I have said before that I am not huge into interpreting lyrics, mostly because I tend to take them at face value. I would rather assume Hovering Sombrero is, in fact, just an encouraging song sung to a floating hat than read more into it. However, some of the brilliance of lyrics like these is that they can be equally enjoyed by those wish to find a deeper meaning in the floating hat.
I'm kind of fascinated by the way Linnell has said he writes songs, which is, typically, melody first. I always picture him piecing in lyrics after the fact based on words the rhyme nicely and have the right number of syllables. My theory is that songs about floating hats, night lights, mammals and pencils all exist out of a need for a theme to tie a bunch of lines together with a melody and Linnell wandering about the world until something struck his fancy. The fact that wonderful, profound lyrics come out of this process is mind boggling. I choose to think of Don't Let's Start as my favorite "piece the words in" method song and I love it, love it, love it. (And yes, I do realize that this is in itself a form of interpretation so I am, in a way, contradicting myself.)
I find Flansburgh's songs to be a bit less literal which may be part of the reason I tend not to favor Linnell's. I find that I have to actually think about Flans' songs and sometimes I just don't get it. Then others I adore, so who knows. But he has a beautiful way of writing a line. One of my favorites of his is from I Blame You, a song to which I am otherwise largely indifferent. This is just a beautiful and heartbreaking idea expressed in a beautiful way.
He drops his car keys/ And crawls on the ground/ Finds her old hair comb/ She'd wear into town/ Can't bear to keep it/ Or throw it away/ Gets back down on his knees/ Puts it back where it lay/ Back where it layI've already said I love the songs told by the Unreliable Narrator. I also love the songs that are one giant tongue twister. Especially because it is not so much that the words are particularly hard on the tongue, it's the speed with which they are sung. And that the rhythms of those particular words sound good at those speeds. Songs like Letterbox, Dinner Bell and Rhythm Section Want Ad come to mind. I love trying to sing along to these in the car and getting my tongue all tied in knots.
A few of my other favorite lines:
You could be a float for the Fourth of July/ Based on your theme of "Wallflowers Grown Wild"Is it that time again? Wasn't it already then? So does it have to be The time it was again?And the truth is we don't know anythingI'll save others for a Audience Participation post on favorite lyrics that I've been attempting to do for ages.
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I always thought Linnell's work was less literal than Flans. Linnell's lyrics seem to work a lot with metaphors, whereas Flansburgh is a little more literal, straightforward, and style-based.
ReplyDeleteI'll save my favorite lyrics for Audience Participation. (: Can't wait!
Huh. I think it's pretty cool that we see it in such different ways. I think thats just all part of what I love about their music. It can be different for different people.
ReplyDeleteI think the favorite lyric entry is going to be one of the most challenging ones I've done (for me anyway). I better start now because it's going to take me forever!
That it can be different for different people is one of the things I love most about their music, too. It can even be different for me at different times, depending on my mood and situation. Sometimes I take the lyrics completely literally, sometimes I see metaphors that apply to my life, sometimes I apply them to other things around me, sometimes I take the songs a completely different way altogether. I love that I can do that with so many of their songs. Like you've said before, I don't think interpretations should be forced on anyone as the one definite meaning, but for me it's wonderful that there are so many ways to take a TMBG song. :)
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