The Lincoln Log

[vovat]

Our next They Might Be Giants to examine is, of course, Lincoln. If you missed my review of the first album, you can find it here. The band's second album is the one that I'll usually name if someone asks what my favorite is, although it's really pretty much tied with some of the other early ones.


Ana Ng - Great opening for the album, what with that driving guitar leading things off. Great TMBG song overall, really, what with its absurd but forlorn lyrics and catchy music. I've heard that the bit about shooting a hole through a globe comes from a Pogo comic.

Cowtown - bethje doesn't really like this song, despite the fact that she plays the clarinet, but I like it. The combination of clarinet, mooing, and factory noises makes for an interesting sound. I've heard this was the first song John Linnell ever wrote (well, the first professional-quality song he ever wrote, anyway; most kids write the occasional simple song). The lyrics are very stream-of-consciousness, and the song seems to be somewhat of a mix of "Dixie" and "Octopus's Garden," with perhaps a bit of "Atlantis" thrown in.

Lie Still Little Bottle - Eh, not one of my favorites. It has some clever lyrics ("life is a placebo masquerading as a simile"), and I like The Stick (which, for the uninitiated, is a big stick that they use to bang out the rhythm during live performances of this song), but it's definitely one of the lesser tracks on here. I think John Flansburgh used up most of his A material on the first album.

Purple Toupee - Another song that's deserving of its popular status. Incredibly catchy (yeah, I know I use that word a lot, but I can't think of a good alternative), and fun lyrics that tell a very skewed history of the sixties. Free the Expo '67!

Cage & Aquarium - We follow up a song with skewed sixties references to one that riffs off a lyric from Hair. There seems to be more of an intentional flow to the songs on this one that on many of their other records. I like the rubbery guitar. Not a classic TMBG song, but fun.

Where Your Eyes Don't Go - When I first listened to this album (it was all on Then, so it was pretty much immediately after listening to the first), I noticed that this one seemed like it fit more with the mood of the pink album than most of the others. I think Terry Pratchett has said this is the scariest song he's heard (I don't agree, but there's definitely a nightmarish quality to the lyrics), and has Archchancellor Ridcully paraphrase a line from it in Reaper Man.

Piece of Dirt - I like this one, even though there isn't that much to it. My favorite line from it is, "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."

Mr. Me - The last song ends with a mention of "a spooky man named Me," and this one is, quite appropriately, about a character named Mr. Me. The lyrics are very simple, and it works well for this number. Who would have thought lines like "he ended up really, really, really sad" could actually sound this good? And hey, isn't "Mr. Misty" what they call (or at least used to call) the slush drinks at Dairy Queen? I wonder if that was intentional on John's part.

Pencil Rain - Another one that Beth doesn't like, but I do. I think I mostly just appreciate the ridiculousness of a totally martial-sounding song that turns out to be about pencils falling from the sky.

The World's Address - There's a clear theme of lost love, broken hearts, and loneliness running through this record. I have to wonder if it reflects anything in the Johns' personal lives at the time, but there's no reason it would have to. This Latin-sounding song is another one that fits this theme. From what I've heard, it was written by Linnell, but sung by Flans, who apparently didn't have enough of his own songs to sing. Maybe it was just that they thought Flansy's voice would suit it better (which I guess it does), but the fact that there are twelve tracks that were most likely penned by Linnell to Flans's six might suggest that they wanted to balance the lead vocals out a little more. I think it took me a second listen to this song to figure out the pun in the title.

I've Got a Match - Some producer allegedly told the band's manager that "They'll Need a Crane" was "funny and sad." I think that might more accurately describe this song, which peppers a tale of a relationship falling apart with some kind of silly lines.

Santa's Beard - I didn't like this one much at first. I think it just didn't really sound like what I'd come to think TMBG SHOULD sound like. It's grown on me over time, though, and I enjoyed seeing it performed live.

You'll Miss Me - One of the band's weird, experimental songs, without the strong melody that most of their recordings have. I enjoy it as a novelty, but it's not one of my favorites. I've also heard this one performed in a poetry-reading manner, which I might have liked better.

They'll Need a Crane - As I mentioned, a producer called this one "funny and sad," but I don't really see much funny about it, unless it's the Freudian slip of "nightmare people" during the bridge. I will, however, buy FUN and sad. I think it's obvious by now that I consider the Johns to be masters of catchy tunes with depressing lyrics.

Shoehorn with Teeth - Still, in terms of catchiness, "Crane" has nothing on this one, which is something I used to just like to play over and over again. Short, but very bouncy and enjoyable. When they did this live, they used to make a big deal out of bringing out the glockenspiel, when the only glockenspiel part is one note played three times. Like many of their live bits, it's the kind of thing that's really funny at first, but gets progressively less so every time. I believe they gave away their glockenspiel, though, so they don't do it live anywhere near as often anymore.

Stand on Your Own Head - I like the banjo, and the Then liner notes say that it's a real instrument, not a sample or synthesizer. I'm not sure who's playing it, though. If it's Linnell, he's doing a better job than he later would on "Counterfeit Faker." And, as someone who enjoys wordplay, I appreciate that pretty much every line in this song is a play on one or more common expressions.

Snowball in Hell - This time, we get a melodica, and I wasn't sure what that was when I first heard about it. Most of you probably already know, but it's basically a tiny instrument that requires you to blow into a tube and play a tiny keyboard to produce notes. A few years ago, I saw both the New Pornographers and the Decemberists in the course of about a month, and both bands used melodicas. The solo includes a clip from a self-help cassette that I believe is called "How to Manage Your Time Effectively." I wonder if anyone has ever located a copy of this, as it would be a great TMBG-related find.

Kiss Me, Son of God - I was enamored with the lyrics to this one from the first time I heard it. "I built a little empire out of some crazy garbage called the blood of the exploited working class." I've heard this one referred to as an attack on organized religion, but I think it's more general than that. From what I can tell, it's basically about any leader who's idolized by the people he exploits. The first line actually makes me think of a communist dictator, but I believe it can be taken a lot of different ways.


Next time, we take a look at Flood, which at least at one point was the one that people who only owned one TMBG album would almost inevitably have. I don't know whether that's still true, but it wouldn't surprise me.

Comments

[petie-s.livejournal.com]

I had a crush on a Malaysian girl when I first heard Ana Ng, so it's a sentimental favorite. The World's Address is a great one, too.

This was my first TMBG album, if I recall. I like Apollo 21 almost as much.

I wish I could find pictures, but I made a painting based off of Ana Ng.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

What kind of name is "Ng," anyway? Vietnamese?

I actually bought Apollo 18 and Then on the same day, although I'd already heard all of Flood and a few other songs here and there.

[revme.livejournal.com]

Indeed! Vietnamese it is!

[suegypt.livejournal.com]

Lincoln was the album that made me fall in love with TMBG. I immediately loved Ana Ng and Crane, but the absurdity of Pencil Rain (all the pencil jokes), Shoehorn w/Teeth and especially WYEDG made me play this over and over for weeks. I came to really love I've Got A Match; depending on where I am in marriageville, this song can still sting like a slap in the face, but it's, well, funny, too.

I didn't know anything about the songwriting duties between the Johns, or who sang what (or even what they looked like), but, as you can see from my list, I was a Linnell girl from the beginning. I even grew to love Cowtown, thinking it was a Flans song, oh, well. And Kiss Me has grown on me, as I agree with you that it's not a cut-and-dried anti-God song, but more along the lines of absolute power corrupting absolutely.

Thanks for the entertaining post.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

I'm not totally sure who wrote every song, but I usually assume it's the same John who sings lead, unless they've said otherwise. There was an interview where Linnell claimed writing credit for both "Cowtown" and "The World's Address," and I see no reason not to believe him.

Thanks for the entertaining post.

You're welcome.

[revme.livejournal.com]

Growing up, Lincoln was my favorite TMBG album -- I got a little burned out on it, but it's still up there. My favorite now, however, might be John Henry, though. But I like Apollo 18 and Lincoln still quite a lot.

And, man, I LOVE "Lie Still, Little Bottle". It's one of my favorites from that record.

I am with you on the rubbery guitar, which seems the perfect way to describe it. It almost reminds me of one of those old-style plungers where it's just the suction cup on a stick, rather than the contoured one where it's the suction cup on the hollowed-out stem design. Or those weird accordion-type plungers which just look really cheap to me.

Still, though, even though I'm probably a little more of a Flans-fan (he seems to be the more experimental of the two; sometimes Linnell seems to play it safe and just do really good pop-songs, where Flans'll do more off-the-wall stuff, even when he's doing pop stuff -- i.e. the White-Boy Funk of the It's Fun To Steal record, or the Memphis Soul of "Pet Name"; Linnell tends to write more "TMBG-Style" songs. Not that there's anything wrong with that, as I, ah, obviously LIKE TMBG-style songs), this is a great record, and pretty much an album where your weakest single is "Purple Toupee" is a pretty goddamn good record. (Same for a record where your best single isn't "They'll Need A Crane", I mean, what the HELL?)

[revme.livejournal.com]

I'm listening to Lincoln RIGHT NOW in fact! And the odd thing is, and this is something that seems to come to mind whenever I listen to the album but then goes away almost immediately is that while I wouldn't CUT any songs, it seems that the order isn't quite optimal; in that, well, it's really hard for ANYTHING to follow "They'll Need A Crane"; if it weren't for "Kiss Me Son Of God", it'd probably be the best track for album closer, really. But I'm not sure; because the middle seems to kind of drag a little bit, too, but, again, in a way that's not because of any bad SONGS. I wonder. Hm. What if they'd gone the Dual EP route? So, like two stand-alone releases that happened to come together in one package. Hm. I don't know! Strange.

I'm trying to figure out what the EPs would be, like, track-order wise, but it's really hard; like, the first chunk of tracks seem to flow pretty much perfectly, but then the order seems to fall apart a little bit. Hm. I'd have to think. But, then again, TMBG have never been GREAT at track-order. They've never really put together an Album per se, as so much a collection of songs that happen to be on a flat piece of plastic.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

I kind of think "Kiss Me" would make a better ending for the whole thing if it had the big finish that the B-side version does. Oh, well. It's still a good closer, and I think "Crane" might work as well. It's kind of weird, because I think the album flows really well for a while, and then kind of gets random in the middle. But then, I'm not sure there would be a way for "You'll Miss Me" NOT to interrupt the flow. In terms of track organization, I think Factory Showroom might be the worst (not counting collections of B-sides or rarities), and maybe Apollo 18 the best (which is kind of odd, as that's the one they actually tell you in the liner notes that you should play in Shuffle mode)? I don't know. When I've heard an album enough times, I start to think of the songs as following each other even when there's nothing to really connect them. I couldn't tell you the track orders of either of the Here Come the... albums, though.

When I lived with bethje's cousins, they had one of those accordion-shaped plungers. It really DID look cheap, but it never once made me think of "Cage & Aquarium." :P I think I can see what you mean, though.