Twisting

From This Might Be A Wiki

song name Twisting
artist They Might Be Giants
releases Flood, Twisting (Promo), Specialty Records Test Pressing, Dial-A-Song: 20 Years Of They Might Be Giants, Flood + Apollo 18, 50,000,000 They Might Be Giants Songs Can't Be Wrong
year 1990
first played November 25, 1989 (827 known performances)
run time 1:56
sung by John Flansburgh


Trivia/Info

I still get a certain joy from observing things from modern life that aren't part of other generations' lives. "Twisting" actually mentions a couple of fairly obscure rock bands like the Young Fresh Fellows. But, to me, that makes it a more authentic song. It's about a very particular kind of relationship, about breaking up the records—it's not a divorce. It's about people who live in apartments; it's not some grand projection of man and woman figures breaking up. We live in a rock culture, and it's just a realistic reflection of that. When you talk about living today, that's the backdrop.
This piece of farfisa [organ] rock is directly influenced by the bands it references. The Young Fresh Fellows from Seattle are a group whose happy, sad-sack sensibility we probably related to, and the dB's were one of the great under-recognized bands of the New York scene we started with, and their great song 'Amplifier' is a more melodramatic iteration of the same idea.
  • At some point during the creation of this song, Alan Bezozi accidentally deleted the entire drum track, much to Flansburgh's dismay.
  • According to an article in the March 31st, 1990 issue of Billboard, there was a music video planned for this song, which was to be directed by Adam Bernstein. However, Flansburgh later confirmed that the music video never entered production, as the band was busy touring and the song hadn't performed as well commercially as anticipated.[1]
  • "Twist in the wind" is an English idiom that means to be left hanging or without support in an uncomfortable situation. It is a reference to a hanged body, which would twist in the wind.
  • This song was used in a commercial to advertise the 2006 WB series Modern Men, as well as a British Pizza Hut commercial in the early 2000s.

Song Themes

Animals, Death, Egoism And Pretentiousness, Funny But Sad, Love Gone Sour, Not In Major Or Minor, Oblique Cliches Or Idiom, References To Other Songs Or Musicians, Screaming, The Senses, Songs Used In Commercials, Songs With Handclaps

Videos

  • Watch it on Youtube.png - Live on JBTV, 1994

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.

Twisting is currently ranked #183 out of 1005. (153 wikians have given it an average rating of 8.78)