Spy

From This Might Be A Wiki

song name Spy
artist They Might Be Giants
releases John Henry, Stumpbox, John Henry + Factory Showroom
year 1994
first played April 21, 1993 (617 known performances)
run time 3:06
sung by John Flansburgh, Robin Goldwasser screams


Trivia/Info

  • John Flansburgh: "The song doesn't have the classic crunchy spy chords of Bond music but the biting guitar is a hat tip to that famous intro. If there was any specific piece of music that it jumps off of I'd guess I'd point to Peter Gunn."[1] The Johns have covered the "Peter Gunn" theme song before.
  • Features Steven Bernstein on trumpet.
  • No two performances of this song are alike at TMBG's live shows, where the end of "Spy" is improvised by the band led by a random "conductor" (either or both Johns).
  • Live performances may segue into the jam section using loops of lines from "The One That You Love" by Air Supply, "Take It to the Limit" by Eagles, or "Here Comes Santa Claus" by Gene Autry.
  • Some live performances may also segue into other songs during the outro jam session such as:
    • Kumbaya”, a traditional campfire song.
    • I Am Not Your Broom
    • Mr. Tambourine Man” by The Byrds, originally by Bob Dylan
    • "The Swing Era," a Time magazine promotional flexi disc advertising a series of remastered 78 rpm classic big band recordings (with the recordings themselves replaced by random outbursts from the horn section)

Song Themes

Intelligence, Espionage, Occupations, Screaming, The Senses, Transportation

Videos

Current Rating

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Spy is currently ranked #667 out of 1031. (131 wikians have given it an average rating of 7.90)