Cyclops Rock
From This Might Be A Wiki
| song name | Cyclops Rock |
| artist | They Might Be Giants |
| releases | Mink Car, Special Mink Car Sampler, Tracks Taken From The New Album 'Mink Car', Dial-A-Song: 20 Years Of They Might Be Giants, A User's Guide To They Might Be Giants: Melody, Fidelity, Quantity, Podcast 53 |
| year | 2001 |
| first played | March 4, 1999 (380 known performances) |
| run time | 2:38 |
| sung by | John Flansburgh; Cerys Matthews screams the bridge |
Trivia/Info
- Cerys Matthews is the guest singer on the song's bridge. John Flansburgh, on how the part came together:[1]
Clive [Langer, the producer] suggested Cerys, who coincidentally happened to be working down the road. He'd just done a record with her. I didn't know Cerys from Adam. She's a total sport and has an incredible amount of character. She tore it up.
- The initial idea was to have Joe Strummer of The Clash perform the bridge. "We finished before that could happen", explained Flansburgh.[2]
- In a 2003 interview, Flansburgh explained: "This is the story of a fellow who feels betrayed and beaten by a relationship, but is surviving. He compares himself to Chucky, from the Child's Play movies."[3]
- Flansburgh, on the creation of the song:[4]
I had written the verses and the chorus, and instead of making the demo just by myself, as a songwriter's demo, I brought in Danny Weinkauf to open things up. And he came in and created the riff that not only became the bass line, but also ended up being the guitar solo.
- In 2019, in response to a question about why "Nixon" was changed to "Chucky" for this version, Flansburgh explained, "I can't say it was a strong impulse. I think maybe Chucky seemed more universal and broadly horrifying, where as the Nixon mention kind of pulled the lyric off the main topic into some political thing."[5]
- The version of this song on the Dial-A-Song and User's Guide compilations is 4 seconds longer at the end than the Mink Car version, filled with extra guitar noises.
- The alternate channels 1, 3, 4, 5 and 6 on the E-card show cyclops versions of Barney, Miss Eyemerica, 20/20, a cop show and a western, respectively.
- The video for the song was likely inspired by The Residents, an experimental rock band that was known for keeping their identities hidden behind giant eyeball masks.
- This song was briefly featured in the season 7 premiere of reality TV competition The Masked Singer in March 2022 as entrance music for a singer in a cyclops outfit.
Song Themes
Artificial Body Parts, Body Parts, Children, Cities, Dancing, Eyes, Food, Freaks, Friendship, Geography, I've Got A, Loneliness, Love Gone Sour, Mind Control, Hypnotism, Misanthropy, Movies, Music, Mythology, New York City, Non-John Vocals, Problems With Liner Notes, Recycled Material, Screaming, Self-Reference, Transportation
Videos
- Watch the TMBG E-Card from tmbg.com
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