Interpretations:New Hampshire
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One of the most descriptive songs I've ever heard: The song describes an old, crotchety man who has no friends - no one likes him. He's bitter, ruminating forever on his various failures and drinking to ease the pain.
In this, he is in some ways the embodiment of the character of the state of New Hampshire. The state has a reputation for being slow to change and very stubborn. On ecan almost see a stereotypical New Hampshire man: wearing flannel, very blunt, somewhat rude and coarse - gruff, and jind of a drag. --Pandastan 22:22, 16 Jan 2006 (EST)
Moreover, Robert Frost the poet, well known as being a rather crotchety individual, is a New Hampshire native. --Dairhenien ~~
God, this song reminds me of me, without the booze. This is such a completely sad song, one of Linnells saddest songs ever (to me).
Pretty sure this song has very little actual connection with New Hampshire, but rather has the state in the song because it's on State Songs (as opposed to the other way around). — Miles 02:44, 21 March 2007 (UTC)
I've come to believe this is about Linnell's success as a musician. The lyrics start off in the first person narrative, explaining how he is "Longing to be asked inside." This perhaps is symbolic of being accepted into popular culture. The narrative then shifts to third person, where Linnell describes himself: "At best he's very interesting/His brushes with success were just an accident/No one likes New Hampshire man." These self-conscious lines describe first his music and lyrics as "interesting." Then it explains how They Might Be Giants have become mildly successful; can't we agree that their success is accidental? And the last, very self-conscious line explains Linnell's standpoint where he thinks that nobody really likes their music... which isn't really true.
Rarely do I believe a song by They Might Be Giants (especially Linnell) is actually autobiographical, but these lyrics just struck me as odd. So, make of this what you will. --Lemita 02:52, 1 December 2008 (UTC)
I think this is about a guy with some very serious problems. He may be homeless or something. He is described as "itchy" which suggests that he has some sort of health problem, and his presence is enough to scare off the two women in the song which indicates that he looks strange in some way (possibly just dirty or unkempt). Also the fact that he seems to have been following around the two women who have no idea who he is suggests some sort of mental problems. He apparently has very little going for him and has never been successful at anything except through random chance. The best you can say about him is that he is "interesting," which you might say about a crazy homeless person.
