Maybe I Know (Wax Cylinder)
| song name | Maybe I Know |
| artist | They Might Be Giants |
| releases | TMBG Unlimited - August, DialASong.com (2000-2006), TMBG Clock Radio (as "A Wax Cylinder Special"), Leaked 1999 Studio Tape |
| year | 1996 |
| run time | 2:06 |
| sung by | John Flansburgh, John Linnell |
Trivia/Info
- A cover of the 1960s pop song written by Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry. This is one of four Wax Cylinder Recordings that the band created at The Edison Laboratory on April 27, 1996. This recording is shorter than the studio version and features all acoustic instruments.
- An article in the August 1996 edition of Musician magazine detailed the rehearsals for this song. The report, titled 'They Might Be Giants Wax Another One,' was written by music writer Michael Gelfand.
It's mid-afternoon in Manhattan, and the light but steady rain outside befits the atmosphere inside River Sound Studio. John Flansburgh and John Linnell, who together constitute They Might Be Giants, are both slouching uneasily in their control room chairs. After an exhausting week in the Hit Factory recording the basic tracks of their new album (title TBA), they've had little time to recover—today only marks the end of the first week of 14-hour-a-day overdubs.
The Giants are preparing to record "Maybe I Know," an Ellie Greenwich song made mildly famous by Lesley Gore back in 1964. Their intention is to use the song both as a B-side or EP cut to precede the album's release and as a wax cylinder recording—yeah, that antiquated contraption—for the Edison National Historic Site in West Orange, NJ. Wax cylinders can only hold roughly two minutes of recorded material, so the band has to devise a time-adjustment arrangement.
Linnell and most of the band—Eric Schermerhorn on guitar, Brian Doherty on drums and Ron Caswell on tuba—move into the main room, while bassist Graham Maby and Flansburgh set up in the control room. The Giants want to stay close to the slinkier elements of the original recording, so they keep altering their feel. The players are using acoustic instruments, which lends the song a certain timelessness, but still, something's not sitting right with Linnell. Doherty switches to brushes, and the song immediately takes on more dynamics, but only when Maby and Caswell rearrange their tic-tac "bass" pattern does the song's feel evolve from a plodding pace to bouncier Charleston groove.
While Maby and Caswell toy with their parts, engineer/producer Pat Dillett thinks aloud with Flansburgh. "Maybe we should've brought in that vibe player," he suggests, half-jokingly. "Maybe we should've brought in somebody with a vibe," muses Flansburgh.
- The Musician article makes reference to a planned studio recording of this acoustic arrangement of the song, intended for release on an EP or single. It is not known whether the band recorded this acoustic studio version, but it seems unlikely, as it wasn't released on the S-E-X-X-Y EP and it doesn't appear on the leaked Factory Showroom Sessions cassette.
Song Themes
Bad English, Denial, Falling, Lies And Deception, Love, Love Gone Sour, Sadness, Self-Reference, TMBG Remakes, Wax Cylinder Recordings
Videos
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