I played this for my 1.5 year old son after seeing a snail in one of his baby books. He now requests it every time we read that book (at least once a week).
_Flood_ put TMBG on the map, but _John Henry_ put the pedal to the metal. When the Reaper comes for me, I'm not going anywhere until he busts out No One Knows My Plan and we conga-line into the hereafter.
Lincoln. Maybe not a real Boss Hoss, but I think it is the best thing by them might be them. The most Kafkaesque record ever. Some of the sentiments in Lincoln were arrived at by Kafka seventy eighty years before, although I don't think it's a case of influence or theft but of universal images uncovered by parallel processes of automatic free-association, . . .
I love how many goofy faces and gestures the Johns are making, in constant with the strange retro scientists who seem to be playing with them like toys or running nefarious experiments. Aesthetically pleasing video with great closeup shots.
Part of me wonders if this song is burned directly into Hank Green's core memories somewhere, because it seems to leak out of the edges of his personality whether he has ever heard it or not, and that's hilarious to me.
Lyrics: Sir hand Or is it ma'am I fell out of my right place again And you Considered me And now I'm where a snail has to be I want to thank you for putting me back in my snail shell I want to thank you for putting me back in my snail shell Was it something you would do for anybody? Was it what you'd only do for me? I need to know because you see I want to thank you for putting me back in my snail shell Friend Look what you gave And how can you ever be repaid? How may I give you a hand From the position at your feet where I stand? So let me thank you for putting me back in my snail shell I'd like to thank you for putting me back in my snail shell Was it something you would do for anybody? Was it what you'd only do for me? I need to know because you see I want to thank you for putting me back in my snail shell Snail Shell Thank you Snail Shell Thank you Ah Ah Ah Was it something you would do for anybody? Was it what you'd only do for me? Or was it something where you acted when you saw the need And knew that there would be a way the act could be repaid And so it may, but for today I want to thank you for putting me back in my snail shell
Luke Hennisch its criminal that songs like 'til my head falls off' 'how can i sing like a girl' 'exquisite dead guy' and 'metal detector' never got the video treatment.
@@YellowChoklit Metal Detector is especially suited for the music video treatment. Just imagine John and John dancing around a beach with metal detectors!!
this is such a cool song, the funky bass, the pauses in the groove, that buildup at the end of the chorus leading up to that beautiful held note, the badass guitar- idk like i always like tmbg but this damn song, man
I like the video more than the song, actually. Don't know why this got chosen to be one of the marketable tracks of the album while there are so many gems on it ^^
I will never ever get over how good this is. I just saw them on Thursday and I woudl've done anything for them to play this. amazing nonetheless. love them o ==so much. linnell and flansburgh have my heart forever. but this song never leaves my head.....
How does a song this Awesome only have 657 likes? Come on, even TMBG fans at the very least should have liked it more. I remember when John Henry came out, I bought the CD. i remember at first I wasn't sure if I would like it, Lincoln was a favorite album at the time. I liked Flood, but I had to listened to my record of Lincoln so much it was like a standard to be reached for me. Anyway, I ended up really liking John Henry and I've always been amazed it doesn't seem to get the love of some of the other albums.
Looking at the video and at the lyrics, along with the history of the band, I think this song might be about the "benevolence" of a record label, putting you back into the safety of a slow, drab shell of industrialized pop when you try to go out and do something whacky on your own.
I think it's a sarcastic song that's meant to be juxtaposed to the song "I want to thank you, for letting me, be myself, again!" This "helping hand" put our narrator back "in his place." And now the narrator is thanking the person while back at their feet where they belong. Most of their songs have this sort of dark humor to them.
@innertuber4049 right and it could very well be meant by tmbg to mean that very thing you said. I just personally try to interpret the songs a little more on the abstract side to cover the overall theme of the song. What exactly the concretes of the situation are could change from interpreter to interpreter, but what's for sure is that this guy has been put in his place by someone else. Basically, I'm saying I try to go more broad as I think a lot of their songs are just encompassing an overall feeling, whether it be insecurity or loneliness, and there's usually not enough info in the song to try to interpret and specify exactly the situation is. Are there any distinct words in the song that make you think it's the record label they are singing about? Or is it simply something that's easy to picture. You know what I mean?
@@johngleue I mean, they're clearly in a recording studio in this music video, with a director and sound engineer and everything. That's why I think it's probably a not so sly nod at the label they had left just before creating John Henry. But I agree with you, these songs have no one specific interpretation
Wow, had not seen this video before today, and I love this album, it's wild It looks like Clockwork Orange concepts ... TMBG being used in some eerie experiment
I thought i knew all their best tunes!! Wow!! Just uncovered this gem for the first time!! Mind blown!! It's not surprising because this is one of the best acts in the world(my opinion) but it's nice to find a song that i was unfamiliar with as i am going through a bunch of their catalog here on youtube tonight!! This was goes up there with their best!!
Linnell in this video looks like he's auditioning for Topher Grace's spot in the cast of That 70s Show for some reason, I dunno why, maybe it's the turtleneck.
I think this song is about rejection. Like, it's about a guy who has always been shy and reclusive, and when he finally ventures out of his "shell" to try to meet somebody, i.e. a woman, they reject him and send him right back into his shell. So the song is him sarcastically saying "Thanks for showing me where I'm meant to be, how can I ever thank you?"
I was literally just saying to my boyfriend that I think this song is just about a snail that someone returned to their shell. he said something along these relationship lines. I dunno but I just can't help but think it is so literal!
@@dylanbryson8021 I feel like the song is about more than romantic relationships. John seems to be speaking to the 'great hand in the sky', ( sir hand, or is it ma'am?) to provide the perspective of a lower creature, in this case a snail, in relation to a higher power. Something so large the entirety of it cannot be seen by the lower creature. Only the 'hand' can be perceived and understood. Kind of like when humans tap on the glass of an aquarium, or pick up some other tiny creature against its will. There's a quirky, angsty, dark night of the soul kind of energy to this song, and I can't get enough of it.
I think the same thing. For introverts who have a hard time going out, it doesn't take much. One nasty person is enough to send me scuttling back into my snail shell, and not wanting to come back out!!
A music video for "No One Knows My Plan" with colorful, wild visuals, lots of backup dancers, and the Johns in fun outfits would have been a no-brainer.
Has anyone else listened to this and Fly Like an Eagle back to back? They sound incredibly similar to me. Not saying TMBG is copying Steve Miller or anything, but stylistically they remind me of each other in this one song.
This might be unrelated, but as I said, I'm still deminonbinary. Seriously!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
