Nightgown of the Sullen Moon - How a Kid's Drawing Inspired a TMBG Deep Cut

Unravel the eerie, whimsical story behind They Might Be Giants' "Nightgown of the Sullen Moon"—a track packed with surrealism and existential dread.

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Inspiration from Lennon to Linnell

Almost six decades ago, John Lennon’s three-year-old son, Julian, presented him with a drawing of a classmate named Lucy. Julian announced that the drawing was titled, “Lucy—In the Sky with Diamonds.” That feels pretty advanced for a three-year-old, but, then again, he had John Lennon for a dad. Lennon found the title “beautiful” and immediately wrote a song about it, which would later debut on the album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Fast-forward about two decades, and another John—John Linnell of They Might Be Giants—is shown a drawing by a friend’s kid. He thought, “Oh, it’s cute. What an amazing expression for a kid.” The drawing was titled Nightgown of the Sullen Moon.

Admittedly, Linnell has said he had a sort of fantasy about doing his own “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” kind of thing. Inspired, he wrote a song around that title. He later found out that the child’s drawing—and its haunting title—were inspired by Nancy Willard’s children’s book of the same name. Thus was born Nightgown of the Sullen Moon, a quirky piece of artistic kismet that now lives as track five on the Miscellaneous T album.

My Own Childhood Masterpiece

When I was in second grade, I drew a picture of dragons dancing around a castle, complete with a poem. I don’t remember much of the poem’s content, other than the final line: “and the dragons were dancing till midnight.” My Uncle Ron—a man I admired deeply, who was both philosophical and artistic—loved it. He asked to keep it and placed it inside his book of favorite quotes and poems.

Unlike Lennon or Linnell, he didn’t write a song based on my work. He just kept it in that little book of his for the next seven years, until he eventually accepted his own invitation to exit this mortal plane.

book cover for Nany Willard’s ‘The Nightgown Of The Sullen Moon’

A Song that Demands to Be Felt

Nightgown clocks in at just 1 minute and 59 seconds, yet it’s packed with a cascade of words and melodies. Amidst the lyrical sea, one phrase repeats toward the end—a deceptively simple line that always forces me to dwell on my own rapidly ending existence and the relentless march of time.

"Forever is a long time."

For those of you who have been reading this newsletter for a while, it’s no secret that I grapple with existential dread and intrusive thoughts—especially around the idea of my own inevitable end and the vastness of time stretching on forever. Nightgown is a beautiful song, worthy of anyone’s ears, but that line in particular taps into a deep-seated sense of dread in me. Still, I really enjoy this song—mostly.

Easter Egg: The Big Big Whoredom

If you listen closely, there’s a fun easter egg hidden in Nightgown’s lyrics: a line about “a feeling of boredom, of the big whoredom.” Years after first hearing this song, I discovered another They Might Be Giants track called The Big Big Whoredom on their Then: The Earlier Years anthology.

The Big Big Whoredom wasn’t released with the other Miscellaneous T b-sides, and it didn’t see the light of day until years later, buried deep in the anthology (track 29 on disc two!). So here we have a B-side on Miscellaneous T referencing an even B-SIDE-IER song! It was a thrilling discovery, finding this obscure track that suddenly connected back to Nightgown in a way that felt like the TMBG universe folding in on itself.

Conclusion: A Deep Cut Worth Dwelling On

Is Nightgown of the Sullen Moon complicated? Sure. But it’s also one of the most interesting deep cuts from They Might Be Giants, adding another layer of quirky introspection to the oddball assembly of songs on Miscellaneous T. It may be a bit of an existential minefield for me personally, but it’s also a song I’ll keep coming back to—and that’s the magic of They Might Be Giants.

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