When Aubrey decided to do a Flashback Friday piece featuring a They Might Be Giants song I had this song stuck in my head for the remainder of the day. Absolutely Bill’s Mood is undoubtedly my favorite TMBG song ever. It also happens to come from my favorite TMBG album. With songs like Absolutely Bill’s Mood, 32 Footsteps, Boat of a Car, and Rhythm Section Want Ad I don’t see how anyone could not have loved that CD. Released in 1986, I would discover it 3 years later at 16 years old. I can only imagine the sight of 4 dirty skate kids driving their mom’s Camry with the Pink album at full-blast. I’m sure it was quite comical but we thought we were edgy and cool. In the process of getting ready to write this piece I stumbled upon This Might Be A Wiki which is a wonderful TMBG knowledge base with all kinds of cool little facts and trivia. Here are some of the neat things it says about Absolutely Bill’s Mood.

• Features the phoned-in guitar mastery of Eugene Chadbourne.
• “For the guitar solo… we put in a special long distance call to Greensboro, NC where Eugene Chadbourne had just put his kids to bed. To avoid disturbing them, he gently played his acoustic guitar into Dubway’s (Dubway Studios, where they were doing additional recording and mixing) answering machine, without musical accompaniment or guide.” – John & John
• The “Bill” mentioned in the title is Bill Krauss.
• The “absolutely” in the title was inspired by Bob Dylan, who would occasionally add irrelevant adverbs to his song titles, as in “Absolutely Sweet Marie.”

So, the song was about a real fella. Who was the Bill Krauss guy?

Bill Krauss is mostly known for his work with They Might Be Giants. In the early days of their career, he was their soundman and produced many of their early releases, including the 1985 Demo Tape, They Might Be Giants and Lincoln. Sometime after Lincoln, They Might Be Giants and Bill Krauss parted ways.

Well there you go. It’s like an Internet version of pop-up videos without the video…or pop-ups…or VH1…oh fuck it. I think I’m about to open up a beer and spend an hour or so boning up on random They Might Be Giants trivia. I am gonna be a real pain in the ass at the bar for a week or for sure.

They Might Be Giants – Absolutely Bill’s Mood

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