Comments on: History and astronomy lessons from They Might Be Giant Plagiarists

By: Historiann

Historiann — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 15:48:19 +0000

Cool–I hope you made some exciting discoveries! (But, I guess we’ll just have to wait for you to deliver your conference paper to find out. Good luck!)

By: ortho stice

ortho stice — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 13:11:02 +0000

Hi Historiann,

Sorry, I didn’t take photos of the dollies. There were so many — it was like doll heaven. Have you been to the Museum of the City of NY? If you haven’t been, you must go the next time you’re on the east coast.

At the Museum, I finished a database of all the prisoners who were incarcerated at NY’s first penitentiary “experiment.” At the Municipal Archives, I cross-checked my database with indictment records. Since over 60% of the people sentenced to this prison were convicted of (grand & petty) larceny, I wanted to find out what they allegedly stole and who their victims were.

By: Vast Left

Vast Left — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 03:21:21 +0000

I’d put the odds that John Linnell also memorized those lyrics at close to 100%.

By: Historiann

Historiann — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 22:15:43 +0000

Wow–thanks for the link and the info, Vast Left. So we can presume that the Stars book was fresh and not purchased in a used bookstore or found in a basement when the song was composed. And I thought I was a twisted child for playing old LP’s and memorizing the lyrics to “The Battle of New Orleans”! Sheesh!

And–hi Josephine! Thanks for stopping by to comment.

By: Vast Left

Vast Left — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 22:09:58 +0000

Thanks for the link.

It’s worth noting that “Why Does the Sun Shine?” is a cover song:

http://www.acme.com/jef/singing_science/

By: Josephine

Josephine — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 22:03:51 +0000

TMBG actually credits the writers on their albums. That’s part of why they’re so fun — they make text books ironic and quirky.

By: Historiann

Historiann — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 21:14:17 +0000

Dang! There goes a perfectly good reason for disliking someone. (Unless you don’t like They Might Be Giants–in which case, it is on, Ortho!)

What were you researching in New York? Inquiring minds want to know! (And did you bring me any photos of the dollies?)

By: ortho stice

ortho stice — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 21:11:27 +0000

I have never heard of this band. But I now suspect that their song about Polk, explains why one of my loony colleagues started a James K. Polk Fan Club on Facebook. There goes my theory that the colleague in question was an imperialist warmonger.

By: Indyanna

Indyanna — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 18:23:34 +0000

The actual studio-produced version of the Polk song on the record is more musically satisfying than this one captured on a handheld videocam, though it’s nice to see the kids enjoying the event. I never took it to be an apologia, though, for Polk–the dead white president after whom my elementary school was named! You could unpack a lot, I think, trying to figure out what Buchanan was a “moderate” about, in 1841. TMBG seems like an admirable follow-on to the satiric tradition pioneered in the 1960s by the still-active Firesign Theater troupe. Isn’t the borrowing of or aural allusion to small parts of extant works called “sampling” in modern musical production practice? And I think that first part of the sentence in the second para would be considered, for intellectual property purposes, a fact, rather than an expression about a fact. Who knows?

By: Smith Michaels

Smith Michaels — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 15:59:50 +0000

I agree. The Sun song is great live.