Critic Intro

From This Might Be A Wiki

song name Critic Intro
artist They Might Be Giants
releases Then: The Earlier Years
year 1997
first played February 14, 1997 (21 known performances)
run time 1:38
sung by John Flansburgh recites the testimonial quotes; John Linnell dubs the remainder


Trivia/Info

  • This was used to introduce some of the band's live shows in the '80s. John Flansburgh in a 1996 interview: "It sounds like pull-quotes on the back of a book describing how great it is. At the time, it was something that warmed up crowds of complete strangers. It's basically a minute and a half of comedy."
  • This intro samples two songs from the album Dramatic, Mystery, a 1971 LP of instrumental library music released by the Southern Library of Recorded Music. The track is mainly based around a sample of the song "Murder By Music". "Megalomania" is played during Linnell's speech.
  • "Murder By Music" was also used in the Kitten Intro, among other songs from the same LP. It also appears in the 1964 animated TV series Gigantor, and can be heard in the first episode. The background music used in Untitled and Doris Cunningham was also sourced from a record by the Southern Library of Recorded Music.
  • The four critics' names are actually the four regular panelists on To Tell the Truth in the 1960s.
  • John Flansburgh mentioned that this intro and the Kitten Intro were performed using masks in 1988.[1]

Song Themes

Friendship, History, Intros, People (Real), Science, Self-Reference, The Senses, Spoken Word

Videos

Current Rating

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Critic Intro is currently ranked #544 out of 1008. (28 wikians have given it an average rating of 8.14)