Purple Toupee

Music video for "Purple Toupee"

Screenshot

Magazine ad

Press release

Trivia/Info

• John Linnell, from In Their Own Words: Songwriters Talk About the Creative Process by Bill DeMain:

['Purple Toupee' uses] a couple of Prince songs as a springboard, 'Purple Rain' and 'Raspberry Beret'. I guess part of the idea was that, at the time, it seemed like there was this '60s revival in the works. It reminded me of all the other revivals that had taken place that were reviving times that I wasn't around for. They must have been complete shams based on what the '60s revival was. It seemed like it was based on this utterly one-dimensional caricature of the time that it was supposed to [be] representing or reviving. That still goes on now. That's sort of what 'Purple Toupee' is about.

• Linnell would also explain the process of writing the song 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 always a sense of a playful free association going on in the songwriting. I've always been a fan of Prince and I love "Purple Rain" and "Raspberry Beret," so it was a kind of holding up a funhouse mirror to something that I was already interested in. The music was something I was proud of because it has a sort of fugue element where the bass part is doing the vocal melody in a... you'd have to ask a music major to explain this a little better, but it's doing a sort of canonic thing with the vocal where the bass comes in playing the vocal melody, down a perfect fourth but also two beats earlier. It just was something I worked out, probably on the piano. I really felt like a genius after I came up with that.

• In a 1989 interview, John Flansburgh stated the song was "about misunderstanding the 60s [and] fake nostalgia" and described it as "a vehicle for talking about how people misunderstand history." He would intepret the song again in 2023 for Everything Sticks Like A Broken Record:

["Purple Toupee" is] a perfect example of how casually John [Linnell] can write from the point of view of an unreasonable narrator. There's much American history in the lyrics and it's all wrong and powerfully misinformed, but it's delivered in this sort of low-key way. You have to be listening closely to notice what he's driving at.

• In a contemporary press release promoting the song, Bar/None would also add their own "unauthorized" interpretation of the song alongside several detailed reference points. Their statement of the song's meaning reads:

"Purple Toupee" is broad (and brilliant) political satire, told by a person who grew up in America in the Sixties. It dimly − and without fail, incorrectly − recalls some of the decade's great political movements, figures and events. By mistelling and muddling history, it serves as an ironic reminder of present day apathy and as a subtle enjoinder that we must learn from the past and educate ourselves to the many connections between the political struggles of 20 years past and those of today.

• The music video for the song, shot in May 1989^[1] and completed in June 1989^[2], was directed by Helene Silverman and featured outdoor footage shot on 8mm at Astroland Park in Brooklyn, NY by Ken Brown. John Linnell would detail Ken Brown's footage in the Direct From Brooklyn DVD commentary:

[Ken Brown] made all these films himself with his 8mm camera, winding around interesting places shooting a frame at a time. And we actually shot a huge amount of stuff with him to use in [the music video], none of which turned out to be usable because after it was processed, it all came out too dark.

• The guitar used by Flansburgh for the music video was a Coral Longhorn borrowed from Jickets guitarist Lary 7, which had been used previously during filming for the "Don't Let's Start" music video^[3].
• Alongside of the song's music video, "Purple Toupee" was frequently promoted by Bar/None from May to July 1989 as an upcoming single, planned for release on 12" vinyl, CD and cassette. This EP would ultimately be canceled, however, due to the increased value of the EP's unreleased B-sides for future releases by Restless after the band had been signed to Elektra^[4].
• In early live performances of this song, there were several lyrical differences that were altered over time before the album version was recorded, these include:
  • "Meanwhile on the West Coast was trouble for the blacks" instead of "I heard about some lady named Selma and some blacks".
  • "A bunch of Chinamen were fighting in the park" instead of "Chinese people were fighting in the park".
  • "I asked The Fonz why my memory was bad" instead of "I shouted out 'Free the Expo '67'".
  • "Purple's the shade much brighter from the grave" instead of "The purple brigade is marching from the grave".
• In live shows from 1987 to 1990, this song was performed as a medley alongside "The Famous Polka".
• On the Lincoln Sampler, there is a stray accordion note in the right channel at the very end of the song.
• British songwriter Al Stewart has a song called "Red Toupee." After performing it in a concert on July 18, 1999, he said, "That song was going to be part of a concept album about toupees. They Might Be Giants have a song called 'Purple Toupee', and we're just looking for another 10 songs and then we can release it."
• The Nelories, who released a CD for the Hello CD Of The Month Club, released a song (intended to be a tribute to this song) called "Hell Toupee" on their EP Indie Pop Car Baby.

Song Themes

1964 World's Fair, Age, Artificial Body Parts, Bells, Cities, Clothes, Colors, Death, Forgetting And Remembering, Hair, History, Places (Real), Precious Metal, Presidents, Puns, Reading, Size, Trade Names, Violence

Videos

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