Greek Number Three
From This Might Be A Wiki
| song name | Greek #3 |
| artist | They Might Be Giants |
| releases | Then: The Earlier Years, Selections From Then |
| year | 1997 |
| run time | 1:29 |
| sung by | John Linnell |
Trivia/Info
- This version of "Number Three" is sung entirely in Greek. In the liner notes for Then: The Earlier Years, the band wrote: "The Greek pronunciation in Greek #3 by Mr. Linnell (who claims to be one-eighth Hellenic) was characterized by one Greek native as 'crappy.'" John Linnell recalled in a 2008 interview: "I tried to learn Greek, but my Greek just stinks. So, I learned enough to be able to very roughly pronounce some of the words, but I never really learned how to speak Greek."
- The Greek translation was written by Chris Lawrence, a friend of the band, in the 1980s. Linnell explained in a 1995 essay: "Chris also made up a Greek translation of "Number Three," which became probably the longest running unfinished TMBG project of all time. In 1991 [sic] we recorded the basic tracks for the Greek version, but the vocal has still [April '95] not been recorded."
- The translation changes some of the details of the original lyrics. Notably, the narrator buys himself a bağlama instead of a silver guitar.
- In the late 1980s, the band recorded a traditional Greek-style instrumental backing track for "Number Three", which was intended to accompany the Greek lyrics. The track was built around samples from "Εισαγωγή" ("Introduction"), an instrumental by Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis from his 1962 LP Όμορφη Πόλη (Beautiful City). The band briefly used this backing track for live performances (in English) in early 1989, and used a slightly revised version at Then-themed duo shows in 1997. The Greek instrumental was curiously not used for the studio version, possibly due to copyright concerns. Instead, the final version uses the original backing track the band had performed with in the mid-80s, which closely resembles the song's 1984 demo.
Song Themes
Animals, Creative Drought, Food, Language, Mathematics, Money, Music, Occupations, Precious Metal, Presidents, Problems With Liner Notes, Questions, Self-Reference, Title Not In Lyrics, Titles And Honorifics
Videos
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