| John Henry | |
| Type: | studio |
| Artist: | They Might Be Giants |
| Cover: | TheyMightBeGiants-JohnHenry.jpg |
| Released: | September 13, 1994 |
| Recorded: | November 1993–June 1994 |
| Genre: | Alternative rock, indie rock |
| Length: | 57:07 |
| Label: | Elektra |
| Producer: | Paul Fox, They Might Be Giants |
| Prev Title: | Back to Skull |
| Prev Year: | 1994 |
| Next Title: | Live!! New York City 10/14/94 |
| Next Year: | 1994 |
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.[1]
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.[2] In 2013, the album was reissued across a double LP by Asbestos Records.[3]
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:[4]
"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".[5] "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."[6] "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.
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.[7]
John Henry is the first album credited to They Might Be Giants as a full band, rather than a duo:
Additional musicians
| Australian Albums (ARIA)[8] | 132 |
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