Talk:Wearing A Raincoat

Commentary

An extraordinary song. Easily in the top 10 songs that the band have written. Difficult to unpick the lyrics, but the overall message is one of deep paranoia and ignorance. Linnell's singing is immense and the tricks on his voice really help to drive home the themes of the song. I think the Beatles comparisons are to do with the fact that the song is concerned primarily with perception, and with all the production tricks thrown in. the track can be compared to such Beatles classics as "I am the Walrus" "The Inner Light" and "Rain". So intense is this song that its almost like a ten minute song that lasts 3 minutes. Easily the best song on the Spine. (Mr Tuck)

I'm not entirely sure I like TMBG's newfound emphasis on postproduction, such as with the distortion of John's voice. This tune is pretty catchy anyway, though.

Download

How do you download this song from tmbg.com?

http://www.tmbg.com/freeTunes.html

Familiarity

This song sounds really familiar. I can't place it though, damn.

In the line "Wearing a raincoat is flying around in a rubber airplaine made out of a raincoat," the "made out of a raicoat" part seems to be similar to part the chorus of "She's an Angel" ("When you're following an angel..."). For me this sparked a sort of familiarity.

Also, the last two verses seem to strongly go back to the lyrical pattern the first two verses, changing and rearranging the words in small and unexpected ways. This reminds me much of the difference between the first and second halves of "We Want a Rock".

In addition, when I listen to it, I seem to notice that various words stand out as memorable parts from the lyrics of other They Might Be Giants songs (Friend-"I am a Human Head" Pipe-"The Biggest One" Sleep-"Ant" Swimming-"Mr. Me" Drums-"Dr. Worm", etc.) but I can't detect much pattern to it... Maybe it's just the apparently spontane randomness that makes it familiar in that regard...

Aside from that, the music itself does seem to remind me of many Beatles songs... and something else that I can't place, shucks. Maybe somebody else has an idea.

As far as sounding like The Beatles, I think the opening has an "Across The Universe" feel. The backmasked guitar, of course. And then that flute-y keyboard sounds like the mellotron in "Strawberry Fields." They are The Shitty Beatles.

I think the made up on the spot quality of the lyrics mached with the fairly lush production is absolutely the charm of the song. (I could listen to those Linnell-chorus harmonies forever.) The somewhat addled repetition of the earlier lines in the second half - as though Linnell did make up the verses on the fly and now can't remember exactly what he sang before - is marvelous. I also think the distortion on the voice sounds great.</font> -User:Tisher 10/19/03

Doctor Worm sequel?

In the Trivia section of this page someone has written that this song is the sequel to Doctor Worm, on what basis is this claim being made?</font> -User:Tisher 10/20/03

Momus

The line "sleeping is a gateway drug" reminds me of the Momus song Mistaken Memories of Medival Manhattan: "I took a drug, the pain of my life dissapeared.... Sleep's the name of the drug I took, sleep and nothing more". I don't know if the john's know this song (though they probably would cos Momus is ace and they're guys of good taste), but I think it's an interesting parrallel anyway. -Kristofski

Backward guitar

But I could not hear the backwards guitar. What does it sound like? Master50

It's the first instrument you can hear in the song--71.166.38.156 03:05, 26 June 2008 (UTC)

No, that would just be a guitar. Backwards guitar can be heard at 2:48. --Luke 03:33, 26 June 2008 (UTC)

Key

Is this song in the key of G, A, B, C, D, E, or F? Major or minor?

This song is in D Major. :) --Overjoy 02:30, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

Clock Radio

I just listened to "Wearing A Raincoat" on the Clock Radio AM channel. It sounded like someone drowning a robot. There was no discernible music. It may have been a one-time glitch, but my guess is the MP3 it streams is messed up badly. It was really funny, so I thought I'd share the information. :-p --The Almighty Doer of Stuff 21:51, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

Don't know if it's worth putting on the article's page or the Clock Radio's page or whatever, so I put it here. --The Almighty Doer of Stuff 21:52, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

Yeah, there are a few songs on Clock Radio that are screwed up, like C Is For Conifers. --Valerie 21:34, 18 February 2008 (UTC)

I'm experiencing the same issue, just so it's clear it's not a one-time glitch.--24.17.125.251 04:57, 8 March 2008 (UTC)