Road Movie to Berlin: One Last Stop on the Road from 'Flood'

Reflecting on emotional walls and endings, as I conclude my journey through They Might Be Giants' 3rd album 'Flood'.

I am writing about every song by They Might Be Giants. Subscribe and check out the archives to see what you’ve missed!

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I didn’t fully understand the significance of the Berlin Wall until long after it came down after reaching an age that is a higher number than I care to admit. By the time I got to high school, it was barely mentioned in history class, and I often wonder if my own kids even know about it.

Yet, here I am, reflecting on the wall’s symbolism, thanks to the final track on Flood¹ - They Might Be Giants’ "Road Movie to Berlin" - a song that managed to evoke both history and the emotional walls I found myself trapped behind as a teenager.

The Cold War, Walls, and a Timeless Song

I read about the wall recently as I was ruminating on how I want to approach writing about this next song. The song was written before the Berlin Wall came down, when the division between East and West seemed permanent. In a 1997 interview, John Flansburgh even remarked that the song felt "weirdly dated," like an anti-Vietnam song after the war ended.

Still, the themes of isolation, tension, and unresolved choruses make it feel timeless—especially if you were you were like me; dealing with your own walls back home.

They Might Be Giants were even there when the Berlin Wall began to fall in 1990, right after one of their shows in the city. John Linnell recalled standing on top of the wall and jumping down into a new world of freedom and uncertainty.

“. . . there was this sense of, like, 'This is a whole new world and nobody knows what's going to happen next.' You know, it was a very fun and exciting time to be somewhere in the world when something like that was happening. It felt like we were a part of it, in some weird way.” - John Linnell in a 2015 interview with Spotlight Report.

The Berlin Wall’s symbolization of monumental political change was completely missed on me at that age. I found myself drawn to the song’s quieter, more personal implications. This wasn’t just about world events; it was about emotional walls that I didn’t yet realize I was starting to tear down.

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Walls at Home: Emotional and Literal

When Flood came into my life, I was living in a house with walls of a different kind—emotional ones. My mom, who struggled with Borderline Personality Disorder, had built invisible barriers that isolated her—and by extension, the rest of me. Every conversation seemed to spiral into a new drama, with my mom pitted against her family, friends, or coworkers, convinced that they were out to get her.

I spent hours standing in her doorway (not added up over time but consecutively often until my feet got tingly), listening as she recounted every slight she had suffered. Our house became like its own Berlin, divided between us and my extended family. It took me years to untangle myself from the web of stories she spun, to realize that the walls around us weren’t just protecting her, but imprisoning me.

"Road Movie to Berlin" wasn’t just a Cold War evoking bar song to me—it became a metaphor for the emotional siege my teenage self was living through. And like the wall itself, my own barriers would only start to crumble after a major life-changing event soon to come.

A Song of Unresolved Tension

Musically, "Road Movie to Berlin" captures that sense of unresolved tension perfectly. The slowed-down vocal track by John Flansburgh adds a layer of eeriness, like something creeping beneath the surface. There’s this feeling, especially in the chorus, that the song is never quite finished. Every time it ends, it feels like there’s another verse just around the corner.

It’s unsettling. And that’s what makes it brilliant. The song mirrors the uncertainty of its time—the Berlin Wall was supposed to stand forever, after all—but also the uncertainties in our personal lives. Even when we think we’re at the end of something, there’s always a sense of unfinished business, something left unsaid.

Life’s Unfinished Business

I think life is full of moments like that—those open-ended, unresolved moments. I used to take my kids to the bus stop every morning. Then, one day, I realized that none of them rode the bus anymore. I hadn’t even noticed that the last time we waited together was the last time. Like the end of "Road Movie to Berlin," things just sort of fade out, without resolution.

There’s a lyric in the song that taps into this existential feeling:

Time won't find the lost
It'll sweep up our skeleton bones
So take the wheel and I will take the pedals.

It’s a chilling line. It reminds me of how time moves on relentlessly, and how we’re often passengers in our own lives. We try to take control but we’re not even the ones pressing down on the accelerator. Life just moves forward, regardless of whether we’re ready for it.

Eventually, my own life—like the Berlin Wall—will end, unresolved. Time will sweep up my bones, and after long enough, there will not be anyone left to remember who I was. It’s a stark reminder of the impermanence of everything.

Unresolved, But Not Unfinished: A Flood of Memories

"Road Movie to Berlin" closes out Flood on an unresolved note, leaving us with that lingering feeling that the story isn’t quite over yet. And that’s fitting. Life, like this song, often doesn’t give us the tidy resolutions we crave. It just keeps moving forward, whether we’re ready or not. Maybe that’s why this song has stayed with me all these years—because even as things end, there’s always the sense that something more is coming.

And while this marks the end of my journey through Flood, They Might Be Giants have plenty more to offer. Next week, I’ll be diving into Miscellaneous T, a collection of B-sides and rarities that’s brimming with hidden gems, remixes, and lesser-known tracks. The journey isn’t over—it’s just moving in a new direction.

1. Read about the rest of the Flood album here!