"The Statue Got Me High" is a song by American

alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from Popular culture, mainstre ...

band

They Might Be Giants They Might Be Giants (often abbreviated as TMBG) is an American alternative rock band formed in 1982 by John Flansburgh and John Linnell. During TMBG's early years, Flansburgh and Linnell frequently performed as a duo, often accompanied by a d ...

. The song was released as the

lead single A lead single (also known as a debut single) is the first single to be released from a studio album by an artist or a band, usually before the album itself is released and also occasionally on the same day of the album's release date. Release s ...

from the band's 1992 album, '' Apollo 18''. The song reached number 24 on the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

Alternative Songs Alternative Airplay (formerly known as Modern Rock Tracks (1988–2009) and Alternative Songs (2009–2020)) is a music chart in the United States that has appeared in ''Billboard'' magazine since September 10, 1988. It ranks the 40 most-played ...

chart.''

'' "The Statue Got Me High" chart history Retrieved 2012-06-22. The B-sides "I'm Def" and "Which Describes How You're Feeling" are both taken from the band's 1985 demo tape, which was recorded using low-quality equipment.

Composition

"The Statue Got Me High" was written by John Linnell. Of the meaning of the song's lyrics, Linnell said:

It's kind of a song about having an epiphany or something. The song actually started with completely different lyrics. That's what I was saying about dummy lyrics. I think the song was called 'The Apple of My Eye'. When I came up with the line 'the statue got me high', it amused me. It was taking two things and putting them together - not a non sequitur but something sort of interesting and odd about the juxtaposition of those two things. Part of it is that it's the idea that the statue would be in a public square, a monument. Not necessarily a work of art, but something that's just utterly immobile and represents something that's in the past - just the idea of that blowing somebody's mind. It seems like one of the least likely things to make the top of your head come off, and that's what happens in the song.

Since its release Linnell has compared the lyrics of the song to the

Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his ra ...

opera ''

Don Giovanni ''Don Giovanni'' (; K. 527; Vienna (1788) title: , literally ''The Rake Punished, or Don Giovanni'') is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. Its subject is a centuries-old Spanis ...

'', which also features a deadly confrontation with a statue.

Somebody compared the song to the story of Don Giovanni which I was not familiar with. It was kind of wonderful that they came up with that. It made the song more interesting to me.

Promotion and packaging

A music video was produced for the single, directed by

Adam Bernstein Adam Bernstein (born May 7, 1960) is an Emmy Award-winning American film director, music video director and television director. For his work on the television show '' Fargo'' in 2014, he received a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for O ...

. It premiered on

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

's ''

120 Minutes ''120 Minutes'' is a television program in the United States dedicated to the alternative music genre, that originally aired on MTV from 1986 to 2000, and then aired on MTV's associate channel MTV2 from 2001 to 2003. After its cancellation, MTV ...

'' in February, 1992. The video features

John Linnell John Sidney Linnell ( ; born June 12, 1959) is an American musician, known primarily as one half of the Brooklyn-based alternative rock band They Might Be Giants with John Flansburgh, which was formed in 1982. In addition to singing and songwri ...

and

John Flansburgh John Conant Flansburgh (born May 6, 1960) is an American musician. He is half of the long-standing Brooklyn, New York-based alternative rock duo They Might Be Giants with John Linnell, for which he writes, sings, and plays rhythm guitar. Common ...

among various space-themed sculptures and fully

suited "Suited" is a single by South African singer-songwriter Shekhinah. It was released on July 14, 2017 by SME South Africa, as the first single from her debut studio album, ''Rose Gold''. The song was produced by Luke Goliath with assistance from ...

astronauts An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member aboard a spacecraft. Although generally r ...

at the

Sepulveda Dam The Sepulveda Dam is a project of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers designed to withhold winter flood waters along the Los Angeles River. Completed in 1941, at a cost of $6,650,561 (), it is located south of center in the San Fernando Valley, appr ...

. At certain points, the video depicts John Linnell's head over a red silhouette of flames. A second version of the video, which does not show the flames and instead shows stock footage of a heartbeat monitor, was also produced, because according to Flansburgh, flames are not allowed to be shown on British television. Like ''Apollo 18'', the single's art largely features photography from the

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

archives."The Statue Got Me High" liner notes

Track listing

;US cassette / European CD # "The Statue Got Me High" – 3:06 # "Which Describes How You're Feeling" (demo) – 1:24 # "I'm Def" – 1:08 ;European 12" # "The Statue Got Me High" – 3:06 # "She's Actual Size (album version)" – 2:05 # "I'm Def" – 1:08 # "Which Describes How You're Feeling" (demo) – 1:24 ;European 7" # "The Statue Got Me High" – 3:06 # "She's Actual Size (album version)" – 2:05

Personnel

;They Might Be Giants *

;Additional musicians'' Apollo 18'' liner notes *Jim Thomas - drums on "She's Actual Size" ;Production *They Might Be Giants - producers *Bill Krauss - producer for "I'm Def" and "Which Describes How You're Feeling All the Time" *Edward Douglas IV - engineer *

Alan Winstanley Alan Kenneth Winstanley (born 2 November 1952) is an English record producer and songwriter, active from the mid-1970s onwards. He usually works with Clive Langer. His early career during the mid-1970s was as an audio engineer, working on album ...

- mixing *Paul Angelli - recording

Chart positions

References

External links

*''

The Statue Got Me High "The Statue Got Me High" is a song by American alternative rock band They Might Be Giants. The song was released as the lead single from the band's 1992 album, '' Apollo 18''. The song reached number 24 on the ''Billboard'' Alternative Songs chart ...

'' EP on This Might Be A Wiki *"

" (song) on This Might Be A Wiki {{DEFAULTSORT:Statue Got Me High, The 1992 singles 1992 songs They Might Be Giants songs Elektra Records singles