This guy gets a lot of play in interviews as one of the staple tools of the They Might Be Giants song writing. Essentially, he is the anonymous character telling the story in a lot of their songs but he has a tendency to forget things, twist the truth or just flat out lie a lot. Oddly, I see a lot of parallels with the persona Flansburgh cultivates on stage. Hmmmmm. I wonder where he got that idea from?
There are probably dozens of songs from the point of view of the unreliable narrator, most of them wonderful, but I don't think he ever appears more prominently and brilliantly than in Purple Toupee, twisting and confusing his memories of the 60s into one flat out awesome song.
I look forward to future encounters with this well traveled character. He seems to have led such an interesting life. Can't wait to hear his next story.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
Interesting! I don't recall ever hearing mention of this in any interview I've watched/read. I'll have to be on the lookout for him. :]
ReplyDelete