References To Other Songs Or Musicians

TMBG often make obvious or subtle references to other songs, musicians, bands, or performers. This list includes many of those references. However, without the Johns' stamp of validation, it must be admitted that some of them may just be guesses.

Lyrical references

• 2017 IFC Welcome - Some lyrics borrowed from Welcome to the Jungle by Guns N' Roses
• Absolutely Bill's Mood - Title references Bob Dylan's predilection for prepending irrelevant, emphatic adverbs to song titles (e.g., "Absolutely Sweet Marie", "Positively 4th Street", "Obviously 5 Believers").
• Ana Ng - "All alone at the '64 World's Fair / Eighty dolls yelling 'Small girl after all'" - Disney's It's a Small World song and ride repeats the line "It's a small world after all". The ride was unveiled at the fair and eventually moved to Disneyland.
• Ana Ng - "It's like a whirlpool and it never ends" is a reference to the Tommy Roe song "Dizzy": "My head is spinning, like a whirlpool it never ends."
• The Biggest One - Lyrics play on Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive" ("Change the lock, throw away the key, I will survive")
• Birdhouse In Your Soul (Demo) - "Give me something to write on" and "I don't feel thirty" both play on extemporaneous lines from Van Halen's "Hot For Teacher", in which David Lee Roth exhorts, "I don't feel tardy."
• Birds Fly - The line about "a good luck charm hanging off my arm" refers to the Elvis Presley song "Good Luck Charm."
• Brain Problem Situation - The line "Wake up / Put on my makeup / And pick the rake up / And rake my hair" could be a reference to "Chop Suey!" by System of a Down ("Wake up / Grab a brush and put a little makeup"), or "I Say A Little Prayer" by Bacharach and David ("The moment I wake up / Before I put on my makeup").
• Cage & Aquarium - Contains the line "This is the spawning of the Cage and Aquarium" in the chorus; a skewed match to the song "Age of Aquarius" which contains the line "This is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius" in its chorus. Age of Aquarius is originally from the 60's musical "Hair", but is a well-known oldies song in its own right.
• Cast Your Pod To The Wind - Title likely refers to Vince Guaraldi's "Cast Your Fate to the Wind".
• Circular Karate Chop - The lyric "short sharp shock" originally appeared in Gilbert and Sullivan's 1885 comic opera The Mikado. The same phrase has also been used in other musical and literary works.
• Damn Good Times - "She acts like David Lee Roth when he turned 21", song itself a reference to David Lee Roth's "Damn Good" from the 1987 DLR album Skyscraper.
  • "I know a girl who's got a record machine" is almost exactly the same as a line from "20 Flight Rock" by Eddie Cochran.
• Dog - "She's a dog who wrote the book of love", likely a reference to "Who Wrote the Book of Love?" by The Monotones.
• Fake Out In Buenos Aires - "Land of a thousand fake outs" is a reference to Land of a Thousand Dances; "Faker's Delight" is a reference to Rapper's Delight; "Fake Around The Clock" is a reference to Rock Around The Clock
• The Fellowship Of Hell - "Rock had a baby and they called it 'Aaaah'" is likely a reference to the Muddy Waters song "The Blues Had a Baby and They Named It Rock and Roll."
• Free Bird's Rebirth - Reference to the Lynyrd Skynyrd song.
• Hey, Mr. DJ, I Thought You Said We Had A Deal - last verse in which TMBG makes references to several of their own songs "Well, I told you about the world - its address", "Chess Piece Face's patience must be wearing thin", etc., mimics the Beatles' "Glass Onion" ("I told you about Strawberry Fields", etc, in which the Beatles reference themselves)
• How Now Dark Cloud? - "This is the end of the half-written tale / Of a man and the cake and the rain" the band's second reference to the Richard Harris single, "MacArthur Park". MacArthur Park is a narrative ballad from the point of view of a man whose love affair has ended and contains the line, "Someone left the cake out in the rain".
• I Hope That I Get Old Before I Die - Twist on the line "Hope I die before I get old" from The Who's "My Generation"
• I Love You For Psychological Reasons - Reference to the 1940s standard "(I Love You) For Sentimental Reasons," most famously sung by Nat King Cole.
• Impossible - "Well I'd like to be an octofish" may refer to the Captain Beefheart song "Neon Meate Dream of a Octafish" from the 1969 album Trout Mask Replica.
• I Need Some Lovin' - "Tears running down my spine" appears (in the slightly altered form of "tears ran down my spine") in Phil Ochs's song "Love Me, I'm a Liberal."
• Iowa - "And if that broom don't fly / I'm gonna buy you / a Dustbuster" is a play on the traditional lullaby "Hush Little Baby".
• It's Not My Birthday - "When this grey world crumbles like a cake / I'll be hanging from the hope / that I'll never see that recipe again" is a play on "Someone left the cake out in the rain...and I'll never have that recipe again" from "MacArthur Park" by Richard Harris.
• Let's Get This Over With - The line "And you know there is no parking on the dance floor" is a reference to "No Parking (On the Dance Floor)" by Midnight Star.
  • The line "You don't have to go home but you can't stay here" may be a reference to Semisonics's "Closing Time".
• Lincoln, Washington, And That Jefferson Guy - Title is a reference to a lyrics from Bob Dylan's "Talkin' John Birch Paranoid Blues".
• Lucky Ball & Chain - A modified quote of Darlene Love's song "(Today I Met) The Boy I'm Gonna Marry" ("playing 'Here Comes the Bride' when he walks in the door"), which itself references "The Wedding March (Here Comes the Bride)".
• Lullabye To Nightmares - "Lullabye to nightmares, whisper low" could be inspired by the 1952 song "Lullaby of Birdland", covered by numerous artists like Ella Fitzgerald.
• Maine - "Shaving razor's rusty, but the sting brings you exactly back to Maine" is probably a reference to the Monkees song "Daydream Believer" ("The shaving razor's cold, and it stings").
• Mainstream U.S.A. - We Are the World (which TMBG have covered); Ringo Starr's "Back Off Boogaloo"; guitar lick also sounds like the 1958 hit Tequila
• Memo To Human Resources - The line "Nevermind the furthermore, the plea is self-defense" can be found in the Monkees songs "Zilch" and "No Time".
• Money For Dope - "Autograph from Julian Cope". The title is a line from the John Lennon song "Gimme Some Truth."
• Mr. Klaw - lyrics are a parody of the Theme From Mister Ed
• Nanobots - reference to the 1967 hit song "Pictures of Matchstick Men" originally by the English rock band Status Quo. It was covered by TMBG in 1992 after being requested.
• New Orleans - "There is a house in New Orleans" is a direct quote from the traditional lamentation "House Of The Rising Sun," made perhaps most famous by The Animals'; style parody of Ozzy Osbourne
• Nothing's Gonna Change My Clothes - The title is a reference to "nothing's gonna change my world," a line from the Beatles song "Across the Universe".
• Pencil Rain - "The possible dream" is a parody of the famous line "The impossible dream" from the musical version of Don Quixote (and, of course, TMBG's namesake comes from a cinematic reference to the same)
• Puppets Gonna Fuck You Up - One line makes reference to Cher's "Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves".
• Put Your Hand Inside The Puppet Head - "Quit my job down at the carwash, didn't have to write no one a goodbye note" similar to "I quit my job down at the carwash, left my mother a goodbye note" in "Guitar Man", made famous by Elvis Presley
• Sally Boy Candy Bar - Quotes lyrically and melodically from the line "I've been told when a boy kiss a girl" from the song "Boys" by The Shirelles and The Beatles.
• Santa's Beard - "I saw my baby wearing Santa's beard" recalls "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus"
• Sapphire Bullets Of Pure Love - The title is borrowed from a song by Mahavishnu Orchestra on their 1973 album Birds of Fire.
• Sapphire Bullets Of Pure Love - The lyric "Done someone wrong / And I fear that it was me" seems to be an interpolation of the line "Broke somebody's heart/And I fear that it was mine" from the song "It Happened In Monterey" by Frank Sinatra.
• Scott Bower - "My lifestyle determines my deathstyle" is borrowed from the Metallica song "Frantic."
• See The Constellation - The first line, "I lay my head on the railroad track" is almost the same as the first line from "Poor, Poor Pitiful Me," by Warren Zevon.
• (She Was A) Hotel Detective In The Future - "She walks with the beard of a rainbow" refers to the Cream song "SWLABR" from the 1967 album Disraeli Gears. "SWLABR" stands for "She Walks Like A Bearded Rainbow," and the song includes the line "The rainbow has a beard" (also used in "Upside Down Frown").
• Sleepwalkers - The line "Perhaps when they awake they'll remember everything" refers to The Band's 1969 song "When You Awake" off their self-titled second album, whose chorus begins "When you awake you will remember everything..."
• Snowball In Hell - "If it wasn't for disappointment, I wouldn't have any appointments" is a play on the line "If it wasn't for bad luck, I wouldn't have no luck at all", which appears in a number of blues songs, including Lightnin' Slim's "Bad Luck Blues" (1954) and Albert King's "Born Under a Bad Sign" (1967).
• South Carolina - The line "Lift that fork, eat that snail" is a reference to the song "Ol' Man River."
• The Communists Have The Music - "I don't need a rationale to sing The Internationale," a famous socialist anthem
• They Might Be Giants (1989 Rough Mix) - The line "They might be yelling out albatross" is a reference to Monty Python's "Albatross" sketch, which shows up in several places including the Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl movie.
• Thunderbird - The line "We'll have fun, fun, fun until T-bird takes her dad away" has some fun with The Beach Boys' song "Fun, Fun, Fun" - "And she'll have fun fun fun 'til her daddy takes the T-bird away."
• Upside Down Frown - "The rainbow has a beard" references the Cream song "SWLABR" from their 1967 album Disraeli Gears. "SWLABR" stands for "She Walks Like A Bearded Rainbow," also referenced in "(She Was A) Hotel Detective In The Future."
• We Just Go Nuts At Christmastime - The spelling out of "divorce" and "hell" comes from the song "D-I-V-O-R-C-E," written by Bobby Braddock and Curley Putman, and performed by both Tammy Wynette and Dolly Parton.
• We Want A Rock - References the 1967 song "If I Were a Carpenter" by Tim Hardin, which was famously covered by many artists including Johnny Cash.
• Weep Day - The names of "Tambo" and "Urine Man", when put together, form "Tambourine Man", which of course refers to "Mr. Tambourine Man", by Bob Dylan, which has even been covered by TMBG.
• Welcome To The Jungle - Title borrowed from Welcome to the Jungle by Guns N' Roses
• West Virginia - According to John Linnell, the line "There's another deep inside you" is a reference to "Georgy Girl" by The Seekers, which has even been covered by TMBG.
• The World's Address - uses "Tonight" (Bernstein/Sondheim) from West Side Story as a central reference point: "Today the world was just an address / a place for me to live in..."
• Why Does The Sun Shine? (live versions) - When introducing the rocking version of this song at a show, John Flansburgh has been know to announce, "We want you to want the sun!" which is a reference to Cheap Trick's "I Want You To Want Me."
• Why Does The Sun Really Shine? - Refutes the obsolete science in Hy Zaret's lyrics to "Why Does The Sun Shine?" (written in the 1950s) about the state of the sun.
• Why Must I Be Sad? - "I understand the words that Alice said." A healthy chunk of the lyrics are titles to Alice Cooper songs.
• The World Before Later On - "Where's our space face" references the term coined by David Bowie in "Moonage Daydream".
• You'll Miss Me - "It must be raining 'cause a man ain't supposed to cry" is a reference to Dee Clark's 1961 hit "Raindrops."
• You're On Fire - "The lights are low / The music is extremely loud" would appear to be an oblique reference to ABBA's "Dancing Queen": "Lights are low" and "the music's high"; John Linnell has expressed an undesired affection for the song
• Your Own Worst Enemy - reference to Sonny Geraci of the band Climax singing "Precious and Few"

Musical references

• Ant (Indestructible Object Version) - "Hail to the Chief" plays during the presidential verse.
• Battle For The Planet Of They Might Be Giants - One section of music played is taken from Chicago's "25 or 6 to 4".
• Boat Of Car - The Johnny Cash sample "Daddy sang bass" or "Daddy'll sing bass".
• Cells - Borrows a guitar riff from The Young Fresh Fellows' Hillbilly Drummer Girl.
• Dallas - The Yes song "We Have Heaven" begins "Tell the Moon-dog, tell the March-hare", which inspired TMBG, already using the three opening words, to borrow this song's starting melody as well. The whole song is essentially a Yes style parody/tribute.
• Didn't Kill Me - Reminiscent of how "Her Majesty" by The Beatles ends the Abbey Road album in a similar way - both are simple, 25-second songs that feel tacked onto the end of the album.
• Fibber Island - Flute outro is similar to "Strawberry Fields Forever" by The Beatles.
• Happy Doesn't Have To Have An Ending - "Got a Valentine for Mr. Peter Tork" - the rhythm of this line is also similar to the Monkees song "Zilch"
• Maine - The intro to the song is lifted from The Beatles' "Good Day Sunshine" (note the identical keyboard intro and the copy of Ringo Starr's opening drum fill).
• Minimum Wage - backing track borrows heavily from Frank Sinatra's cover of Petula Clark's "Downtown," from his 1966 album Strangers in the Night.
• Now That I Have Everything - Instrumental break borrows the melody of "On Broadway."
• Particle Man (Live At XM Studio) - imitates the style of The Beatles; the intro in particular is recognizable as that of "Strawberry Fields Forever."
• Rhythm Section Want Ad - The accordion solo is borrowed from Raymond Scott's "Powerhouse", although it is changed slightly.
• S-E-X-X-Y - The end of the song suddenly shifts into a minor orchestra piece, a la the Beatles "Glass Onion."
• Where Your Eyes Don't Go - The bridge is a mix of the Perry Mason Theme and Someone's in the Kitchen with Dinah, the latter's lyrics were used in the demo.

References to artists

• '85 Radio Special Thank You - "In April, we all sang a duet with Tina Turner"
• Au Contraire - "David Bowie came to town...", "Bach had three of a kind"
• Brooklyn - "Marty Markowitz - now he's not frontin' the Funky Bunch."
• The Day - "The day Marvin Gaye and Phil Ochs got married..."
• Definition Of Good - "Listening to the work of Captain Beefheart" - the verse prior, "two flamingos engaging in a fruit fight" is a direct lyrical reference to Captain Beefheart's unhinged 1978 song Tropical Hot Dog Night
• Doris Cunningham (WFMU Demo) - "Yeah, we're into, uh, Kinks", "Tears for Fears, Duran Duran, right?", "Frankie, Spandau Ballet", "U2, Everything but the Girl", "Paul Young, Wham!; George Michael", "Thomas Dolby, of course", "Sting", "Dead or Alive"
• Escape From The Planet Of The Apes - "the planet where Mick Jagger lives"
• Feign Amnesia - "Barbarians and Seeds, The Lost and The Remains"
• Goatee - "Richard Thompson's solo album"
• Happy Doesn't Have To Have An Ending - "Got a Valentine for Mr. Peter Tork" (the ex-Monkee)
• Marty Beller Mask - the singer is "really Whitney Houston on the drums"; whether he is Marty Beller or not is up to interpretation.
• New York City - "The Empire State where Dylan lived"
• P.S.O.K. (Paul Stanley of KISS)
• Raleigh - Lists various acts that previously played at the Lincoln Theater.
• Reptiles Eat With The Bones We Hear With - "Ramones eat with the roadies they worked with / Ben Harper drinks from the glass that he slides with / Bright Eyes sees with the eyes he cries with"
• Retirement Village People - A reference to the Village People
• Rhythm Section Want Ad - Menudo, Euthrymics, MDC, Olive Oyl (from Popeye).
• Santa Cruz - "I think Avril Lavigne has her mitts on this one."
• Twisting - "She doesn't have to have her dB's records back" and "She doesn't have to have her Young Fresh Fellows tapes back." Also recalls the dance hit, "The Twist," by Hank Ballard and popularized by Chubby Checker. Twistin' (Live NYC) refers to Primus instead of Young Fresh Fellows.
• We're The Replacements - Refers, of course, to punk rock band The Replacements. "Hey where's Tommy" refers specifically to bassist Tommy Stinson.
• Where Your Eyes Don't Go - "You're free to come and go / or talk like Kurtis Blow "
• XTC Vs. Adam Ant - XTC, Adam Ant, Bow Wow Wow, Beatle based pop.
• You Don't Like Me - "Reading in the bath, Nirvana, and baseball caps"
• Youth Culture Killed My Dog - "Bacharach and David used to write his favorite songs" Refers to the pop tunesmiths Burt Bacharach and Hal David

See also

• Other Songs With References To TMBG
• TMBG Remakes

External links

• "Every Music Reference & Sample in They Might Be Giants Songs" on YouTube by CapitalQ