They Might Be Giants wins a Grammy!

[yakko]

<<

<< It's the only cover song that they ever put on a full length album, and oddly enough it became quite a hit. >>

You sure? They did a cover of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" origanlly done by the Tokens >>

And a great cover that is. One of my favorite TMBG songs.

 

[cherrytwist]

Alot of their songs are covers.

Imagine my surprise when I heard the original "Shoehorn with Teeth" (from TMBG's Lincoln album.)

I was a bit let down that they hadn't written it (this was years ago).

Didn't realize that Istanbul not Constatinople wasn't written by them though.

 

[DaveSimmons]

<< Imagine my surprise when I heard the original "Shoehorn with Teeth" (from TMBG's Lincoln album.) >>


Are you sure about that? The CD liner notes for Lincoln says "All selections written by TMBG" with no "except for x,y,z." The part with lyrics for "Shoehorn" is also silent about any other author, so I think you're mistaken on this one.

So far we're only up to 2 confirmed covers on regular albums (vs. EPs/singles/etc.) : "Instambul" and "Lion" (which is a pretty loose cover ). I'm too lazy to go through the rest of the CD liner notes to look for more though, especially since I'm still on that "time is money" kick...

 

[Entity]

<< You sure? They did a cover of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" origanlly done by the Tokens >>


I'm not sure that's really a cover...though I guess it borrows enough that they had to give them credit.

In the spaceship, the silver spaceship...

Rob

 

[jonnyGURU]

<< Alot of their songs are covers.

Imagine my surprise when I heard the original "Shoehorn with Teeth" (from TMBG's Lincoln album.)

I was a bit let down that they hadn't written it (this was years ago).

Didn't realize that Istanbul not Constatinople wasn't written by them though. >>



Umm.. No. "The Guitar" was not a cover, but they did borrow enough of "Lion Sleeps Tonight" to have to credit the authors of that song. It's like when The Verve looped the riff of a Rolling Stones song (I forget the song) on "Bitter Sweet Symphony". Jagger and Richards sued The Verve Pipe to get credit for the riff.

First album: All songs by TMBG (C)1987

Lincoln: All songs by TMBG (C) 1988 INCLUDING "Shoehorn with Teeth". Whoever told you it wasn't their song was LYING! Would someone other than TMBG write a song with a lyric that says "people should get beat up for stating their beliefs?"

Flood: All songs by TMBG (C) 1990 except "Istanbul" (C) 1953 J. Kennedy N. Simon

Apollo 18: All songs by TMBG (C) 1992 "The Guitar" portions of "Lion Sleeps Tonight" (Hardly a cover. No writing credit or copyright credit given either) used by permission

John Henry: All songs by TMBG (C) 1994 TMBG II Should Be Allowed To Think" contains first line of "Howl: Part One" by Allen Ginsberg (C) 1956

Here's where I was wrong about my statement that they only had one cover on a full album:

Factory Showroom: All songs by TMBG (C)1996 except "New York City" (C) (no date or original artist given/found) Paw-Paw Publishing :QNOOOOOOOOOOOO! I WAS WRONG ABOUT SOMETHING!:Q First time ever!!! Ok... Second time this week.

Mink Car: All songs by TMBG (C) 2001 except "Yeh Yeh" (C) 1964 apparently was a Georgie Fame song. Go figure. Didn't know about that one!

Of course, singles, live albums and EPs don't count, because if they did you'd have The Joker, Why Does The Sunshine, Frankenstein.......

So there you go. Seven albums and only THREE cover songs. Two songs with enough samples to credit the original.

Anyone else up for more TMBG trivia?

 

[jonnyGURU]

... and for those who don't know who we're talking about, here's a video from their newest album.