They Might Be Giants - Older Lyrics

Sound is too quiet.

I remember when this aired! I was so excited. It's wild to know now where it was filmed and how much the landscape has changed since.

This song came preloaded on an ooooold Dell desktop computer and introduced me to TMBG

John, John, Dan, Dan, Dan

I love this. And hate it so much.

I'm sent this video every year for my birthday and I love it.

Nice watch. Longines?

bowling + rollercoaster = fun

Approx 20 years later...time really has marched on.

I was just watching the Spike Lee movie "Bamboozled" and the opening scene takes place in that exact room with the clock window. What is this location?

i used this as a birthday song. Im such a bad friend. i know XD

Happy birthday honey. This one’s for you

Happy birthday Flans, now you're even older!

I've watched this video several times and only just noticed that the narrator in the beginning is Robert Krulwich of (currently) WNYCs Radiolab! He's so high pitched and nasally in this lmao.

This is scary

They all look so young in this video.

This song just keeps getting more and more relevant.

Yeah! Band of Dans!

Siftin!

Are they mocking music ? -Bill Burr 😂😂👍 what absolute shite this is 😂😂

Happy Birthday to my friend with this beloved song. Never gets old. Hueh. Hueh. Hueh.

Start listening to this song at 11:58:15 PM and the part about the day soon being at an end becomes inaccurate.

This was my first TMBG song. Heard it when I was 7 or so on a MusicMatch JukeBox. (Anyone remember that?) I remember being confused by the band's long name and how short the song was. I also thought the voice that shouted "TIME!" in this song was the "Giant(s)" in the band's name. Later on, they did the theme song to Malcolm in the Middle, my friend gets a copy of Apollo 18 for his birthday, and the rest is history. Here we are.

It's my birthday!!

I just realized that this video is basically a speedrun…

I woke to this today, my 49th birthday.

it's tradition to play this on every birthday

I remember this as one of the demo songs included with Windows ME.

Happy Birthday guy from mr Scotts class!

I've listened to this song every year on my birthday for the past five years. Today I turn fifteen.

lazy bagel fed stoners from soho...hey i thnk they are all so keen on us we can say whatever we want. too badd twiinkies are more important than camus

#WorstMusicForAFuneral

... is the narrator Robert Krulwich??

I had the same thought. Looked it up and the narrator is indeed Robert Krulwich from Radiolab

My kids are in their 20's and they still get this for their birthday song. It has become a family tradition.

if anyone ever discovers time travel, they must play this song whilst travelling back in time

I just noticed that "Siftin'" is playing in the background when the narrator's talking. Nice.

wait...sorry, english

hey guys whats wrong with color? it's a cool function of modern cameras

There was no time for such trivial things.

When I first heard this song, it was just on the album without much context, so the obvious message to me was just that-- obvious. "Yeah, it's true, we've been on this planet for longer with every passing moment," it seemed like pretty simple logic. But now I see everyone say how it reflects how we're only "on this Earth" for a limited time, and we're all coming closer to death, mortality or whatever... but it still just doesn't change for me, and I'm not sure why. I guess I'm just not that afraid of death. I'm young. I've still got relatively a lot of time. Time itself is relative. Why be scared of something that's inevitable?

Song starts at 00:29

Micah Gruenwald No it starts at 0:00 Siftin, a TMBG B-side, plays against the narrator.

Encountering Jool at 100000x time warp in a nutshell

Awesome song. It's actually kinda funny too lol.

Thanks for the reminder. They might be bitches! 😝

"best, official video"

don't try to scary me,i don't believe on the flowing time.

yes please, end my misery already. I'm looking at you giant meteor.

Protoman Didn't it slam into a nearby satellite when Agent K tipped at a nearby New York diner?

Why does everyone else have to die just because you don't wanna live?

Also, nasa is now officially developing a system to deflect meteors, but if we do detect a meteor before we have such a system in place there have been a ton of satellites out there for years that with a little bit of luck we'd still have been able to crash those into an asteroid in andmergency

Would satellites even have the mass to make a difference in slowing down a meteor that has enough energy to potentially destroy the world?

John Linnell and John Flansburgh and their band They Might Be All Named Dan

The classic lineup of 2 Johns and 3 Dans. Before Miller left the band around 2006 or 07 and was replaced by the great Marty Beller. He's been an amazing drummer, but it is sad we don't have that coincidence anymore of everyone in the band having one of two names

@Lord PichuPal Dan Hickey left. Dan Miller is still with Them.

@LeedsInAHat I always get it mixed up, I've been so used to Marty on the drums it got hard to remember the other past drummers

@Lord PichuPal The current line-up is John Flansburgh, John Linnell, Danny Weinkauf, Dan Miller and Whitney Hou....er...Marty Beller.

Worrying about how much time you have left is a waste of time.

But they had fun with it, and time you enjoyed "wasting" isn't really time wasted.

@Vernon Doney nice john lennon quote

I love posting this on people's feeds for their birthdays.

The best thing about this song is, whenever you play it, no matter the occasion, it's true.

David Vandermeer for me this is strangely nostalgic for me because I first heard it in freshmen year of high school and I just graduated a while back

Thank you Jamie, you're adopted!!

Was this in YMATA?

"There is a whiff of mortality in the air."
He says as the twin towers in the background. Oh the irony.

http://www.csicop.org/si/show/critical_thinking_what_is_it_good_for_in_fact_what_is_it

Right, I'm the one who needs a lesson in critical thinking:

"This album was released on 9/11/01"
"you might specify which album"

Here's critical thinking for you... They Might Be Giants released an album with THIS song on 9/11/01. I don't need to specify the album, doofus, because any thinking person would know exactly what I was talking about (which album? the album released on 9/11/01 which also has the song in question).
Here's critical thinking... we're talking about coincidences with 9/11. So I point out that an album with this song came out on that very same day. Your comment was legitimately worthless. A *glasses pushed up, nasal voice* pedantic comment that meant nothing. Mink Car came out on that very day. There is indeed the coincidence. The fact that this song also appears on other albums is a useless piece of information. And your inability to see context or actually relate to human beings in a conversation shows who's really lacking the critical thinking. You tried to correct me. Unfortunately, within the context of the conversation, said correction was in error. Please stop. You're embarrassing yourself.

Like, did you even read that article you sent me? It's not about the value of real critical thinking, but instead limiting the definition to fit the idea of the true skeptic. It focuses on the limits of our own epistemology as we make conclusions, often using the scientific method.

None of that has anything to do with what we're talking about.

Gosh, you really really *really* just want to be right, don't you? ;)

whoitisnot the version released on Mink Car is different than this one.

This show was released in 1999.
Just sayin'.

Now that the fun has been sucked out of "Happy Birthday to You" by putting it in the public domain, maybe this can become the birthday song of choice that it deserves to be among rebels and scofflaws around the planet.

1) I sing it to everyone who has a birthday 2) I officially love "scofflaws"

@GlorianaBanana We all need a little love in these dark and interesting days.

I totally sing this to everyone I know on their birthday, post it on timelines, etc. sometimes just randomly sing it. Yep.

The intro where the guy is talking is so cheesy

+A Sad Lack of Buffalos it's cheesy because it's been done. Back when they did it, it was original :P How old do you think this song is?

And now the song is even older.

15 years old. There were hundreds of years of culture and philosophy before 2001.

that part when John yelled TIME XD

TIIIIIIMMMMMEEEE

IS MARCHING ONNNNN

anD THYYYMMMMEEEE

Is stiLL maRcHing OOOOooOOOOoOoOOONnNn!!!

Bowling + Rollercoaster = Fun!

yaaaaaaaas!!!!

I have a cousin whose name is Time. (her parents were hippies.)

So for me, time really is relative.

I assume she's still marching on?

Super cool.

thank you for asking this!

I heard from a guy named Chaucer that she and a certain brand of detergent wait for no man.

I always loved how they don't have the same amount of elapsed time. Einstein wasn't kidding when he said it's relative.

It doesn't.  That was my first assumption.

+nymersic somthing to represent their different ages?

could be, could be [don't know and don't feel like doing the research]
.... although if I was making the video, I've had made it random, and that would be the joke.

+nymersic it might be how much time each of them spent making the video, not necessarily spent in the final version of the video.

Which is easier, that they calculated how much each spent working on it, or that they're fucking with you?

Guess what:  they're fucking with you.

I'll never understand why this version is SO much better than the 'official' version on Mink Car. Definitely prefer the bass riff to the horns.

bifflarken This version was originally recorded for Factory Showroom, but was put on Long Tall Weekend instead.

@Weston Sharpensteen Nope, the one recorded for Factory Showroom was very different, and also never officially released

@DoubleDenial Ah yes, always forget about that one With the crazy synths

Yeah, the horns sound like a stupid video game intro song

I like this one better too........because it came preloaded on an oooold Dell desktop computer and introduced me to tmbg lol

The ultimate birthday song.

+Timbill Corder I send this to my friends and family on their birthday. No one has had the good sense to tell me to stop yet...

+Metqa you're too easy to ignore. try harder.

I've been posting the Uke On! version of this on people's birthday timelines. We learned it here. I wanted to learn it specifically as a birthday song.

A friend of mine sent me a link here for my birthday today. So apparently, he agrees.

What an awesome guy.

Timbill Corder its funny you say that my 7th grade math teacher always played this song for us on our birthdays singing along while stringing his air guitar

BECAUSE WHY?!!!

Speaking of older... they looked quite a bit different when playing this song last Friday at the OK city concert... but sounded better than ever.

Because...? Don't leave me hanging!!! ARGH!

+Coderjoe because tiiiime, is still marching oooooon

They should name the band "Johns and Dans".

Some other guy on the bass! Check him out..

For a while they billed themselves as 'They Might be Giants and the Band of Dans'

Well, they kind of started out with just the two Johns, and the other band members have changed over time.

I know of an obscure band (friends of my family) called "Five Chinese Brothers". And none of them are chinese... or brothers. And I think there's only 4 of them. brilliant. Actually one of them might be a girl- I can't remember - this was like 20 years ago.

"Johns and Dans +Marty" ^-^

I post this song on my friend's fb walls when it's their Birthdays.

It usually goes well.

perfect song to play for someone going through a midlife crisis

Lmao. I played this song for my great grandmom on her 93rd birthday. I thought it was funny then but now that she's gone I feel bad about it, even though she thought it was hilarious. We laughed about it for a year after tho. Lol.

No way, you shouldn't feel bad. First of all, she laughed with you which is great! Second, you shared something you love with her - which is even better. She probably loved that you thought she was cool enough to share a song with. I think it's awesome. 

did you....  kill her with the song?

+ASecondOpinion Softly, I suppose.

+Nick Mosley all life is a slow march toward death. it's no less funny at the end than it is at the start. maybe even more so.

Time never ends...WE DO.

+shotbakerrr maybe for you, mortal

I just survived 38 years on earth... and time marches on.

Love this band sense Lincoln

Wow.  This song is really old.

@Shawn Davis Older than it's ever been

@Chahol17 And now it's even older.

+Jess McCloud And now its even older

+Bam Dalbec And now it's older still.

Protagonist Jones - TIME!

I happened to be at a restaurant in Chicago on my birthday a few years ago. The tables in this restaurant were covered in various graffiti. At the spot where I sat, some previous diner had scrawled the lyrics to this song. True story.

Was that Robert krullwitch

just wondering the same- must be

I heard it too!

+Chris Lamere According to This Might Be a Wiki, yes it was.

I must have been the very early 2000's, I fail to remember what year specifically. I had just bought my very first MP3 player, a Thomson Lyra Pocket. It came with this song included. I could listen to it again and again. Oh boy, little did I know that time sure was ticking on, I sure am older.

This song is so true.

I remember hearing this on the radio after they said the birthdays

There's 2:49 I'll never get back.

No WAY! Is that Radiolab's Robert Krulwich at the beginning?

-except Andy Milonakis

Every time you listen to this song you'll hear new facts about yourself that are always true.

"No man has stepped into the same river twice. For it is not the same river as before; neither is he the same man as before."
-Albers Einstein

Love, love love!!! :D

That is krulwich at beginning right?

Best thing about this song is its true every time i listen to it :P 

You could call it a... timeless classic.

this is my favorite version

WOW (sarcasum)

I only wish they let the video play a few seconds longer, I want to know why this was soon to become a "baby boomer anthem".  

Because their day would soon be at an end, and now it's even sooner. Consider the fact that Generation X is now at least middle-aged.

Siftiiiiiiin'

@0okamino Hoping you'll notice this reply and read it. Re: our conversation with a certain Maria - I'm trying something new with her. I've tried many different ways of talking with the hopelessly entrenched, and none of them seem to get very far. But by couching hard truths between bouts of massaging her ego and acting like I'm on her side-ish, I seem to be getting farther than I usually do. So don't take offense if I chide you a bit; it's all part of the experiment. By the way: TMBG and Dr. Who? Awesome taste. Hence why I followed you. :-D

Love this.

I'm gonna send this to my best friend on her birthday

twin towers in background
"there is a whiff of mortality in the air..."

I send this video to my friends on their birthday

I'm not.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY WORLD

This song gives me such anxiety oh my god. I love it though aaah.

Not a silly thing to say at all. Not only is it full of truth, it's a profoundly direct and forceful statement about the one undeniable truth of life. It spares nothing in its straightforward delivery, and its aggressively steadfast power asserts the truth of mortality with unwavering certainty.

It's rated #88 out of TMBG's 700-something songs, but I'd put it in my top ten.

Where is Jad Abumrad? Hah!

This may be a silly thing to say, but I feel this is one of the best songs ever written. It's full of truth.

Longest continuous shot of a non-soloing bass player, I think.

BECAUSE WHY?!

D: Sent for my birthday. Nooo... aging...

It counts how long they have been on screen for, I think