1986 Top Ten Songs: Put Your Hand Inside the Puppet Head (#7)

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Fast forward ten years from 1976, and you’re in the mid-80s, and musically, light years away from that Gordon Lightfoot song I just posted. There are new people joining us all the time or stumbling across my discussions (poor folks ), so I occasionally like to mention that I’m not schizophrenic and there are not two people sharing one account. I really do love both of these songs used today, as diverse as they are. Here’s our 40-year-old song. #7: Put Your Hand Inside the Puppet Head - They Might Be Giants I think the title should tell you a lot, and the band name will tell you what the song title doesn’t. The band name comes from the 1961 play/1971 movie (the latter starring George C. Scott, fresh off his Oscar for Patton), a reference to the Don Quixote “tilting at windmills” cliche. Earlier this countdown I used David + David, remember? Well, here’s John and John. They Might be Giants, lovingly referred to by their fans as TMBG, is a duo consisting of two guys named John: Flansburgh, the guitarist (and lead singer on this song), and Linnell, the keyboardist. When I saw them (twice!!) on tour for this album, they toured with a tape machine. Seriously. They played their instruments onstage, and the backing music was on a tape. They are a full-fledged band now, but I still think of them as John & John. As for their music…well, if you look up quirky in the dictionary, it’ll say, “See They Might Be Giants’ music.” You thought the “Wild Wild Life” video was strange? Hey, here are the guys who took The Who’s “I hope I die before I get old” line from “My Generation” and turned it into the song “I Hope That I Get Old Before I Die.” They also have this brilliant song (that they retired for years after Whitney Houston died) called “Marty Beller Mask,” about their drummer, Marty Beller, being “really Whitney Houston on the drums,” having swapped places with the drummer because “I was disenchanted, stardom was so fake.” If you’re looking for deep and introspective, go back to the Lightfoot song. If you want a lot of fun, TMBG is your band. Put Your Hand Inside the Puppet Head Written by John Flansburgh and John Linnell Recorded by They Might Be Giants From They Might Be Giants, 1986 The check’s in the mail and I’ll see you in church: