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Artist: They Might Be Giants
Song Exquisite Dead Guy
Album: Factory Showroom
Here is the Bass Line for the Bah Bah Bah Bah part
D-------------------------
G-------------------------
B-7--4--------------------
E-------5--2--7--5--4--5-7
Now, the verses have a violin or cello on them, playing an Emajor-
F# kinda thing, that is hard to simulate on standard guitars, however
horns play this part live at TMBG shows, or harmonics on your standard
guitar or bass can imitate that somewhat accurately.
C#m A F#7 Ab
How am I supposed to let you know the way I feel about you?
Brought to you by the GUITARMASTA - http://www.guitarmasta.net
Tab Discussion, Comments, and Critiques
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Ben Rhythm Player |
#1 by Ben Formica at Jan 1, 1973 at 10:39 AM EST |
| This song always made me think of Lenin as the corpse. I imagine staring at Lenin in his case, then later seeing Lenin hanging from a hook out my window, and not knowing how to tell Lenin how damn cool he is for showing up in my life over and over again. What a world this is, with Lenin in it! Look over there, it's Lenin's preserved corpse! Take a picture! I don't know what Lenin looks like, so in my imagination it's just a corpse in a Russian uniform like Stalin wore, except somehow I know it's Lenin and not Stalin. I don't even know if Lenin wore a uniform ever, or if he just wore a lot of furs, but that's the picture that's in my head when I hear this song. | |
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Beaver Average |
#2 by Beaver Butt at May 23, 1975 at 8:55 PM EST |
| Actually, the lyric comes from a word game called "the exquisite corpse." People take turns writing one word of a sentence, without knowing what word came before, resulting in really weird and surreal turns of phrase. I know of nobody who actually sits around in their living rooms playing parlor games like this, but a lot of writers like to imagine that there are people who do. | |
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Gary Wanna Be |
#3 by Gary Rossington at Dec 19, 1977 at 7:57 AM EST |
| Funny, I think of Lenin too. Haha. | |
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ben Average |
#4 by ben doherty at Sep 15, 1978 at 9:51 AM EST |
| This song is really depressing. It's written in an amusing and entertaining fashion but the meaning is just about being really low and depressed. Thinking of death, and wondering who'll care, and if someone does care, will they just be happy he's gone. That part about not procrastinating and taking a real look at oneself instead of just an imaginary one is a positive thing here: A pep talk into getting up and doing something and positive introspection. | |
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Mike Average |
#5 by Mike Dawgg at Apr 8, 1983 at 1:50 AM EST |
| Try a Christian interpretation (although I'm not Christian): the "exquisite dead guy" is Christ. He's on display in all the churches, and it wouldn't be too far a stretch to have an image of Christ rotating in a display case somewhere. The singer is imagining that Christ is appearing to him in unusual ways: he thinks that Christ is talking to him, and sees him floating in the air outside his apartment building. He imagines he hears Christ asking him, "How am I supposed to let you know the way I feel about you?", i.e. "I've been trying for centuries to tell you that I love you, but you people won't listen." | |
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edwin Wanna Be |
#6 by edwin henrriquez at Aug 2, 1984 at 1:39 AM EST |
| i *heart* this song so much! | |
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Mr. Always Mezm Average |
#7 by Mr. Always Mezmerized (o)(o) at Mar 28, 1985 at 7:36 PM EST |
| when I first heard this song I wasnt paying attention too well and I heard the head cutting off bit first which makes it sound like hes being killed and used as a food product. mmm, soylent green. What do you think about the bit "I'll never see myself in the mirror with my eyes closed"? Maybe he has no concept of what he should be/do? kinda like how you fell just after highschool. I wonder if theres any specific signifigance to the enslaving the younger brother thing? or if its just an example of a general regret? and I'd have to agree with t4r, lots of artists have said that to avoid things like controversy, or debte, or maybe they just didnt want to explain it. could be lots of reasons for saying that besides it being true. | |
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Jimmy "Hoffa" Average |
#8 by Jimmy "Hoffa" at Sep 26, 1994 at 11:27 PM EST |
| JJ has me thinking more about Lenin now with the notion of his sculptures on crane hooks being taken down... Hmmm... Originally, the title made me, too, think of the "Exquisite Corpse" game. Only, in the version I know, it is a visual artists' game where someone draws a head, or part of a head. The drawing is covered down to just above where the first person left off, and the next artist adds the next bit of the body without seeing what has gone before. etcetera.. The result at the end of the night is this crazy body; an actual 'corpse'. I had never heard of the writing version until just now. Neat! | |
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Dan Average |
#9 by Dan Johnson at Jul 16, 2000 at 5:23 PM EST |
| I play exquisite corpse on long car trips and with my old girl scout troup...but we didn't call it that. And this son reminds me of a 40s film nuar (Sorry i can't spell) i'v tried writing one about it, but it just doesn't work... | |
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Chris Average |
#10 by Chris Tucker at Sep 6, 2000 at 11:29 AM EST |
| This is another great TMBG song of sadness hidden inside lunatic lyrics and great melodies. The song is weighted with the regret of someone who wasted their life ("it's over... and I haven't done anything that I want") or is currently wasting their life. Doesn't matter which because they are essentially the same. Sure, now he resolves to not sit at home anymore and finally stop hanging around, but it's too late. I could even say that "taken off the shelf before the date stamped on myself" eludes to him expiring (dying) before he was ready (date on self); but I never read that far into it. So stop wasting your life blogging or downloading music and DO STUFF. | |
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Faiz Average |
#11 by Faiz fender at Apr 3, 2001 at 10:23 PM EST |
| i play it and versions of it; the (slightly) more coherent and more fun ways are with writing sentences or short pragraphs/phrase groups at a time but that has little to do with the song | |
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Eric Rhythm Player |
#12 by Eric at Aug 14, 2001 at 1:32 AM EST |
| It COULD be about Lenin.... he sees him in the glass casket, then after the curtin falls he sees one of the statues being torn down, on a skyhook. | |
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Aaron Wanna Be |
#13 by Aaron Frederick at Aug 17, 2001 at 12:42 AM EST |
| I could be mistaken, but I believe "exquisite corpse" started as a Dada experiment. My poetry group does it once in a while. I thought of that when I read the title, but I can't see how it connects to the song. | |
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