Talk:Alphabet Of Nations

Comments on performances

They performed the song live at the London Astoria gig in September. It was absolutely fantastic. (Mr Tuck)

Albany saw it too. ^_^ In fact, the Astoria and Egg set lists are really similar. I thought the song was great, too. The Johns seemed to have a silly smile on that said, "We just memorized this whole thing and we're really proud about it, just listen!" -_^ Kazen

And, I mean... 'West Xylophone'? How can we not love this song? BrotherGlenn

When they performed it at the House of Blues in Anaheim, they said it was the first time they'd ever perfomed it on stage.

During the Anaheim HoB show, they actually read the lyrics while singing... but it still rocked! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 4.168.36.115 (talk) 01:31, February 6, 2005

West Xylophone

After viewing the brief video clip for this song on the Disney website, one wonders how 'West Xylophone' is going to be identified on the map of the world... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.36.94.224 (talk) 17:59, December 31, 2004

Some kids are going to hear "West Xylophone" and get messed up. - wt 02:25, February 16, 2005

At the 2/16 in store, they mentioned that there's no such place as West Xylophone: that's the colonial name, the modern name is "Marimba". GersonK 02:16, 17 Feb 2005 (EST)

Marimba is another musical instrument, not a country: https://www.marimba.org/en/modules/tinyd0/index.php?id=3 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.46.23.26 (talk) 08:29, August 16, 2005

You might be interested in the history of West Xylophone —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jlavezzo (talk • contribs) 16:58, October 11, 2005

As a former kid who listened to this song in his childhood, I can confirm I was pretty confused by the lyric. I think eventually I got that there just were no countries that started with "X", but there for a while I thought they just said xylophone cause it was funny. Never thought West Xylophone was an actual country, though.--Robot Parade (talk) 16:56, 24 July 2024 (EDT)

WX stickers

Wonder when they are going to start selling those oval shaped car stickers with country initials in them. I'm looking forward to slapping a "WX" on my car! Jlavezzo 13:46, May 10, 2005

Cool! Check out the West Xylophone Tourism Board! They're selling stickers. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.167.225.154 (talk) 16:42, May 12, 2005

Country names

Has any one bothered to verify the existence of the other countries names? Just wondering - fingertips 19:52, December 31, 2004

Yes, I did when I added the lyrics. -TDK 03:53, January 1, 2005

Ok, cool, thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Fingertips (talk • contribs) 22:45, January 1, 2005

W

The article says, "There are no countries whose name begins with the letters 'W' and 'X'. Instead, 'West Xylophone' is used." However, it's worth mentioning that Wales is described by Wikipedia as a country or nation (though not a sovereign one, but it has the same status as England, Scotland, or Ireland). Furthermore, there are Wallis and Futuna, which is technically a French territory, and the disputed Western Sahara. —Preceding unsigned comment added by InterruptorJones (talk • contribs) 00:53, February 17, 2005

Thanks to whoever put this up! I was coming here to post the same thing! --Cam00023 12:52, March 9, 2005

"it has the same status as England, Scotland, or Ireland" Not Ireland. Northern Ireland. ;) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.70.37.226 (talk) 10:03, March 17, 2005

Separate page

Shouldn't there be a separate page for the extended live version of the song heard on the Spine tour and Conan? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Wittytirade (talk • contribs) 15:28, February 21, 2005

Yes, there is now. Check out Alphabet Of Nations (Live). --MisterMe (talk) 11:54, 3 October 2016 (EDT)

Pronunciation of Kazakhstan

In the DVD version of Alphabet (presumably the CD version as well), they pronounce Kazakhstan differently in the second verse than in the first verse. Any speculation as to whether this was intentional? --Heath 00:32, 10 Mar 2005 (EST)

Alphabet book

I remember an alphabet book as a child that did countries. Including West Xylophone. Has anyone else read it? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.167.225.66 (talk) 14:44, February 16, 2006

Alphabet of Nations' critical flaw

Beyond the possible disputed existence of 'W' countries, "West Xylophone" occupies the 'W' and 'X' spots in the song, yet it is only a single entry. Though "Xylophone"'s existence is implied by the existence of its western neighbor, technically 'X' has been left out of the song entirely.

The proper thing to do would be to issue a recall of Here Come the ABCs! to correct this distressing error. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.165.244.16 (talk) 14:57, March 8, 2006

^Hahahaha! -- Jason DeLima - ♥! - 10:46, 8 August 2009 (UTC)

First Performance

At the House of Blues in Anaheim on 8/17, they said that was the first time they were performing that song in public. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.95.11.92 (talk) 09:28, May 5, 2007

Feel free to add it to that show's setlist, by finding the show page via Shows. The song's page will be automatically updated once it sees Alphabet Of Nations on another setlist. -CapitalQ ♫ talk ♪ 13:36, 5 May 2007 (UTC)

PBS?

So right now, on PBS, a portion of this video just aired with an introduction by the puppet Johns. The segment was titled something along the lines of "profile of an artist" but whether or not that is exact, I am unsure. Just thought I'd tell you guys. --Josherz 21:05, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

alphabet of nations piano music

My kids love this song and one of them figured out how to play it (with one finger) on the piano. Know anywhere I can find the piano part all written out so I can play it with all it's full, ringing sounds? I've been looking for a while and am surprised some kind of easy piano collection doesn't exist. Every kid in the neighborhood loves TMBG. Thanks, all. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Aimeeferguson (talk • contribs) 10:01, April 24, 2010

Blitzente transcribed and put together a great collection of sheet music here, including the Alphabet Of Nations! :) -Apollo. 14:21, 24 April 2010 (UTC)

Thank you for the plug, but I'll note before anyone is disappointed that that's not the whole keyboard part. On the other hand (har), the keyboard is really simple in the studio version! Figure out bars 5 to 9 and they repeat for the rest of the song. ~ blitzente (talk) 21:21, 24 April 2010 (UTC)

Of Ignorance, Bad Spelling and Piano Sheets

I clicked this fancy lookin link thinkin it would easily get me to the Alphabet of Nations by they Might be Giants Piano sheet music... but do you think it did if i'm angrily writting this letter to you? Ummm no i'm am a very sick girl just trying to get some piano practicin in but i cannot possible do that with the difficulties of you website mr. or mrs. so um yea i suggest makin it a little more easiler to manage. No i'm not a dum ghetto girl i'm in honors english but i go all out when im angry

goodbyeeeeeeeeeeeee —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.248.146.86 (talk) 19:03, September 27, 2010

A FEW THINGS: a) this is a wiki, there is no single "mr. or mrs." that you are currently addressing, but if you do want to talk to someone who knows their stuff, try checking out the contact page. b) I recommend using a browser that has spell check enabled, or at least looking over your messages, because people might take you more seriously, even if you're not a "dum ghetto girl"(?). c) You can find some simple sheet music that blitzente made right here, AS STATED DIRECTLY ABOVE. d) You shouldn't expect to find extensive sheet music here, the wiki's mostly for information and things like that, but there are guitar tabs (which have a lot of chords that you can use to work out the basic structure of many songs on various instruments with some knowledge of musical theory. Many have tabbed guitar notes that you can play on other instruments with knowledge of guitar scales), bass tabs, and even a few drum tabs, if you want those. Also e) "dum ghetto girl"...? -Apollo (Phoebus!) 23:57, 27 September 2010 (UTC)

what the hells you talking about? you click the link and you don't bother to go there? i have a hard time understanding how your complaining about the sheet music not being there when that's ALLLLL it's doing. check again, girl. you must be dum or sumpn -Magbatz

Good Lord, almighty. I seriously fear for the future of this country, if all Honors English students display your mastery of the English language. There's this old-fashioned thing called punctuation, and it actually goes quite hand-in-hand with some other concepts, like "spelling" and "capitalization". "Coherence" is another concept you might like to try. (Of course, I realize that you are probably never coming back here to read this, but come on.) --Duke33 17:30, 9 March 2011 (UTC)

I feel like that had to be posted as a joke, but this is the Internet so one can never be too sure... --MisterMe (talk) 11:54, 3 October 2016 (EDT)