Lyrics Talk:Ana Ng (Demo)

I always thought the line was "that's where she is and I just can't picture it." The syllables for "i can't just sit there" do not match up to what Linnell is saying.

-Jordan

Just stumbled across this. Wonderful to see the song in it's early stages. I was speculating about Linnell's writing the other day on here and I'm pleased to see that I was right. Originally the riff was begun on accordion rather than the guitar. For me it's one of the great indie guitar riffs, it's interesting to see that it indeed start it's life out a keyboard part, and it was a wise choice to translate it to the guitar as it gives the song it's energy. One of the real strengths of the band in the early days was that ego always gave way to pragmatism. Anyone whose ever played in a band will know the arguments over "parts" -- the Giants always put the songs first and neither of them would showboat. Secondly, you can see how Linnell sweated over the lyrics. Although the lyrics on the demo version are very familiar (and let's face it, could have passed muster if they'd made it to the final version) Linnell wasn't content until he had it just right. On other demos around this time that have emerged the songs are often at more formative stages both Don't Let's Start and Birdhouse demos needed a lot of work and writing until they were finished. Ana Ng seems pretty much fully formed in this early version. It's one of the great songs of their career. (Mr Tuck)