Number Three (1984 Demo)

From This Might Be A Wiki

song name Number Three
artist They Might Be Giants
releases 1984 Promotional Demo Tape, 1985 Promotional Demo Tape #5, Bill Krauss Demos
year 1984
run time 1:38
sung by John Flansburgh, John Linnell


Trivia/Info

  • Similar to the 1985 demo version but with more hectic vocals, no accordion and different bass and drum parts.
  • John Linnell found the Skinny Lena sample in May 1984, so this recording must not date to earlier than that. He wrote about finding the record in a 1995 Info Club newsletter:
In May of 1984 I got a new, better job working in a darkroom and moved from a grim section of Park Slope in Brooklyn to Hell's Kitchen on the west side of Manhattan. [...] Chris [Lawrence] was also the building's super and he and I spent a few days cleaning out several of the apartments. One of them contained all the possessions of an Eastern European couple that had lived there right up until they died, so many of the things we removed were the accoutrements of the last days of a person's life, which was kind of disturbing. Some of the records they left were instant favorites of ours, especially an album called "Polka Time" and a single called "Skinny Lena." Skinny Lena was an Italian song in 6/8 with a humorous verse in English and a staccato Bari Sax riff. At some point I figured out a way to make the record skip in 4/4 during the riff while the 45 was played at 33, which became the repeating figure on TMBG's recording of Flansburgh's "Number Three."

Song Themes

Animals, Creative Drought, Mathematics, Money, Music, Occupations, Precious Metal, Presidents, Questions, Self-Reference, Titles And Honorifics

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