Tabloid Footprints: The Politics of They Might Be Giants, Part 1
They might be socialists—and what are we going to do unless they are!?
They Might Be Giants is one of my favorite bands of all time (my top 3 goes something like Talking Heads, Steely Dan, They Might Be Giants). I first heard them when I was in elementary school, either when my older brother of 7 years checked out a cassette of Flood from the library, or when I caught the music from that record being featured on Tiny Toon Adventures. Either way, I listened to that album. A lot.
I don’t really know what happened between that and 1997, which is when I think I got Then: The Earlier Years—a two-disc anthology that collected their first two albums, the b-sides that were compiled on their Miscellaneous T release, and other rarities—from the Columbia House Record Club.
Or was it BMG Music Service? Regardless, I got some other albums for just 1¢, but I couldn’t put TMBG down! I have a vivid memory of listening to “Snowball in Hell” in my friend’s grandma’s car. I think she was a fan, too.
Over the last few weeks, I’ve found myself needing to take a break from my normal podcast rotation. As much as I look forward to the brilliance of every Citations Needed, what I really needed some kind of fun distraction from politics that wasn’t quite as stupid as Billion Dollar Record Club.
So, I started spending hours listening to the Don’t Let’s Start podcast, a podcast on They Might Be Giants. It seems to have been the right move.
The hosts—TMBG superfans—go album to album, doing deep dives on every song. They talk about what they love (or don’t) about them; their musical content; their place in TMBG lore; their lyrics; and more. So far, I’ve listened to 7 episodes, which takes the listener through their first two albums and then some.
Friends, they’re long episodes. The last one I listened to was 2 hours and 45 minutes. These guys go hard into the details. And if you’re like me, someone who doesn’t sit around and analyze every lyric of every song, what they bring up is fascinating. It’s certainly made me appreciate TMBG’s music—and the allusions in their music to both external events and their own songs—infinitely more.
What’s bothered me, though, is that, while the hosts teeter on the political and class analysis in their music, they don’t really ever cross the bridge. The podcast is 58 episodes deep so far, so perhaps they evolve as they get more comfortable with their show; but, having gone through the album Lincoln without going there, I’m not confident it’s going to happen.
That’s where I’m coming in!
Nasty Looks from Flansy
I can’t imagine there’s not [borderline] academic content out there that already that disects TMBG’s leftist leanings by fans deeper in it than I, but a quick Google search didn’t prove fruitful. The results were filled with Reddit threads of people pondering whether they’re communists, particularly after they released their 2018 single, “The Communists Have the Music”.
But, Reddit did as Reddit does. Nothing was scholarly. People responded with notes of how John Flansburgh vocally supported Bernie during his 2016 run. Other people claimed they were now part of BreadTube because of the aforementioned song. Still others just went off arguing whether or not communism is a murder ideology (classic).
Of course, there was also the obligatory right-wing “they were my favorite band for 25 years until they shamed me for not supporting public health for 90 minutes of my life”:
Most people seem to label them as progressives or liberals. There are bits around claiming that Flansburgh has said he’s socialist or even “a little bit communist”. I’m not sure that it matters too much what they say in public, though—what does their music say? What do they most convey to their audience? What is their legacy?
The Johns are prolific songwriters, having released 23 studio albums alone since 1986. Their lyrics range from fun to abstract to creepy to absurd and back. Part of their artistry is not writing in plain, direct language, and another part is writing about whatever they want. Most of their songs, to my memory, don’t have any sort of political tinge to them; however, on plenty of occasions they use specific language and imagery that allows the listener to understand their politics beyond the surface level.
Here, I’m going to stick with reviewing tracks from their releases from the ‘80s and ‘90s. It could be that in those eras they tended to reveal their politics more in their songs because they were younger, less popular, and closer temporally to working shit jobs… but honestly, this is just the music I know best, so that’s what I’m going to write about, ha.
Blue Birds of Friendliness
There are a couple of songs that come to mind where the Johns sing about social topics in ways that aren’t related to class, delivering solid, socially liberal messages.
Take “How Can I Sing Like a Girl”:
How can I sing like a girl
And not be stigmatized
By the rest of the world?
Tell me, how can I sing like a girl
And not be objectified
As if I were a girl?
I want to raise my freak flag
Higher and higher and
I want to raise my freak flag
And never be alone
As is often the case with TMBG, their catchy, witty, and humorous songcraft makes it easy to overlook their dour message: The narrator just wants to be themself, but recognizes that doing something that should be so simple and inoffensive will result in harsh social consequences. They must choose between continuing to alienate themself, abandoning singing for social acceptance, or risking alienation through stigmatization and objectification.
In “Your Racist Friend”, the singer first finds themself shocked speechless by what they’re hearing their acquaintance’s friend say at a party:
My head can’t tolerate this bobbing and pretending
Listen to some bullet-head and the madness that he’s saying
I can’t stand here listening to you
And your racist friend
Then, after presumably mustering up the courage to confront them, finds themself pursued by the bullet-head:
Out from the kitchen to the bedroom to the hallway
Your friend apologizes, he could see it my way
He let the contents of the bottle do the thinking
Can’t shake the devil’s hand and say you’re only kidding
Throughout the song they declare “this is where the party ends”, which one could take to mean that they left, caused a scene, or perhaps both since it’s repeated as the chorus of the song:
This is where the party ends
I can’t stand here listening to you
And your racist friend
I know politics bore you
But I feel like a hypocrite talking to you
And your racist friend
While “How Can I Sing Like a Girl” stops at describing an unjust dilemma, the narrator in this song is action-oriented, moving from a passive stance to an active one. I particularly like this from the first verse:
It was the loveliest party that I’ve ever attended
If anything was broken I’m sure it could be mended
I read the first line as being sarcastic. The narrator isn’t just saying “this was a great party if not for your racist friend”, he snidely declares it “the loveliest” that they’ve “ever attended”. In fact, “loveliest” as a deliberate choice has a stinging, even bourgeois quality to it.
The second line continues the sarcasm in an incredible, passive un-apology. Phrased in interpretive prose: “If my standing up to your racist friend caused a problem in your relationship with them or anyone here, I’m sure you can figure out how it can be patched up.”
The way that’s put, they know that confrontation was the right move, and they don’t care whether anything is mended or not—not even, I’d say, the rift between the narrator and the party’s host. Personally, I think they’ll need a crane to pick the broken ruins up again.
Red Giants
Let’s start diving into their songs about class conflict with the 46-second banger “Minimum Wage” from Flood:
‘nuff said, amiright?
Really captures the spirit of working a minimum wage job. It probably even captures the spirit of a “living wage” job in America. Maybe they should update it for their live shows.
There’s a soft link between “Minimum Wage” and one of their earlier releases, “Snowball in Hell”. The cowboy “hyah!” of the earlier is reminiscent of the following lines from the latter:
Money I owe, money-aye-ay
Money I owe, money-aye-ay
These lyrics are clearly a spoof on the classic western exclamation, “yippee-aye-o, yippee-aye-ay”. Here, though, they’re not highlighting the boss whipping the worker, using minimum wage earnings as a command to mush; rather, they highlight the song of the worker, who is mushing to earn money only to have to use it to pay back debts.
Sadly, I’m not so sure that they think they’ll ever dig themselves out of their debt:
Money's all broke, and food's going hungry
If it wasn't for disappointment
I wouldn't have any appointments
Despite their depressing circumstances, they find themselves in a situation that many of us know all too well: They must keep up a pleasant appearance and wish patrons a nice day at their job despite their boss breathing down their neck and commanding them to meet a shockingly disruptive, if not impossible, deadline.
Have a nice day, you want it when?
Have a nice day, have a nice day
Both of these examples depict class conflict between a petit bourgeois boss (given the likely retail context of the work) and a worker (though one could see the jockey in “Minimum Wage” as being of a higher class).
“Snowball in Hell” digs a little deeper, touching on systemic issues of minimum wage work. In it, the worker has to go into debt to live, and then is faced with their money being worth less and less as the interest on their debt piles up and their wages stagnate.
Can’t Drive Out the Way We Drove In
The class analysis of TMBG will continue next post, where I’ll dive into three more classics: “Purple Toupee,” “Alienation is for the Rich,” and “Kiss Me, Son of God”.
I’d love to hear your thoughts and/or interpretations in the comment section, and if you know of any later TMBG songs that hit hard on class, let me know!
Peace,
Greg
