Today's song is...
Youth Culture Killed My Dog
I was just thinking the other day while listening to a different song, that I should make a list of songs that I just never think about. Ones that are all perfectly good songs that just never cross my mind except for maybe during the two minutes I am listening to them on a CD. This would be one of them. Perfectly decent song, I just never gave it much thought.
I heard it live, twice I think. The first time being at one of those shows that is kind of monumental in my mind as one of those HUGE shows that stand out from all the rest. I remember Gary was really excited about it. And I was..... okay with it I guess. Even then I just wasn't thinking about it. Which is probably really sad.
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My brother used to claim this was his favorite TMBG song. He's since changed that opinion. I have this weird memory of listening to Youth Culture Killed my Dog on my old old old old old mp3 player while in the front yard. That was back in like 8th grade (before I really know a lot about TMBG). I think it had previously rained.
ReplyDeleteI used to play this to and also serenade my (English) sheltie with this song. He never seemed very impressed. I'm sure that was more a reflection on me than on TMBG! (I reckon he preferred Bacharach and David. There's no accounting for taste!)
ReplyDeleteHaha, I like the stories people are telling about this one. :) This is one of those songs I really like and I'm not even sure why. Oddly, though, I don't really mind that. I like that I like it and that I don't know why. That's probably not even odd, but it seems that way when you say it out loud and ponder it like a weirdo. Which is what I'm doing.
ReplyDeleteI once had a really weird, sad, creepy dream that I named "Youth (Agri)culture Killed My Dog". It's ridiculous and kind of long, but I'm going to post it here for the heck of it. Apologies in advance.
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September 11, 2010
I was very happy to wake up and realize this one was a dream. It wasn't very pleasant, and, upon waking, I realized how completely bizarre it was. I find that sometimes there is a dream reality in which something completely off-the-wall isn't given a second thought in the dream. When I wake up, I realize that it is impossible, but when I'm in the dream, though I do react to it, I just react to it like I'd react to anything, not like it is impossible. Anyway, here's what I remember:
I was walking around the field beside our yard which we own but have never really done anything with except kept mowed until a couple of years ago.
ReplyDeleteThe field is about a half an acre and a couple of years ago, my uncle and his family begun using it to grow strawberries that they sell at local farmer's markets and such. This summer, after the strawberries were gone, they decided to plant all kinds of vegetables and gourds and pumpkins and melons to sell as well. In my dream, a couple of the boys (my cousins) were working in the vegetable field and I was walking around it for no particular reason that I remember. I got to the opposite end (furthest from my house) and saw my dog's dead body in the mud beside some tomato plants. I was immediately overcome with shock, grief, and disgust.
In real life, I have a rat terrier named Orson whom I keep on a long cable runner in the back yard. I let him run around from time to time and he's a very good dog except that he's afraid of everything other than the two things he really should be scared of -- cars and big dogs. If it wasn't for his tendency to run right in front of cars or chase and snarl and snap at dogs ten times his size, I would let him run free all the time. As it is, however, I prefer to keep him safe within the fenced-in area of the backyard. He can get through the fence, but he can only go as far as the running cable will allow unless I let him go.
Anyway, in the dream, I think he had been missing for a day or so and had broken the cable because it had worn thin a few feet away from his neck. I don't know if I was out looking for him or what, but when I came upon his body, I first noticed his poor little face in the mud. Then I saw his body, and the severed cable, which was caught on a tomato plant cage. It appeared that he had gotten caught on the tomato plant cage and had tried to get away, digging and digging and digging, and I suppose he strangled himself. It was an incredibly sad scene. I was crying and trying to figure out what to do. I also realized that the muddy head I had seen first was a couple of inches in front of his ACTUAL head, but they both looked identical except the front one was solid brown and muddy. I was very confused by this but too sad to really care. Somehow in my dream reality at some point, Orson was also John Linnell of the band They Might Be Giants. The realization that John Linnell was dead was very traumatizing as well, and I was doubly sad. The whole thing is confusing in the light of reality now that I'm awake, but in the dream, Orson and John Linnell were the same, they were dead, and I was incredibly sad about it. Also, it seems that, instead of John Flansburgh as the other main member of They Might Be Giants, John Linnell's brother, Jeremy (I have no idea whatsoever if John Linnell actually has a brother, let alone whether or not his name is Jeremy) was in They Might Be Giants with him. But a few weeks prior, Jeremy had died unexpectedly. So it was a very sad time for TMBG fans, and I thought this might break them completely. I think I had to break the news. I don't remember a lot about the things that followed. I only remember being sad about John Linnell/Orson. Then there was a whole long scene about being in a lodge of some sort, pretty large, and something about crayola markers and other people and I have no idea what else. I was just very relieved when I woke up and realized it was all just a dream, and of course I went out to check on Orson.