Particle Man, by They Might Be Giants.
Welp, I tricked the 11-year-old into liking TMBG again, and now every car ride involves at least this song, plus Birdhouse (which I demand), as well as Istanbul (which we both enjoy), so I’ve got that going for me for a while. In the car. Where I spend a lot of time with the 11-year-old.
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I am no accordion.
Istanbul (not Constantinople), by They Might Be Giants.
I have carefully spelled “Constantinople” more in the past couple hours than I have since Ms. Green’s 9th grade World History class, which, not coincidentally, was the first time I fully grasped the meaning of this song.
Later, TMBG were very specifically someone else’s music in high school, which meant I got just enough exposure to them to enjoy them without getting tired of them. Even during the brief span of time where our children were at the right age to enjoy the music TMBG made for children, as opposed to the rest of it, which is mostly also perfectly appropriate for children, the listening window was just short enough to learn every word to every song, and then immediately forget them when the record stopped.
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I did not add enough violins or percussion or accordions, but I can live with it for now.