Don't Let's Start

You're all wrong. It's about not let's starting.

I know this is weird talking about this on a "song meanings" site, but I just think maybe every song doesnt have to have a meaning, we are talkin about They Might Be Giants here, maybe some of their songs don't mean anything at all.

I'm surprised no one has interpreted the song from a socio-political angle. The nihilism angle is a good start, but it begs us to ask why nihilism and a love relationship are juxtaposed? Here's what I think.

I see it as a song sung to the country as an entity (a woman we'll call "America"), and the love relationship is a metaphor. "Precious little girl" == girl rhymes with world, carries the metaphor, and countries are considered female (just like all our social ideals - Liberty, Justice, etc). Imagine him singing to "America" and it suddenly makes a lot more sense.

He is in despair because he doesn't want to live without her, but he is getting sick of living with her as well. He cannot handle how she "gets around". All the stuff about nihilism is still true, but it takes a sharper edge because "his precious little girl" actually could destroy the entire world.

Lending weight to the "lyrics are just made to fit the music" argument, the lyrics were much shorter on the '85 demo tape:

Don't don't don't let's start This is the worst part Could believe for all the world That you're my precious little girl But don't don't don't let's start I've got a weak heart And I don't get around how you get around

don't don't

I dont want to live in this world anymore I dont want to live in this world anymore

Don't don't don't let's start This is the worst part Could believe for all the world That you're my precious little girl But don't don't don't let's start I've got a weak heart And I don't get around how you get around

Thats it.

The phrase "don't let's start" basically is a fatigued expression asking that you and I not once again start up the same argument. The guy is telling the girl "let's not get into this, because it will start a huge fight".

The "D world destruction" bridge is a play on the old 50's and 60's bit of spelling out words in love songs (like "L is for the way you look at me" in "L-O-V-E" by Nat King Cole). One of my favorite things about TMBG is how they recycle bits of pop culture and turn them to their own twisted designs.

Deputy Dog was a cartoon character (from Hannah Barbara, if memory serves me right). I'm pretty sure they are just using it as a nonesense scat because it's fun to say really fast.

Has no one ever heard the expression 'don't let's start'? My grandparents talk like that. It's old and a little folksy, but people still say it. And it /is/ 'let's not start this again'

Seriously of all the TMBG songs out there that one could ponder for the rest of their lives this was never one to me. Bad relationship from the point of view of a shy young man not being treated well. He doesn't get around like she does, he wants to believe she's pure (precious little girl). He doesn't deal with the problem head on and instead articulates his feelings in his mind as "Everybody dies frustrated and sad and that is beautiful" and "I don't want to live in this world anymore" Seriously it's a bad relationship from the point of view of someone who doesn't really "get around" like his girlfriend does.

NO WAIT I THINK IT'S ABOUT MEDICAL SCIENCE IN THE 17TH CENTURY!!!!!!!!

seriously people, if you've been there you get it. I get it.

"The lyrics have been heavily analyzed by the band's notoriously obsessive fans for a full generation now, and although at its heart it is some kind of a love song (or perhaps a breakup song), no one seems to have come up with a satisfying explanation for most of the more obtuse lines. It’s possible that many may actually just be nonsense written to fit the music, a notion bolstered by John Linnell’s oft-repeated explanation that the song is about “not let’s starting” (figure that one out as a grammatical construction). Among the twists and turns, the song is most noted for some of its dark lines immediately juxtaposed with gibberish, such as:

No one in the world ever gets what they want and that is beautiful. Everybody dies frustrated and sad and that is beautiful. They want what they're not and I wish they would stop saying, “Deputy dog dog a ding dang depadepa Deputy dog dog a ding dang depadepa.”

D, world destruction Over and overture N, do I need Apostrophe T, need this torture?"

http://nosurfmusic.com/nosurfvinylessentials/reviews/theymightbegiants-theymightbegiants/index.html

I think it's just about his cat. She keeps waking up him up wanting food, and he doesn't even know how she got in his room.

[Edit: misgendered cat]

based on lyrics alone i would say its more of a guy telling a girl not to sleep around. although i say let her sleep around and laugh when she contracts a std