Trivia / Flood (They Might Be Giants)

• Colbert Bump:
  • "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)" and "Particle Man" gained the album new followers after they were turned into music videos on Tiny Toon Adventures.
  • "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)" was also used in The Simpsons episode "Mobile Homer".
• Shrug of God: As stated by John Linnell in an interview, "People...really want to know what the secret message behind 'Particle Man' is, you know, and there just isn't one. It's what it is."
• Troubled Production: Downplayed. Hiring Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley to produce four of the 19 tracks, among them "Birdhouse In Your Soul" and "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)", consumed 2/3 of the budget. As a result, a few of the deep cuts are comparatively stripped-back, and "Road Movie To Berlin" uses an incorrect vocal take.
• The Walrus Was Paul: "Particle Man" seems like a very cryptic song, and it isn't clear who the four "men" are supposed to represent, if anyone. John Flansburgh described it as "just a song about characters in the most obvious sense" and claims that the lyrics are not intended to invoke real people, though Linnell later said that Triangle Man was based on a friend's observation that Robert Mitchum looked like an evil triangle when he took his shirt off in The Night of the Hunter.

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