I Palindrome I: Generational Curses and Reversible Verses
Word by word, I write. I write word by word.
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First Time I Heard TMBG Say a ‘Bad’ Word
I will never forget the first time I listened to this song, as a new teenager, and heard John Linnell sing the words, “You son of a bitch.”
Holy shit, first the album opens up with the face melting ‘Dig My Grave’ and now this!? Apollo 18 isn’t fucking around.
If the first track set the stage for the level of rock hard mode They Might Be Giants are reaching for with this album, then ‘I Palindrome I’ is teeing us up for epic levels of cleverness.
Palindromes on Palindromes on Palindromes
A song about palindromes, titled as a palindrome, packed with full-length palindromes—an ouroboros of wordplay. It felt like a giant wink to the smartass teenager I was (and still am today). The song was saying “You thought our lyrics about a particle man were clever? Hold our midi samples.”
The song paints a story of a son who is waiting with bated breath for the demise of his mother. Because then, he will get the keys to the kingdom.
In a post-Succession world, this is an easy image to conjure. The mom is well aware of her son’s selfish demeanor and seems almost eager to let him stew in the grief of her absence.
Like being a snake head eating the head on the opposite side.
Am I Using The Word ‘Ouroboros’ Too Much?
The mother-son dynamic in this song feels eerily familiar—not just in a literary sense, but in the way family patterns tend to loop endlessly. Full disclosure, I also may have had a tumultuous relationship with my own mom.
The son in this case is waiting for his mother’s demise, just as she might have with her own parents before him. It’s a generational ouroboros: resentment, inheritance, power struggles, and grief cycling over and over again. That’s the good stuff right there.
Even the imagery hints at this. The mother, once untouchable, now sheds her "bulletproof dress," exposing her vulnerability while maybe laying in a hospital bed or in hospice at home. But in time, won’t the son also find himself in that same hospital bed, staring down another vulture in waiting? Not if he’s clever enough.
But wait—do we all know what a palindrome actually is?—just in case you weren’t an AP English kid like me. Here is a refresher.
A palindrome is a word that can be spelled the same backwards as it can forward. It can also be a sentence that when said backward, is the same as when said forward if not necessarily spelled the same both ways. Examples of each from this song:
Egad A Base Tone Denotes A Bad Age - John Flansburgh sings this reprise during the chorus. It is spelled the same backward and forward which means you can read the entire sentences both ways. A perfect palindrome.
At the bridge of the song, John Linnell sings this sentence palindrome, where the words are the units rather than the letters individually:
"Son, I am able," she said "Though you scare me."
"Watch" Said I. "Beloved," I said "Watch me scare you, though"
Said she, "Able am I, Son"
No-Skip, Stone-Cold Banger
‘I Palindrome I’ is not a just a clever gimmicky song about a factual literary device. It’s a superb commentary on the palindromic nature of vicious family dynamics, constantly volleying for approval or position spun with the silkiest threads of a palindrome. It’s a beautiful song with captivating melodies and imagery and it is only the 2nd track of the Apollo 18 masterpiece.
This is a no-skip, stone cold banger through and through. Skipping this song robs your ears of the opportunity to hear Linnell sing a cascading melody through the lyrical verses only to be answered by Flansy’s counter melody via clean driving guitar scales.
Musically? Lyrically? Emotionally? Perfection.
Look, I’m not a music review guy. I don’t know all the proper terminology but I can say this: Musically? It rocks. Lyrically? It’s a TMBG masterclass. Emotionally? That’s between you and your therapist.
What’s the first song that made you go ‘HOLY SHIT’ as a kid? Bonus points if it contained swears that you needed to hide from your parents. Not MY parents, I had cool parents. Have. They’re still alive. Ok, the ending of this one really got away from me.
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A top-5 TMBG tune for me. If I was cleverer I would have said that as a palindrome. Your breakdown/analysis is perfect and even taught me something about the mother/son dynamics in the lyrics. I spent too much time trying to memorize the words to pay any attention to what they were saying. Fun piece!
I appreciate the analysis-- I enjoy the song but hadn't thought about the meaning, and your explanation makes much better sense of it than I had before.
Worth mentioning one other palindrome song -- Weird Al's "Bob" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUQDzj6R3p4