Flood Tabs:
- Theme From Flood
- Birdhouse In Your Soul »
- Lucky Ball And Chain
- Dead
- Your Racist Friend
- Particle Man
- Twisting
- We Want A Rock
- Letterbox
- Women And Men
- Road Movie To Berlin
Birdhouse In Your Soul Bass Tab
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Artist:They Might Be Giants
Song:Birdhouse In Your Soul
Album:Flood
Intro:
C F
I'm your only friend I'm not your
Eb G
only friend but I'm a little
Bb Eb
glowing friend but really I'm not
Db G
actually your friend but I am
Just Strum the (C)for a while
Choruses:
C F
Blue canary in the outlet by the light switch
C F
who watches over you
C G Am G
make a little bird- house in your
Eb Ab
soul not to put too fine a point on it
Eb Ab
say I'm the only bee in your bonnet
Eb Cm Ab G
make a little bird- house in your
C F
soul
Verses:
C F
I have a se- cret to tell
C F
from my e- lec- tri- cal well
C G C7
it's a sim- ple mes- sage and I'm
F G
leav- ing out the whistles and bells
C F
so the room must listen to me
C F
fi- li- bus- ter vi- gi- lant- ly
C G C7
my name is blue ca- na- ry
F G
one note spelled L I T E
Am Am+
my sto- ry's in- fi- nite
Am6 Am+
like the Lon- gines Sym- pho- nette it
G
doesn't rest
Instrumental/Bridge:
Am Am+
Am6 Am+
Am Am+
Am6 Am+
Gbm Gbm+
Gbm6 Gbm+
E D
A E
A D
I'm your only friend I'm not your
C E
only friend but I'm a little
G C
glowing friend but really I'm not
Bb G
actually your friend but I am
Outro CHorus:
A F
Blue canary in the outlet by the light switch
C F
who watches over you
C G Am G
make a little bird- house in your
Eb Ab
soul not to put too fine a point on it
Eb Ab
say I'm the only bee in your bonnet
Eb Cm Ab G
make a little bird- house in your
C F
soul and while you're at it
C F
keep the night light on in- side the
C G Am G
bird- house in your soul
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Tab Discussion, Comments, and Critiques
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No Picture
Brennan Wanna Be |
#1 by Brennan unknown at Feb 24, 1976 at 11:05 AM EST |
| no. | |
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No Picture
Chris Average |
#2 by Chris Tucker at Dec 11, 1981 at 1:14 AM EST |
| I think the blue canary in the song is the spark you see when you plug something into a socket. | |
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No Picture
Vinnie Rhythm Player |
#3 by Vinnie Valium at May 2, 1982 at 8:04 PM EST |
| Thank you UglinessMan. I've listened to that song for almost 15 years now and never truly understood what that line meant. You are a true Giant. Now, who is Jason and what are Argonauts? Were they some sort of early settlers to America or something? Did they come over with Chis Columbus? Oh, the song. The most catchy song ever written, hands down. | |
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Sawyer Rhythm Player |
#4 by Sawyer Hildebrandt at Jan 13, 1985 at 10:43 AM EST |
| I've always thought this song was supposed to represent God. "He" watches over you, never rests, "my story is infinite", etc. The verse, "Not to put too fine a point on it: say I'm the only bee in your bonnet make a little birdhouse in your soul" to me sounds like, "I am your one true god, make room in your heart for me". The primitive ancestry would be perhaps a reference to the Greek and Roman gods....? | |
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No Picture
Average |
#5 by Riqu - at Oct 8, 1986 at 12:33 PM EST |
| surprised no one's tried to make this connection, yet: blue canary nitelite as Jesus. ooohhhhh! See, cause it's in the outlet by the lightswitch, so it shines on the lightswitch, so when the room is dark, you can find the switch. "I have a secret to tell It's a simple message and I'm leaving out the whistles and bells so the room must listen to me ... my story's infinite/it doesn't rest" sounds like a very jesus-y thing to say, to me so, the "picture opposite me" would be God in the Old Testament fashion, but jesus wouldn't do as seemingly wella job, because he had a more socratic teaching method, and would expect others to learn from Jason's mistake i seriously doubt TMBD had this in mind when writing it, but it makes one think, no? | |
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No Picture
Super Average |
#6 by Super Q at Dec 19, 1986 at 9:17 PM EST |
| Really, TMBG did say this song was about a nightlight. It was on their website, although it is true that a lot of their songs have no meaning at all, such as Particle Man. I remember them saying it was kind of funny how many peole try to find the deeply hidden meaning in that song, and many of their others. | |
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No Picture
~Ivy Loves Shav Rhythm Player |
#7 by ~Ivy Loves Shavo~ at Jul 17, 1989 at 9:17 AM EST |
| "Tho I respect that a lot, I'd be fired if that were my job after killing Jason off and countless screaming Argonauts." In other words, I have a lot of admiration for the work that the lighthouse does, but I'm just a little night-light, my light isn't powerful enough for that task. If it had been me on that shore when Jason and the Argonauts arrived, they would have crashed and died because of my shortcomings, and I would have beem fired as a result. Is that clear enough? | |
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No Picture
brandon Rhythm Player |
#8 by brandon q at Mar 30, 1993 at 5:37 AM EST |
| I think the song is a metaphor for the change in most people's view of God from Jehovah as a dangerous, angry sky deity who issues solid moral judgements to sensitive Jesus who still demands exclusive worship but wants a "personal relationship" and never actually does anything -- basically being indistinguishable from one's conscience. This nite-lite god is mass-produced and impotent, but still shows a vague reflection of a god worthy of the name. It's not about what god *is* but more about how people think about god, I think. | |
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No Picture
FUCK Rhythm Player |
#9 by FUCK OFF at Sep 2, 1997 at 5:39 PM EST |
| ok basically, this is sung from the perspective of a night light, in the shape of a blue canary, to whoever is in the room. i'm not too sure about the logines symphonette part though. the best verse in this song is the last one, it's really quite funny | |
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No Picture
Phillip Wanna Be |
#10 by Phillip Doucette at Jul 29, 2000 at 9:07 AM EST |
| I think the fact that it goes 'one word spelled l-i-t-e' is to show that ti is a commercial light, because of the way it is spelled, like many products use different, 'quirky spellings'. | |
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No Picture
FUCK Rhythm Player |
#11 by FUCK OFF at Dec 29, 2000 at 10:38 PM EST |
| The Longiness Symphonette was a popular musical act/performance from the '50s or '60s. An orchestra would play short versions of well-known classical music pieces, launching from one piece to another without stopping. You'd hear 2-3 minutes of Bach, then some Tchaichowsky, then a little bit of Mozart, one after the other. That's where the lyric "...it doesn't rest," comes from. It wasn't a full-fledged symphony, but an easy-on-the-ears "symphonette." You can guess that the serious critics hated it, since it was basically the K-Tel of its day, but it was a big hit with Joe Average. Clever stuff. | |
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No Picture
Zach Wanna Be |
#12 by Zach Pain at Feb 9, 2003 at 9:18 AM EST |
| I like that idea that the blue canary is a spark as that works nicely with the first lyric of blue canary in the outlet by the lightswitch, unfortunately the rest of the lyric and song make it clear that the subject of the song is a light. Clever thought though. | |
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No Picture
Brandon Average |
#13 by Brandon Weathers at Mar 11, 2004 at 12:14 AM EST |
| By the way, it says "one note spell l-i-t-e" not "one word spelled l-i-t-e". I just thought you should know. | |
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