References To Other Songs Or Musicians

From This Might Be A Wiki

TMBG often make obvious or subtle references to other songs and musicians, bands, or performers. This list includes many of those references but, without the Johns' stamp of validation, it must be admitted that some of them may just be guesses.

Au Contraire - "David Bowie came to town...", "Bach had three of a kind"
Ana Ng - "All alone at the '64 World's Fair, Eighty dolls yelling 'Small girl after all'. c.f. "It's a small world after all" in Disney's It's a Small World song and ride. The ride was unveiled at the fair and eventually moved to Disneyland. It features scores of audio-animatronic kids (dolls) singing the line. Also: "It's like a whirlpool and it never ends" is a reference to the Tommy Roe song "Dizzy": "My head is spinning, like a whirlpool it never ends."
Ant (Indestructible Object Version) - Dig the "Hail To The Chief" riff on the Indestructible Object version.
Battle For The Planet Of They Might Be Giants - One section of music played is taken from Chicago's "25 Or 6 To 4"
Beatles And Bugs - The Beatles
The Biggest One - lyrics play on Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive" ("Change the lock, throw away the key, I will survive")
Birdhouse In Your Soul (Demo) - "Give me something to write on" (a line from Van Halen's "Hot For Teacher")
Birds Fly - The line about "a good luck charm hanging off my arm" refers to the Elvis Presley song "Good Luck Charm."
Brooklyn - "Marty Markowitz - now he's not frontin' Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch."
Boat Of Car - The Johnny Cash sample "Daddy sang bass".
Cage And Aquarium - Contains the line "This is the spawning of the Cage and Aquarium" in the chorus; a skewed match to the song "Age of Aquarius" which contains the line "This is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius" in its chorus. Age of Aquarius is originally from the 60's musical "Hair", but is a well-known oldies song in its own right.
Dallas - The Yes song "We Have Heaven", from the album Fragile, begins "Tell the Moon-dog, tell the March-hare", which apparently inspired TMBG, already possessing the three opening words, to borrow this song's starting melody as well. The whole song is essentially a Yes style parody/tribute.
Damn Good Times - "She acts like David Lee Roth when he turned 21", song itself a reference to David Lee Roth's "Damn Good" from the 1987 DLR album "Skyscraper" Also, "I know a girl who's got a record machine," almost exactly the same as a line from "20 Flight Rock" by Eddie Cochran.
Fake Out In Buenos Aires - "Land of a thousand fake outs" reference to Land of a Thousand Dances, "Faker's Delight" reference to Rapper's Delight, "Fake Around The Clock" reference to Rock Around The Clock
Fibber Island - Flute outro is similar to "Strawberry Fields Forever" by The Beatles.
Free Bird's Rebirth - Reference to the Lynyrd Skynyrd song.
Happy Doesn't Have To Have An Ending - "Got a Valentine for Mr. Peter Tork" (the ex-Monkee), the rhythm of this line is also similar to the Monkees song "Zilch"; "Got a delivery for Mr. Peter Tork" (the following line) also brings to mind the scene from the Monkees' 1968 movie, Head, in which a man hands Peter a telegram, saying, "I've got a wire for a Monkee."
Hey, Mr. DJ, I Thought You Said We Had A Deal - last verse in which TMBG makes references to several of their own songs "Well, I told you about the world, it's address", "Chess Piece Face's patience must be wearing thin", etc., mimics the Beatles' "Glass Onion" ("I told you about Strawberry Fields", etc, in which the Beatles reference themselves)
Hillbilly Drummer Girl - roundabout reference to Elvis Presley through his Graceland estate
I Hope That I Get Old Before I Die - c.f. "Hope I die before I get old" in The Who's My Generation
Iowa - "If that broom don't fly I'm gonna buy you a Dustbuster" is a reference to Hush Little Baby
It's Not My Birthday - "When this grey world crumbles like a cake, I'll be hanging from the hope that I'll never see that recipe again" is a play on "Someone left the cake out in the rain...and I'll never have that recipe again" from "MacArthur Park" by Richard Harris.
Lucky Ball And Chain - A modified quote of Darlene Love's song "(Today I Met) The Boy I'm Gonna Marry" ("playing 'here comes the bride' when he walks in the door"), which itself references "The Wedding March (Here Comes the Bride)".
Maine - "The shaving razor's rusty, but the sting brings you exactly back to Maine" is probably a reference to the Monkees song "Daydream Believer" ("The shaving razor's cold, and it stings"). Also, the intro to the song is very clearly lifted from the Beatles' "Good Day Sunshine" (note the identical keyboard intro and the copy of Ringo Starr's opening drum fill).
Mainstream U.S.A. - We Are The World, guitar lick also sounds like Tequila (?)
Memo to Human Resources - The line "Nevermind the furthermore, the plea is self-defense" can be found in the Monkees songs "Zilch" and "No Time".
Mr. Klaw - lyrics are a parody of Theme From Mister Ed from the classic TV show
New Orleans - "There is a house in New Orleans" is a direct quote from The Animals' "House Of The Rising Sun"; style parody of Ozzy Osbourne
New York City - "The Empire State where Dylan lived"
Nothing's Gonna Change My Clothes - The title is probably a reference to "nothing's gonna change my world," a line from the Beatles song "Across The Universe."
P.S.O.K. (Paul Stanley of KISS) - The reference is rather obvious, don't you think?
Particle Man (Live At XM Studio) - imitates the style of The Beatles; the intro in particular is recognizable as that of "Strawberry Fields Forever".
Pencil Rain - "The possible dream" is a parody of the famous line "The impossible dream" from the musical version of "Don Quixote" (a cinematic reference to which being, of course, TMBG's namesake)
Put Your Hand Inside The Puppet Head - "Quit my job down at the carwash, didn't have to write no one a goodbye note" similar to "I quit my job down at the carwash, left my mother a goodbye note" in "Guitar Man" by Elvis Presley
Raleigh - Lists various acts that previously played at the Lincoln Theater
Retirement Village People - quite obviously a reference to The Village People
Rhythm Section Want Ad - Menudo, Euthrymics, MDC, Olive Oyl (from Popeye). Borrows Raymond Scott's "Powerhouse".
Sally Boy Candy Bar - Quotes lyrically and melodically from the line "I've been told when a boy kiss a girl" from the song "Boys" by The Shirelles and The Beatles.
Santa Cruz - "I think Avril Lavigne has her mitts on this one."
Sapphire Bullets Of Pure Love - The lyric "Done someone wrong/And I fear that it was me" seems to be an interpolation of the line "Broke somebody's heart/And I fear that it was mine" from the song It Happened In Monterey by Frank Sinatra.
See The Constellation - The first line, "I lay my head on the railroad track" is almost the same as the first line from "Poor, Poor Pitiful Me," by Warren Zevon.
S-E-X-X-Y - The end of the song suddenly shifts into a minor, orchestra piece a la the Beatles "Glass Onion."
Sleepwalkers - The line "Perhaps when they awake they'll remember everything" refers to The Band's 1969 song "When You Awake" off their self-titled second album, whose chorus begins "When you awake you will remember everything"....
South Carolina - The "Lift that fork, eat that snail" part is a reference to the song "Ol' Man River."
The Day - "The day Marvin Gaye and Phil Ochs got married..."
The World's Address - uses "Tonight" (Bernstein/Sondheim) from West Side Story as a central reference point: "Today the world was just an address/ a place for me to live in..."
They Might Be Giants (1989 Rough Mix) - The line "They might be yelling out albatross" is a reference to Monty Python's "Albatross" sketch, which shows up in several places including the Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl movie. Okay, so Monty Python's primarily a comedy troupe; they've also, however, got some fine songs...
Thunderbird - "We'll have fun, fun, fun until T-bird takes her dad away" is some fun with the Beach Boys song "Fun, Fun, Fun" - "And she'll have fun fun fun 'til her daddy takes the T-bird away."
Twisting - "She doesn't have to have her [Wikipedia:The dB's|dB's] records back" and "She doesn't have to have her Young Fresh Fellows tapes back." Also recalls the dance hit, "The Twist," by Hank Ballard and popularized by Chubby Checker. Twistin' (Live NYC) refers to Primus instead of Young Fresh Fellows.
Weep Day - The names of "Tambo" and "Urine Man", when put together, form "Tambourine Man", which of course refers to "Mr. Tambourine Man", by Bob Dylan, which has even been covered by TMBG.
We Just Go Nuts At Christmastime - The spelling out of "divorce" and "hell" comes from the song "D-I-V-O-R-C-E," written by Bobby Braddock and Curley Putman, and apparently performed by both Tammy Wynette and Dolly Parton.
We're The Replacements - Refers, of course, to punk rock band The Replacements. "Hey where's Tommy" refers specifically to bassist Tommy Stinson.
West Virginia - John Linnell has confirmed that the line "There's another deep inside you" is a reference to "Georgy Girl" by the Seekers, which has even been covered by TMBG.
Where Your Eyes Don't Go - Kurtis Blow. The bridge is a mix of the Perry Mason Theme and Someone's in the Kitchen with Dinah.
Why Does The Sun Shine? (live versions) - When introducing the rocking version of this song at a show, John Flansburgh has been know to announce, "We want you to want the sun!" which is a refrence to Cheap Trick's "I Want You To Want Me".
Why Must I Be Sad? - "I understand the words that Alice said." A healthy chunk of the lyrics are titles to Alice Cooper songs.
XTC Vs. Adam Ant - XTC, Adam Ant, Bow Wow Wow, Beatle based pop.
You'll Miss Me - "It must be raining 'cause a man ain't supposed to cry" is a reference to Dee Clark's 1961 hit "Raindrops".
Your Own Worst Enemy - reference to Sonny Geraci of the band Climax singing "Precious and Few"
Youth Culture Killed My Dog - "Bacharach and David used to write his favorite songs" Refers to the pop tunesmiths Burt Bacharach and Hal David.

References To Other Songs Or Musicians

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