The sample for "Indepdent" is the same sample used at the beginning of another Books song, "That Right Ain't Shit," from their second release, The Lemon of Pink.
The French line, "Ceçi n'est pas une pipe" (This is not a pipe) is from a famous painting by René Magritte titled "La trahison des images" (The trechery of images). In the painting, the phrase is written in cursive below a picture of a pipe. The Wikipedia article about Magritte has more on the artist and his work, as well as a picture of the painting.
The line "I can't find the books, they must be in La Jolla" is from a "This American Life" act called "The Greatest Phone Message of All Time." This act tells the story of an unintentionally funny phone message left for a student of Columbia University by his mother in the early 90s. It is hilarious. You can visit http://www.thislife.org/pages/descriptions/02/203.html to hear the whole act (hell, the whole show). To hear just this act, scrub forward to 39:05.
A few comments and explanations.
The sample for "Indepdent" is the same sample used at the beginning of another Books song, "That Right Ain't Shit," from their second release, The Lemon of Pink.
The French line, "Ceçi n'est pas une pipe" (This is not a pipe) is from a famous painting by René Magritte titled "La trahison des images" (The trechery of images). In the painting, the phrase is written in cursive below a picture of a pipe. The Wikipedia article about Magritte has more on the artist and his work, as well as a picture of the painting.
The line "I can't find the books, they must be in La Jolla" is from a "This American Life" act called "The Greatest Phone Message of All Time." This act tells the story of an unintentionally funny phone message left for a student of Columbia University by his mother in the early 90s. It is hilarious. You can visit http://www.thislife.org/pages/descriptions/02/203.html to hear the whole act (hell, the whole show). To hear just this act, scrub forward to 39:05.