Dead
From This Might Be A Wiki
| song name | Dead |
| artist | They Might Be Giants |
| releases | Flood, Flood + Apollo 18 |
| year | 1990 |
| first played | November 25, 1989 (433 known performances) |
| run time | 2:58 |
| sung by | John Linnell |
Trivia/Info
- John Linnell on the song's subject matter in a 1990 interview with the Kansas City Star:
[Dead is] kind of ridiculous. It's a problem that's hard to be sympathetic with: On the one hand, it's frustrating that your life ends and you might feel like you're not achieving everything you want. But when you're alive you don't necessarily feel motivated towards achieving something. So I guess it's sort of like 'the grass is greener.'
- Linnell said of the song in Flood: Track By Track Guide To The Geek-Chic Breakthrough:
There’s no real little brother; we would never confess something like that in a song. I think I ripped the vocal interplay off from the Proclaimers. There, I said it. Let the lawyers emerge, feathered helmets and jousting spears at the ready … The dreamlike relationship between returning expired groceries and returning from the grave after you expire appealed to me.
- In a 1992 interview with rAw TiMe, John Flansburgh shares his interpretation of the song: "It’s a song written by John Linnell and to me [it’s] about the real life disappointment of becoming an adult. That you find yourself living your life and you can’t go back and live it another way because that part’s already behind you."
- The song was covered by Steve Burns of Blue's Clues fame for the Hello Radio tribute album. You can watch the cover's music video here. Brooklyn-based TV on the Radio also covered this song for a live session on Napster.
Song Themes
Accidents, Age, Dancing, Death, Eyes, Falling, Food, Heads, Mirrors And Reflections, Not In Common Time, Personification, Questions, Recursion, Recycled Material, Relatives, Religion, Supernatural, The Senses, Windows, Zombies Or The Undead
Videos
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