Hovering Sombrero
From This Might Be A Wiki
| song name | Hovering Sombrero |
| artist | They Might Be Giants |
| releases | TMBG Unlimited - February, Mink Car |
| year | 2001 |
| first played | October 19, 2001 (29 known performances) |
| run time | 2:13 |
| sung by | John Linnell |
Trivia/Info
This track is a great example of the direct power of our backing band The Band of Dans. We recorded this at Coyote Studios in Brooklyn in the midst of wrapping up our work on "Malcolm In The Middle and the session is featured in the up-coming TMBG documentary.
- Contrary to the "Song-By-Song Drive-Through" description, session footage for "Hovering Sombrero" was not included in Gigantic, although it may have been recorded during the production of the documentary.
- From the Mink Car description[1]: "This [song] was written twelve years ago in the studio while we were recording our Flood LP. Nobody makes LPs anymore, but "Hovering Sombrero" still remains fresh to us, after being defrosted in the microwave and served on a bed of the Band of Dans."
- In a 2025 Tumblr post, John Flansburgh would elaborate on the song's extended shelf life, saying: "I guess 'Hovering Sombrero', as a slower quieter song, was harder to fit into an album sequence."
- From TMBG Unlimited: "You might have heard the short version of this on Dial-A-Song or seen the streaming video for this in last months TMBG Unlimited issue, but now we have the full length song for you. Long in the works, I am happy to report it's been worth the wait."
- The 1998 demo version featured in the QuickCam video has more downplayed instrumentation and is much shorter than the final version, with another version being recorded the year after. This version was recorded during sessions for a "new rock album" with Joe Nicolo of the Butcher Bros. and would later appear on a Music From Malcom In The Middle promo release.
- The "Nicolo" demo version has the second verse sung in Spanish. In an online interview, Linnell said:
I made it up in my incredibly crippled high school Spanish that um… In no defense—I made up some of the words. They’re not actually Spanish words […] The version you heard of Hovering Sombrero is a little bit of a provisional lyric and is not completely finished. But I just thought it would be nice to put that one together. What I was sort of trying to get across is in the second verse which is in Spanish is that I wish I was a better singer, I wish I was a better songer.
- The QuickCam video featuring the demo version is included as a .mov (Quicktime) file on the Direct From Brooklyn DVD, accessible by DVD-ROM drives.
- An alternate version of the song was featured as an exclusive bonus track only offered on the version of the CD sold by Amazon.com. It is sung by "Mr. Lips," which refers to the amusing vocal stylings of the song. "Mr. Lips" was also featured in the songs Rolling O and Letter Shapes.
Song Themes
Age, Clothes, Flying, Language, Memory, Misanthropy, No!, Not In Major Or Minor, Personification, Puns, Sadness, Spanish, Time, Weather, Wind, Windows
Videos
Current Rating You must be logged in to rate this. You can either login (if you have a userid) or create an account with us today. Hovering Sombrero is currently ranked #105 out of 1114. (190 wikians have given it an average rating of 8.96) |
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