Robot Parade
From This Might Be A Wiki
| song name | Robot Parade |
| artist | They Might Be Giants |
| releases | tmbg.com, No!, No! Preview, TMBG Clock Radio, Podcast 2A |
| year | 2000 |
| first played | April 13, 2000 (351 known performances) |
| run time | 1:22 |
| sung by | John Flansburgh |
Trivia/Info
"Robot Parade" is based on a traditional melody sung by robots before robot uprisings and unicorn battles, but because a lot of the lyrics of the original songs are actually explicitly anti-unicorn it seemed inappropriate for kids — especially girls going through a unicorn/princess phase.
- In a 2013 interview with Wired, John Flansburgh revealed that this song was first created during sessions scoring incidental music for Malcolm In The Middle:
The real nitroglycerine is that we had this real primitive vocal-effects processor, the Yamaha SBX-90, but it made this octavized, harmonized robot voice. You could just sing into it, and it would come back sounding that way, which was pretty insane. We just let that drive the song. When you sing into the thing, it's hard not to go "Ro-bot".
- Before the release of No!, an intense heavy-metal version of this song was released on the Working Undercover For The Man EP under the label of "Robot Parade (Adult Version)". Flansburgh said of this version in 2013[1]: "The original version of the song is this impossible, blistering heavy metal thing, and we realized that that might be too overwhelming for anyone, so we did the peaceful electric piano version." He would later mention in a 2018 Tumblr ask that both versions of the song were recorded "back to back on the same night"[2].
- This song was first previewed via. an early mix that aired on Dial-A-Song on March 12, 2000, followed by a free MP3 release of the mix on eMusic on March 20, 2000. It would also be previewed on tmbg.com's No! section in August 2000.
- A "Robot Parade" themed rope toy was made available for purchase via. mail order and merch tables in 2002 to promote the release of No!
- This song is performed live in a rock-like fashion in the key of G major, rather than the E major duet arrangement heard on the album version. A in-studio performance of this version was recorded for the Here Come The ABCs CD/DVD combo.
- At some shows (including in the video from tmbg.com) Flansburgh sings: "Children obey what the robots say!" instead of "Robots obey what the children say!"
- The adult version of "Robot Parade" was rewritten with Chopping Block themed lyrics for an unreleased robot themed version of their old website. This recording, titled "Robot Design", was officially released on Songs For Chop in 2016.
- This song was used over the ending credits of The Simpsons episode "Them, Robot", which first aired on March 18, 2012. On Tumblr, three days after the episode aired, Flansburgh said: "We got the call it was going to be in a few weeks back but no indication it would air so soon. We're on cloud 9!"[3]
Song Themes
Altered Voice, Bad English, Children, Recycled Material, Robots, Science, Size, Time, Transportation, TV And Movie Themes
Videos
- Watch it on
- In-studio music video from the Here Come The ABCs DVD/CD combo - Watch the
video on tmbg.com (Live)
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. Robot Parade is currently ranked #722 out of 1085. (89 wikians have given it an average rating of 7.76) |
Other Links for “Robot Parade” [edit]
|
