studio recordings thus far. During live performances the band frequently calls the contra-alto clarinet "Clippy" (a reference to the animated Microsoft Office Assistant) because it resembles a giant paper clip. The band has also jokingly called it "The Hitmaker" on at least one occasion. The contra-alto clarinet has been played by John Linnell during live performances of the songs "All Time What" and "I Like Fun."
Songs featuring the Contra-Alto Clarinet[edit]
- Definition Of Good
- End Of The Rope
- I Haven't Been Right Yet
- I Like Fun
- Music Jail Pt. 1 & 2
- Too Tall Girl
External links[edit]
- Watch it on
- John Linnell playing the bass clarinet in the live-in-studio version of Cloisonné. - Article on Wikipedia
