The Unofficial Songs Of The 50 States

By Mercedes Caldera-Perez

The Centennialight

From one half of the beloved band They Might Be Giants (TMBG), State Songs is John Linnell’s first and only full-length solo album. 

Released in 1999, the album is referred to as Linnells “Ringo walk”. Both John Linnell and John Flansburgh refer to their solo work as their “Ringo walks”, taken from the movie A Hard Day's Night, because they are done without one looking over the other's shoulder which helps define their writing for TMBG.

Originally getting the idea from writing songs about the three oceans with Flansburgh from potential song titles based on sets of things, Linnell insists that the songs actually have nothing to do with the states they’re titled after. 

In an interview on NPR’s All Things Considered he states, “I decided to start writing songs with the name of the states as a way to avoid having to come up with song titles. I suddenly had fifty song titles and I could write fifty songs based on that. This is always one of my problems with writing lyrics. I'm just so lazy I don't want to have to think up all the words and what the song means exactly. It's just a way to create more music without having to get bogged down in verbal ideas.”

He originally thought it would be nice to make the songs about the states and perhaps even make them liable to be adopted as an anthem, but decided against it due to not wanting to possibly upset certain states. “I think songs like ‘Oregon is bad’ are not likely to go down very well in Oregon,” said Linnell.

Although the album is titled State Songs and has a song called “The Songs Of The 50 States”, there are only sixteen state titled songs. Linnell has mentioned that over time he had written unreleased songs that covered most of the fifty states, but he isn't sure if he’ll ever go back to finish the project in its entirety as he has wandered away from it. 

There is a vinyl record released in the shape of the continental United States that's green colored, die-cut, and features the singles for “Montana” and “Louisiana”. 

The album's booklet includes a page with a set of cryptic lines in the form of general information that holds real and fake facts about each state featured on the album.

State Songs is currently available to download or purchase in physical copies on the band's website and is a well worthy listen for fans of the band.