Kiss Me, Son Of God
From This Might Be A Wiki
| song name | Kiss Me, Son of God |
| artist | They Might Be Giants |
| releases | Lincoln, They'll Need A Crane (EP) [UK Release], Then: The Earlier Years, Selections From Then |
| year | 1988 |
| first played | March 4, 1987 (97 known performances) |
| run time | 1:54 |
| sung by | John Linnell; John Flansburgh harmonizes |
Trivia/Info
- Written by John Linnell, he mentioned that this song is "not about religion, but about people in the position to abuse others. And instead of being ignored, they are praised and rewarded."[1]
- Of the song's character, Linnell described them as "the singer of a fairly unknown New York band who acts like an egocentric superstar"[2] while John Flansburgh labelled them as an "all-purpose tyrant."[3] Since the release of Flood, Linnell has drawn parallels of this song's character to the "Triangle Man" referenced in "Particle Man": "He's an abusive bully, a potential fascist dictator who, for some reason, is represented by a triangle."[4]
- In an interview with Details magazine, John Flansburgh would recall his first reaction to "Kiss Me, Son Of God":
When Linnell first played me "Kiss Me, Son of God" my jaw just hit the floor. I was almost afraid to play the song publicly, because I was just thinking, "This is not going to be accepted." To be standing on stage singing "You love me, and I love me" just strikes me as a scary moment.
- When recording "Kiss Me, Son Of God" for Lincoln, the Johns chose to forgo their accordion-only live arrangement for the song in favor of a swing-style studio arrangement orchestrated by the Ordinaires. In a 2024 IFC email, it was revealed that the studio recording of the live arrangement released on the (She Was A) Hotel Detective EP was recorded as a reference for the Ordinaires to base their arrangement off of, with Flansburgh detailing the difference between both versions in an interview with THROTTLE magazine:
The [version] on the record was an experiment. Fritz Van Orden of the Ordinaires did the arrangement of the strings and brass. It doesn't sound exactly like what we do. It has that 30's proto-swing band sound to it. I like the way it came out. The hardest part for me was that the chords and the bridge got changed, so I had to change my harmony part which was already on the Andrews Sisters side of difficulty.
- Linnell would further discuss the Ordinaires in relation to "Kiss Me, Son Of God" in 2023 for Everything Sticks Like A Broken Record:
We loved seeing the Ordinaires. We played with them in the same little tiny clubs. They were an enormous band. They had nine members or something like that. We were a two-piece, so it was thrilling because they were this big orchestra and they did these elaborate arrangements. It was the beginning, I guess, of us doing work with other musicians where we felt like, "Well, what does this track need, or what would be interesting?" And then we'd fantasize about who else we could ask to play on it.I feel like we were growing a lot at that time. We were learning how to engage with other artists in fruitful ways.
- On April 17, 1987, a network television performance of this song on Kansas City, Missouri CBS affiliate KCTV was cut short. At a show later that year, Flansburgh explained, "Right after the line 'I look like Jesus', they pulled us off the air. We are still waiting for a written explanation and apology." The band's manager Jamie Kitman told the story in his 1988 essay, Our Roadies, Ourselves:
The band certainly has considered religious themes, as evidenced by John Linnell's solo accordion number, "Kiss Me, Son of God." A stinging indictment of organized religion, it was, in fact, the exact number [he] was crooning for [KCTV anchor Lili Bliss] and the audience at home when the folks at the studio control board panicked and pulled the plug.
"I built a little empire out of some crazy garbage called the blood of the exploited working class," [Linnell] had begun to sing, while [Flansburgh] smiled and snapped out an uptempo beat. "Now they've overcome their shyness, and they're calling me 'Your Highness,' and the world screams, 'Kiss me, Son of God.' "
Poor Lilly [sic]. Her evanescent smile had completely disappeared. Her hard-boiled co-anchor, a crusty old news guy straight from central casting, fell out of his chair laughing. Linnell continued: "I look like Jesus, so they say..." [..] as the monitor in the Green Room went blank.
- In relation to audience interpretations of They Might Be Giants' music, Flansburgh recalled a listener's interpretation to "Kiss Me, Son Of God" that stuck out to him in an interview with the Campus Slate:
Once this guy who was a born-again Christian heard "Kiss Me, Son Of God" and he thought it was really great. He said it really told the truth about all the evangelical types. I thought that was really nice, because I figured that someone who was a born again Christian would really take offense to the song. He really thought it was true.
- This song has been covered by both OK Go and Frank Bennett.
Song Themes
Egoism And Pretentiousness, Eyes, Friendship, Gleeful Irreverence, Love, People (Real), Religion, Supernatural, Rhymes, Size, Titles And Honorifics
Videos
Current Rating You must be logged in to rate this. You can either login (if you have a userid) or create an account with us today. Kiss Me, Son Of God is currently ranked #10 out of 1121. (373 wikians have given it an average rating of 9.28) |
Other Links for “Kiss Me, Son Of God” [edit]
|
