Token Back To Brooklyn

Illustration from the Long Tall Weekend liner notes

Trivia/Info

• This song first appeared on Factory Showroom in 1996 as a secret track that could be accessed by rewinding the CD for a minute before the first track. However, it cannot be accessed on some CD players, including most computers. From tmbg.com: "This is actually a hidden track on one of our albums, but I'm not going to tell you how or where it is hidden."^[1]
• The song was recorded in 1996 at River Sound Studios, during the mixing sessions for Factory Showroom.^[2] Producer Pat Dillett spoke about recording the song in a 1997 interview:

We had John Flansburgh go out into the hall at River Sound to try and make his vocal on a song called "Token Back to Brooklyn" sound more cavernous. John began the song with full-voiced bravado but began trailing off quickly till he was almost inaudible. I was just about to ask him what was wrong when I heard a woman's voice say, "That was very nice." It was someone from the furniture company across the hall going to lunch.

• The song description on Radio TMBG said this song was supposed to evoke a low-key nightmare.
• From the Summer 1999 Info Club newsletter: "Another Dial-A-Song favorite finally makes it to the public. Drumming by Yuval Gabay of Soul Coughing."
• This song's narrative bears a superficial resemblance to that of the song "Charlie on the M.T.A." by the Kingston Trio, a popular protest song from the 1940s about a poor man who became trapped on the subway because he was unable to afford a rate hike to get off.
• John Flansburgh, when asked about the inspiration for adding a secret track to Factory Showroom:^[3]

I read a review of a Willie Nelson album where an advance cassette sent to a reviewer included his 'secret message' to his fans at the top of the tape. I had heard of the 'endless song' secret message at the end of CDs but that never seemed too secret, but this sounded like something else. We inquired with some mastering engineers (the people who put the tape into a form that can be manufactured), and after a bit of discussion figured out that there is a number 0 track before track one that is automatically skipped over by your machine, but can hold about a song's worth of information. This is also where CD-rom format information is held, so we advise against slipping our CDs into your computer.

Song Themes

Body Parts, Cities, Drinks, Escape, Falling, Money, New York City, Numbers, Occupations, Relatives, Transportation

Videos

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Other Links for “Token Back To Brooklyn” [edit] Site Format Price Link iTunes AAC 99¢ TMBG Podcast 53 (Starts at 17:31) MP3 Free