Talk:Birdhouse in Your Soul (song)

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Link for lyrics leads to a Google search looking for lines in the song. Would probably be better if the link took you to a web page containing the lyrics.

I just removed the link, because the lyrics are easily findable at TMBW.net, the other link - LesterRoquefort 22:53, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

There is no conceivable way this song is about opposable thumbs. "There's a picture opposite me / of my primitive ancestry / which stood on rocky shores and kept the beaches shipwreck free." that refers to a lighthouse. how on earth could the primitive ancestry of opposable thumbs be a lighthouse? Wwjdd 05:32, 15 January 2006 (UTC)

It's about a nightlight. —User:ACupOfCoffee@ 07:29, 26 February 2006 (UTC)

Fixed up. Wezzo 22:25, 27 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Cover?

I've heard multiple versions of this song. Did TMBG do multiple versions, or has another band covered it? --LostLeviathan 17:19, 23 May 2006 (UTC)

Other than some live recordings and a demo with substantially different lyrics than the final cut, no. There are at least a few covers out there, most notably (AFAIK) one by Lemon Demon. — User:ACupOfCoffee@ 19:55, 16 November 2006 (UTC)

One problem with the nightlight theory is the reference to the singer's primitive ancestry 'killing jason off and countless screaming argonauts'. In the Jason myth it was the sirens, monsters with the bodies of birds and the heads (and sometimes chests) of beautiful women, who tried and failed to lure the Argonauts to their death with seductive singing. This would suggest that the singer may in fact be the Blue Canary, linked to the Sirens by the fact that it is a bird and by its song. It is also rather hard to imagine a nightlight being somebody's only friend - a pet is plausible.

Well, it's a blue canary nightlight. What else could "Blue canary in the outlet by the light switch" mean? The "primitive ancestry" is lighthouses, and the reference to Jason and the Argonauts is to to say that a night light would make a really crappy lighthouse. I suspect They Might Be giants didn't know the myth very well when they wrote the song. (If anyone is interested in continuing to discuss this, I'd prefer to do it at a more appropriate place — namely TMBW:Interpretations:Birdhouse In Your Soul) — User:ACupOfCoffee@ 19:55, 16 November 2006 (UTC)