Lyrics for Ana Ng as interpreted by kevin

Ana Ng Lyrics
Make a hole with a gun perpendicular
To the name of this town in a desk-top globe
Exit wound in a foreign nation
Showing the home of the one this was written for
My apartment looks upside down from there
Water spirals the wrong way out the sink
And her voice is a backwards record
It's like a whirlpool and it never ends

Ana Ng and I are getting old
And we still haven't walked in the glow of each other's majestic presence
Listen Ana hear my words
They're the ones you would think I would say if there was a me for you

All alone at the '64 World's Fair
Eighty dolls yelling "Small girl after all"
Who was at the Dupont Pavilion?
Why was the bench still warm? Who had been there?
Or the time when the storm tangled up the wire
To the horn on the pole at the bus depot
And in the back of the edge of hearing
These are the words the voice was repeating:

Ana Ng and I are getting old
And we still haven't walked in the glow of each other's majestic presence
Listen Ana hear my words
They're the ones you would think I would say if there was a me for you

When I was driving once I saw this painted on a bridge:
"I don't want the world, I just want your half"

They don't need me here, and I know you're there (don't need me)
Where the world goes by like the humid air (world goes by)
And it sticks like a broken record
Everything sticks like a broken record
Everything sticks until it goes away (it goes home)
And the truth is, we don't know anything (don't know)

Ana Ng and I are getting old
And we still haven't walked in the glow of each other's majestic presence
Listen Ana hear my words
They're the ones you would think I would say if there was a me for you

Ana Ng and I are getting old
And we still haven't walked in the glow of each other's majestic presence
Listen Ana hear my words
They're the ones you would think I would say if there was a me for you

Ana Ng and I are getting old
And we still haven't walked in the glow of each other's majestic presence
Listen Ana hear my words
They're the ones you would think I would say if there was a me for you

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  • 28 Comments
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zooey
03-02-2002

Rated 0 
John Linnell said,
"I mean it generated out of this simple idea of imagining someone on the exact opposite side of the globe. There's only one person for you and they're located at some point at random on the globe. In Ana Ng, the person is located at exactly the opposite pole. That's all there is to it. Then there was this Pogo cartoon that I read when I was a kid. The characters are going to dig to China and one of them is wondering what's on the other side of the world and he actually pulls out a revolver -- it was weird to see a gun in one of these comics -- and he shoots through the globe."

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SpeckLCPunk
06-02-2002

Rated 0 
i think this osng is about vietnam going to fight there and meeting a vietnamese girl "her voice is a backwards record" you know vietnamese language is pretty crazy "they dont need me here and i know youre there" Americans believed that they didnt belong in vietnam Back in the day dpont made naplam and that was used in the war theres alot in that song that have to do with vietnam

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mrrogers
07-11-2002

Rated 0 
This song is partially about the love he thinks is on the other side of the world.

The other compontnet of this song is John's(band member) infatuation h with the 1964 Worlds Fair. He went when he was a kid and became enthralled. He has spoken about this publilcly.
Anyhow...he imagines that Ana was at the Worlds Fair and mabey he just missed her "why was the bench still warm who had been there?" ANother Worlds Fair reference "80 dolls yelling 'Small girl after all' "comes from Disney's "It's a Small World" ride which debuted at you guessed it... The 1964 Worlds Fair.

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slugsinthefields
03-10-2003

Rated 0 
I like this song because it has so many references. That's why I like the band. But past all these references is a cool song about finding that girl that is perfect for you. I mean, there's that belief that there is someone out there for everyone, and this is just TMBG's take on that idea. Awesome song, i'm disappointed so few of my friends have heard of the band.

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_mega_
11-01-2004

Rated 0 
I love this song. From the beginning to the end, with the despair, the rhythm, and the fantastic lyrics ('And the truth is we don't know anything"), this song is just about perfect.

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steve82c_my_AIM_sn
11-22-2004

Rated 0 
You're all right... good work people :)

http://www.tmbg.org/band-info/songs/

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qseep
01-27-2005

Rated 0 
If Ana is from Vietnam, and the singer is from the exact opposite side of the world, he must be from Colombia.

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thexfullxeffect
05-09-2005

Rated 0 
best tmbg song.
by far.

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SpWider
02-27-2006

Rated 0 
Your also missing a big component. Lest we Forget that Ana'Ng was the name of the girl that social workers found locked in a closet and given no social contact for the first 15 years of her life. hence the lyric "Listen Ana hear my words
They're the ones you would think I would say if there was a me for you" and as history indicates...Ana couldnt talk or understand language.

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adequate
03-28-2006

Rated 0 
I really dig the self-references in this song. The bridge is about a bridge, the stick is about sticking. Has anyone found more self-references?

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twelfth of never
04-30-2006

Rated 0 
Ana Ng isn't really a specific person. The Johns were looking through the phonebook and saw a lot of Ana's under the last name "Ng." They figured the name Ana Ng most be one of the popular names in the world, like "John Smith" or "Jane Doe" So, Ana Ng is likely the name of the soul-mate the narrator's looking for.

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fatkid1041
07-11-2006

Rated 0 
the vidoe always makes me think of communists

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reidbottorff
09-05-2006

Rated 0 
Ana Ng is apparently the shortest female name you can find. Good song.

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edguidry
10-15-2006

Rated 0 
I heard the same thing as zooey, but to me there is a real sad element to the song. There is one person out there for everyone, but the singer is never going to meet their soul mate "Ana Ng and I are getting old and we still haven't walked in the glow of each other's majestic presence". The singer is losing hope that they will ever find love.

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PlutoniumBoss
12-09-2006

Rated 0 
What's interesting to me is that this song was written before the rise of the Internet and the proliferation of the Long-Distance Relationship.

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carser
04-15-2007

Rated 0 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dQLkxz6c2E
Theres the video, but I doubt it will help your understanding of the song.

I always thought Ana Ng was a made up name that was supposed to allude to the fact that she was a mystery, either something elusive to be sought, or because he already has the girl but she is so emotionally unavailable that she may as well be on the other side of the world. The bit about the bench being warm went with my hunter tracking prey thing. But Im an english major so Im used to reading WAY more meaning into things than could possiably have been intended.

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Mr. Bacon
04-18-2007

Rated 0 
This is about a guy's idea that his true love lives on EXACTLY the opposite side of the earth. Vietnam is that place. "her voice is a backwards record" = the garbled craziness of the vietnamese language. "humid air" = vietnams incredible humidity. "water spirals the wrong way out the sink"= the water above the equator spirals clockwise; below: counterclockwise. "still haven't.. ...majestic presence"=they haven't met. Think about it.

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Mr. Bacon
04-18-2007

Rated 0 
Oh yeah, and Ng is a Vietnamese name.

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thezpn
04-25-2007

Rated +1 
thing i like most about this are the vowel sounds in the refrain.

AnA Eng And-I Are gEtting-Old

Say it in rythm and stress the beats, it's wonderful

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Code Monkey
08-15-2007

Rated 0 
I'm probably wrong, but I think this song is more about the general idea that the Western world is largely ignorant of anyone living anywhere else. The name of the song, Ana Ng, is a very common name, but sounds like nonsense to the majority of listeners from places like the USA and UK. Linnell seems to be saying in the chorus that it's a shame people are so ignorant, because the world would be a better place if we weren't - "walked in the glow of each other's majestic presence".

I'm not trying to flame or anything, hell, I'd include myself in the "ignorant" category. That's just my interpretation.

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Code Monkey
08-15-2007

Rated 0 
I'm probably wrong, but I think this song is more about the general idea that the Western world is largely ignorant of anyone living anywhere else. The name of the song, Ana Ng, is a very common name, but sounds like nonsense to the majority of listeners from places like the USA and UK. Linnell seems to be saying in the chorus that it's a shame people are so ignorant, because the world would be a better place if we weren't - "walked in the glow of each other's majestic presence".

I'm not trying to flame or anything, hell, I'd include myself in the "ignorant" category. That's just my interpretation.

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Mindbreaker4228
01-28-2008

Rated 0 
you never know if the person you love is the right person for you since there are people all the way across the world that may be better - ana ng is an asian name, meaning she would be from china, but since they really dont know anyone named that (i think) they cant be in love with her - "we still haven't walked in the glow of each other's majestic presence"

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PursuitofLife
03-05-2008

Rated 0 
As far as the comments about Ng being a Vietnamese name, I'm pretty sure it's actually Chinese. Looking at a couple of websites, I see that Ng the Cantonese variation of the name Wu, whereas the Vietnamese variation of the same name is Ngo.

And I know someone (or at least find myself around someone) with the name Ng, and I think he's Chinese...

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OpinionHead
03-31-2008

Rated 0 
Great song and definitely different than what I am normally used to.

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pattycakes4pres
04-12-2008

Rated 0 
Whenever I happen to listen to this song, which is every 5 minutes, for I am addicted to it, I always think of the movie "Music from Another Room". When I saw it a few weeks ago, I automatically thought of this song, not only because the main character's name in Anna, but because the line "When I was driving once I saw this painted on a bridge:
"I don't want the world, I just want your half""
actually happened in the movie.

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