Protagonist

Trivia/Info

• John Flansburgh, October 2014:

I think a song like "Protagonist" from Join Us might be a good example of a terrain that is fully in the realm of TMBG. There is a self-reflexive element in the song where "answer lines" in the lyric resemble stage directions or notes in a film scripts, and these asides are kind of the spark that drove the writing, and I hope drives the interest in the listener.^[1]

• A spec script is a screenplay written for the purpose of demonstration that does not include camera angles, fine details, or instructions from the writer. Appropriately, the secondary Flansburgh vocal in the song seems to be reciting such a script.
• "The iris" refers to an iris shot, a technique for closing a scene by forcing the view into an increasingly smaller circle against a black background.
• John Flansburgh has stated that the stage direction lines in this song were mostly taken from an instructional book about writing screenplays.

Song Themes

Body Parts, Criminal Activities, Dreams, Geography, Hair, Hands, Heads, Lies And Deception, Loneliness, Love Gone Sour, Misanthropy, Movies, Music, Occupations, Precious Metal, Problems With Liner Notes, Real Estate, Songs With Handclaps, Telecommunication, This Town, Title Not In Lyrics, Transportation, Writing

Videos

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. Protagonist is currently ranked #342 out of 1020. (94 wikians have given it an average rating of 8.55)

Other Links for “Protagonist” [edit] Site Format Price Link iTunes AAC 99¢