John Henry (album)

1994 studio album by They Might Be Giants

John Henry

Studio album by

They Might Be Giants

Released| September 13, 1994
Recorded| November 1993–June 1994
Studio|

* Bearsville (Woodstock, New York)
* Skyline (New York)

Genre| Alternative rock, indie rock
Length| 57:07
Label| Elektra
Producer| Paul Fox, They Might Be Giants
They Might Be Giants chronology
| Back to Skull
(1994)  | John Henry
(1994)  | Live!! New York City 10/14/94
(1994)

|
|

Singles from  John Henry

1. "Snail Shell"
Released: August 15, 1994

Professional ratingsReview scores

Source| Rating
AllMusic| [1]
Chicago Tribune| [2]
Entertainment Weekly| B[3]
NME| 7/10[4]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide| [5]
The Village Voice| [6]

John Henry is the fifth studio album by American alternative rock group They Might Be Giants. It was released in 1994. It is the first album by They Might Be Giants to include a full band arrangement, rather than synthesized and programmed backing tracks. The album's name, a reference to the man versus machine fable of John Henry, is an allusion to the band's fundamental switch to more conventional instrumentation, especially the newly established use of a human drummer instead of a drum machine.[7]

John Henry is TMBG's longest record and was the band's highest-charting adult album, having peaked at #61 on the Billboard 200, until 2011's Join Us, which peaked at #32.[8] In 2013, the album was reissued across a double LP by Asbestos Records.[9]

## Lyrical themes

[edit]

The lyrics to the song "AKA Driver" refer to a "NyQuil driver". John Flansburgh offered an explanation of the legal issue with the inclusion of a brand name:[10]

> It was a brief education for us in the difference between protected speech and trademark infringement. Although it was a possibility that we could have gotten away with it, or settled with the NyQuil manufacturers for a small amount of money, the path of least hassle was simply omitting the name from the package. According to our lawyer you can say pretty much anything in a song about a product, and that expression is a protected part of every American's freedom of speech. However when you title a song after a trademarked product and then start selling your recording (which is also a product) you run the risk of the trademark holder suing you for infringing on their trademark. To make matters tougher on ol' NyQuil Driver, trademark holders are compelled by the law to protect their trademark or they run the risk of their product name falling into the public domain.

"I Should Be Allowed to Think" excerpts the first line ("I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving, hysterical") of the poem Howl by Allen Ginsberg. The song is also, according to its author, John Linnell, an example of the use of an "unreliable narrator".[11] "Meet James Ensor" refers to an eccentric Belgian expressionist painter whose works excited John Flansburgh. In an interview, Flansburgh explained that "the line 'Dig him up and shake his hand' is actually very specific – a parallel idea to a lot of his paintings which involve resurrections, skeletons and puppets being animated. [...] With the song, I'm trying to encapsulate the issues of his life – an eccentric guy who became celebrated and was soon left behind as his ideas were taken into the culture and other people became expressionists."[12] "Why Must I Be Sad?" is a string of references to Alice Cooper song titles and lyrics, involving several titles from the Billion Dollar Babies album including "No More Mr. Nice Guy," "I Love the Dead," and others.

## Appearances in other media

[edit]

Instrumental excerpts from "No One Knows My Plan" and "The End of The Tour" were used as the opening and closing themes, respectively, during the first season of the animated variety show Cartoon Planet in 1995. "No One Knows My Plan" was also used in a 30-second PBS Kids web promo in 2005.[13]

## Track listing

[edit]

All tracks are written by They Might Be Giants, except where noted.

No.| Title| Length

|
|

1.| "Subliminal"| 2:45
2.| "Snail Shell"| 3:20
3.| "Sleeping In the Flowers"| 4:30
4.| "Unrelated Thing"| 2:30
5.| "AKA Driver" (They Might Be Giants, Tony Maimone, Brian Doherty)| 3:14
6.| "I Should Be Allowed to Think" (They Might Be Giants, Tony Maimone)| 3:09
7.| "Extra Savoir-Faire"| 2:48
8.| "Why Must I Be Sad?"| 4:08
9.| "Spy"| 3:06
10.| "O, Do Not Forsake Me"| 2:30
11.| "No One Knows My Plan"| 2:37
12.| "Dirt Bike"| 3:05
13.| "Destination Moon"| 2:27
14.| "A Self Called Nowhere"| 3:22
15.| "Meet James Ensor"| 1:33
16.| "Thermostat"| 3:11
17.| "Window"| 1:00
18.| "Out of Jail"| 2:38
19.| "Stomp Box"| 1:55
20.| "The End of the Tour"| 3:18
Total length:| 57:07

## Personnel

[edit]

John Henry is the first album credited to They Might Be Giants as a full band, rather than a duo:

* John Flansburgh – vocals, guitar
* John Linnell – vocals, keyboard, accordion, horns
* Brian Doherty – drums, percussion
* Tony Maimone – bass guitar, ukulele
* Graham Maby – bass guitar on tracks 11 & 14

Additional musicians

* Robert Quine – guitar solos on tracks 3 & 11
* Hudson Shad – vocals on track 10
* Steven Bernstein – trumpet

## Charts

[edit]

Chart performance for John Henry Chart (1994)  | Peak
position

|

Australian Albums (ARIA)[14] | 132

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Anderson, Rick. "John Henry – They Might Be Giants". AllMusic. Retrieved September 4, 2016.
2. ^ Caro, Mark (September 29, 1994). "They Might Be Giants: John Henry (Elektra)". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved September 4, 2016.
3. ^ Mirkin, Steven (September 16, 1994). "John Henry". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on February 4, 2017. Retrieved September 4, 2016.
4. ^ "They Might Be Giants: John Henry". NME. September 17, 1994. p. 50.
5. ^ Considine, J. D. (2004). "They Might Be Giants". In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). Simon & Schuster. pp. 808–09. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.
6. ^ Christgau, Robert (March 11, 1997). "Consumer Guide". The Village Voice. Retrieved September 4, 2016.
7. ^ "tmbg.com information on John Henry". Archived from the original on June 6, 1997. Retrieved April 25, 2017.`{{cite web}}`: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link). Retrieved 2012-08-10.
8. ^ Billboard.com TMBG chart history. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
9. ^ "They Might Be Giants - John Henry 2xLP". Asbestos Records. Retrieved May 16, 2013.
10. ^ tmbg.com John Henry track information.
11. ^ Gigantic (A Tale of Two Johns), 2003. Dir. AJ Schnack.
12. ^ Consumable Online interview with John Flansburgh.
13. ^ "PBS Kids BIG BIG Friend Day Web Promo". YouTube. April 25, 2019. Retrieved June 11, 2024.
14. ^ "They Might Be Giants ARIA Chart history (albums) 1988 to 2024". ARIA. Retrieved July 28, 2024 - via Imgur.com. N.B. The High Point number in the NAT column represents the release's peak on the national chart.

## External links

[edit]

* John Henry at This Might Be a Wiki
* John Henry HyperCard Stack Emulator \- A web-based recreation of the band's HyperCard promotional tool

* v
* t
* e

They Might Be Giants

* John Flansburgh
* John Linnell
* Dan Miller
* Danny Weinkauf
* Marty Beller

* Hal Cragin
* Brian Doherty
* Jonathan Feinberg
* Dan Hickey
* Kurt Hoffman
* Graham Maby
* Tony Maimone
* Eric Schermerhorn

Studio albums|

| Rock albums|

* They Might Be Giants (1986)
* Lincoln (1988)
* Flood (1990)
* Apollo 18 (1992)
* John Henry (1994)
* Factory Showroom (1996)
* Long Tall Weekend (1999)
* Mink Car (2001)
* The Spine (2004)
* The Else (2007)
* Join Us (2011)
* Nanobots (2013)
* Glean (2015)
* Phone Power (2016)
* I Like Fun (2018)
* My Murdered Remains (2018)
* The Escape Team (2018)
* Book (2021)

|

Children's albums|

* No! (2002)
* Here Come the ABCs (2005)
* Here Come the 123s (2008)
* Here Comes Science (2009)
* Why? (2015)

EPs|

* Why Does the Sun Shine? (The Sun Is a Mass of Incandescent Gas) (1993)
* Back to Skull (1994)
* Working Undercover for the Man (2000)
* They Might Be Giants In... Holidayland (2001)
* Bed, Bed, Bed (2003)
* Indestructible Object (2004)
* The Spine Surfs Alone (2004)

Singles|

* "Don't Let's Start"
* "Ana Ng"
* "They'll Need a Crane"
* "Purple Toupee"
* "Birdhouse in Your Soul"
* "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)"
* "I Palindrome I"
* "O Tannenbaum"
* "Boss of Me"
* "Can't Keep Johnny Down"
* "You're on Fire"
* "Lazy"

Other songs|

* "Particle Man"
* "James K. Polk"

Live albums|

* Live!! New York City 10/14/94 (1994)
* Severe Tire Damage (1998)
* Live (1999)
* The Spine Hits the Road (2004)
* Almanac (2004)
* Venue Songs (2004)
* First Album Live! (2014)
* Flood Live in Australia (2015)
* Live in Brooklyn (2016)
* Beast of Horns (2024)

Compilations|

* Don't Let's Start (1989)
* Miscellaneous T (1991)
* Then: The Earlier Years (1997)
* Best of the Early Years (1999)
* They Got Lost (2002)
* Dial-A-Song: 20 Years of They Might Be Giants (2002)
* A User's Guide to They Might Be Giants (2005)
* Venue Songs DVD/CD (2005)
* Album Raises New and Troubling Questions (2011)
* Idlewild (2014)

Video releases|

* Direct from Brooklyn (1999)
* Gigantic (A Tale of Two Johns) (2003)
* Here Come the ABCs (2005)
* Venue Songs DVD/CD (2005)
* Here Come the 123s (2008)
* Here Comes Science (2009)

Related articles|

* Discography
* Mono Puff
* State Songs (1999)
* The Brothers Chaps
* International Space Year
* "Tiny Toon Music Television" (1991)

Authority control databases |

* MusicBrainz release group

|

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