Interpretations:Tesla
- Song
- Lyrics
- Interpretations
- Credits
- Guitar Tab
- Bass Tab
- Chronology
Unexpected and unwelcome meetings[edit]
Clearly this is about an awkward meeting with an old friend in a situation akin to what The Meaning of Liff describes as a "Corriearklet".
CORRIEARKLET (n.) The moment at which two people approaching from opposite ends of a long passageway, recognise each other and immediately pretend they haven't. This is to avoid the ghastly embarrassment of having to continue recognising each other the whole length of the corridor.
Clearly the radar detection represents the first point of recognition, the death ray represents the feeling of deep kill-me-now awkwardness and the Tesla turbine represents the successful evasion of the other.
Or wait no, it's about Nikola Tesla, the famous Serbian-American inventor and engineer. Yeah that seems more likely.
- This is beautiful. 🌟
One of the Biography songs[edit]
In the same tradition as James K Polk and Meet James Ensor, a pleasant song that demonstrates late period Flans love of crooning a ballad. Unimaginable on early releases in the 80s, this MOR tendency, first heard on the Album version of First Kiss, is inoffensive enough but is so horizontal the band may have trouble staying awake playing it. Flans is absurdly proud of this one and is forever nagging the fans on social media to listen to it. Sometimes I feel sorry for him, usually I can't. Not on this tune.
(Mr Tuck)
- Christ dude, how did John Flansburgh hurt you? I don't see anything wrong with a laid-back song that simply tells a story, as opposed to something with more ups and downs and hidden meanings behind the lyrics or whatever. If we're just sharing our opinions of the song, I like the "horizontal" nature of it. It calms me down. To each their own, though.
Brief Reference to Birds Fly?[edit]
"Out of the windows birds fly " On one hand, this is a really obvious reference to Tesla's obsession with pigeons.
However, this lyric is also incredibly similar to the chorus of Birds Fly: "Birds fly into my windshield"
It could (and probably is) just coincidence, but as that song is in part about a malevolent person who likes to hurt birds, I wonder if this a deliberate allusion that suggests that Tesla's relationship with the birds was less deranged.
