Piece Of Dirt

"Piece Of Dirt" performed by the Blue Avatar, 2012

Trivia/Info

• John Flansburgh would interpret the song's subject matter and intention in 2023 for Everything Sticks Like A Broken Record, a track-by-track breakdown of the Lincoln album featured in Bandbox Issue #103:

There was this idea in experimental theater in the early 20th century called the V effect, which is taking something with very heightened emotional value and using it to hold you away from what might seem sentimental. It's also called the alienation technique. The thing that's curious about "Piece of Dirt" is that it might be the V effect in reverse, where I'm singing the song in an unrelatable, put-on voice. I think I'm channeling a little bit of Robert Goulet or something and singing this very self-pitying set of words, but you still can get drawn into the message of the song. I guess, ultimately, the song turns on how sad the lyric is in the bridge, where it's like, "A woman's voice on the radio can convince you you're in love / A woman's voice on the telephone can convince you you're alone." It's hard not to get drawn in.

John [Linnell] and I have spent a lot of time sitting in diners, listening to Muzak or the commercial country station getting piped in. When you hear a really sentimental song like that, it's always interesting and surprising when it actually affects you — when you start believing it. In spite of the melodrama, in spite of the theater, in spite of the artifice, in spite of the remoteness of the approach, it feels emotionally true. That's what we were trying to capture.

• When asked to name any particularly special songs in 2010, John Linnell said:^[1]

There are certain recordings where after the fact we thought, "Wow, what an interesting, rare thing that was..." "Piece of Dirt" from the Lincoln album was this odd thing which came together in the studio and was very different and kind of beautiful and rare. It was the result of John and I collaborating in the studio, going back and forth and giving each other material and it was unlike anything we had recorded before.

• Linnell would also comment on this song in 2023 for Everything Sticks Like A Broken Record:

I get emotional when I hear that song. I don't know why. I don't even know what the song is about exactly, but I think it's such a beautiful expression of sadness. It has a lovely, lovely melody and chords and the words just tear me up.

• From the liner notes for Then: The Earlier Years^[2]: "Bill [Krauss] created the percussion track for "Piece Of Dirt" by substituting the kit sounds on the [Yamaha RX11/15] drum machine with clicks and dings. Intended (Bill said) to amuse us, it was a clear improvement."
• An alternate chorus of the song was included in the Lincoln liner notes and reads as follows: "Piece of dirt, I made it prettier today, piece of dirt, it was that or just complain." These lyrics have also been performed live at shows, such as its debut performance at the Gusto House in 1987 and the band's New Years show at the Knitting Factory in 1988.
• At a March 15, 1995 show, John Flansburgh said of Piece of Dirt, "Here's a song that I was looking through the files about a year after we released the Lincoln album, and I found another set of lyrics that were really a lot better, so I suppressed them. And we're just going to have to deal with the traditional lyrics." Flansburgh has also told a similar story about "Snowball In Hell" from the same album.
• A solo rendition of this song performed by the Blue Avatar was released exclusively to members of the 2012 Instant Fan Club as a part of The Avatars Of They podcast Why Are You Hitting Yourself? In this version, the man at the end of the song is "creepy" instead of "spooky". The unedited video recording would later be released publicly on the band's ParticleMen YouTube channel in 2015.
• The first verse may be a reference to the lyrics to the song "See No Evil" by Television, which goes "I wanna fly, fly a fountain. I want to jump, jump, jump, a-jump a mountain."

Song Themes

Jumping, Loneliness, Love, Mind Control, Hypnotism, Problems with Liner Notes, Sailing, Telecommunication

Videos

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