Lyrics of and thoughts re: TMBG and TMBG’s John Linnell.

Woman wonders who’s your itchy friend.
Woman says, ‘I thought he was with you’.
Woman says, ‘I thought he was with you’.

They slowly back away from him.
At best, he’s very interesting.
His brushes with success were just an accident.

****

Never to part since the day we met
Out on Interstate 95.
I was bent metal,
You were a flaming wreck
When we kissed at the overpass.

***

I could never sleep my way to the top
‘Cause my alarm clock always wakes me right up.

*****

I shouted out, “Free the Expo 67!”

***

Purple toupee and gold lame’ will turn your brain around.

***



I’ve been listening to these guys a lot over the past few days. It’s unusual for me to listen to contemporary musicians.

As much as their lyrics satisfy, what really impresses me with this group is their musicality. They do more interesting things with rhythm than anyone since the late Cal Tjader. They’re actually more melodic than even Elvis Costello – my previous contender as the best pop melodist of the past thirty years. They have a great grasp of harmony. They can make any of dozens of distinct musical styles work for them. They use tubas, calliopes and other underutilized instruments. That being said, some of their vocal traits get my goat. They sit on the letter r. Didn’t anyone ever tell them that the way to sing the letter r was to think about it for about a tenth of a second at most? They also do some funky things with the long a sound.

Oh yeah, they’re also an obvious musical influence on St. Blog’s own musical genius, mister victor lams who, I have on good authority, is not particularly likely to be a giant himself.