overthinking

[rushthatspeaks]

So I was listening to the They Might Be Giants song 'The Mesopotamians', which unfortunately has the distinction of being the best fiction about Mesopotamians I have yet encountered. In that song, Sargon, Hammurabi, Ashurbanipal, and Gilgamesh are in a rock band. The narrator is clearly one of them: "Hey, man, I thought that you were dead/I thought you crashed your car"/"No, man, I've been right here this whole time playing bass guitar."

I started trying to figure out which one of them the narrator is. Because the one thing we know is that it isn't Ashurbanipal: This is my last stick of gum/I'm going to cut it up so everybody else gets some/Except for Ashurbanipal, because he says my haircut makes me look like a Mohenjo-Daroan.

The thing is, though, I would have absolutely insisted that in this set of people Ashurbanipal would be the one playing the bass. Because I assume that Gilgamesh is the lead singer, you know, the charisma and all, and I can't see Sargon not insisting on lead guitar, and Hammurabi is also pretty clearly the drummer.

Maybe Ashurbanipal plays keytar? But who the heck is on bass?

Comments

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

Hee!

Nine

[tirerim.livejournal.com]

If you watch the music video (which is also awesome), it's pretty easy to tell: Hammurabi is on bass, Sargon and Gilgamesh are on guitars (not entirely clear who is rhythm and who is lead), and Ashurbanipal is on drums (spoilers, highlight to read).

[orawnzva.livejournal.com]

The video also establishes moderately clearly that the lead singer POV of the TMBG song is Hammurabi — that of course doesn't tell us who the lead singer of the Mesopotamians is.

[jinian.livejournal.com]

Oh god, the video is fantastic. Perfect way to start the day.

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

I would not have thought of them as zombies. That said, I like the goat. And that haircut does make him look like a Mohenjo-Daroan. So I am willing to accept the video's placement of POV as canonical.

[zdenka]

That is kind of awesome.

[tithenai.livejournal.com]

*giggleFIT* You win the internets today. And it's only 12:27 my time.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I first read this early in the morning and had some happy minutes letting the back of my brain try to list other Mesopotamians it might be, until I came back to it and realized you were asking which of the four we know about.

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

I was all, Enkidu would make a great bass player, and then I deflated and realized they would have mentioned him.

[sovay]

I was all, Enkidu would make a great bass player, and then I deflated and realized they would have mentioned him.

I hope that will not stop you from writing something in which he totally rocks "That's When I Reach for My Revolver."

[sovay]

So I was listening to the They Might Be Giants song 'The Mesopotamians', which unfortunately has the distinction of being the best fiction about Mesopotamians I have yet encountered.

And it's bandfic.

"Except for Aššurbanipal, who says my haircut / Makes me look like a Mohenjo-daran" is one of my favorite lines in all modern music.

[zdenka]

What is a Mohenjo-daran? I could look it up, but I bet it will be more fun if you tell me.

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

Mohenjo-daro (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohenjo-daro) was one of the major cultural rivals to the Mesopotamian civilization; they flourished at about the same time, and sometimes they traded and sometimes they fought. Mohenjo-daro is over in what is now Pakistan. It's a beautiful example of the things you can do with mud brick if you really, really try.

Cultural equivalency would be telling someone from New York City that their hairstyle makes them look like they're from Toronto. It's not an insult, and could well be intended as a compliment, but many New Yorkers would start twitching.

[zdenka]

Cool! That is indeed some awesome use of mud brick.

[selidor]

This is a beautiful post. Made my evening. (and I had to go listen to the song again, just for extra cheerfulness).