Early Life
John Linnell was born in New York City to father Zenos Linnell, a psychiatrist, and mother Kathleen. When Linnell was a child, Walt Kelly's Songs of the Pogo album made a strong impression on his musical sensibilities. The album contained lyrics that relied heavily on puns and word play, which Linnell appreciated. In particular, he recalls "Lines Upon a Tranquil Brow", which later became part of They Might Be Giants's live repertoire. At an early age, Linnell and his family relocated to Lincoln, Massachusetts, where he attended Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School. Here, he worked on the school newspaper, the Promethean, and met John Flansburgh. The two occasionally collaborated on home-recording projects.
Linnell studied English for a semester at the University of Massachusetts Amherst before dropping out to pursue a career in music.
Read more about this topic: John Linnell
Famous quotes containing the words early and/or life:
“...he came towards them early in the morning, walking on the sea.”
—Bible: New Testament, Mark 6:48.
“We do not need to minimize the poverty of the ghetto or the suffering inflicted by whites on blacks in order to see that the increasingly dangerous and unpredictable conditions of middle- class life have given rise to similar strategies for survival. Indeed the attraction of black culture for disaffected whites suggests that black culture now speaks to a general condition.”
—Christopher Lasch (b. 1932)