I didn’t really listen to Talking Heads until my dad got their final album “Naked” in the then nascent CD format. It was the first CD we owned. I loved it, and went back and dug out “Stop Making Sense” their famous live album. Most of the songs on the cassette version (which contained 8 songs, as opposed to the remastered version, which has 406) came from their “Speaking in Tongues” record. In a lot of ways, it’s my least favorite of their records, but truthfully, it’s probably their truest. Their first record they are still developing, and the songwriting isn’t so strong. Their next three albums were collaborations with Brian Eno. Their post-Stop Making Sense records were either David Byrne solo records in all but name (Little Creatures, True Stories) or the sound of a band falling apart (Naked). Speaking in Tongues is the album that sits more or less in the middle of their ouvre and was the first one they wrote and produced together. It’s also a weird album. Even for them.
“Burning Down the House”- I think that ‘Psycho Killer’ or ‘Once in a Lifetime’ will probably be their legacy song, but this song was their biggest hit. I’ve read that it was payola, that Sire records paid radio stations to play the song, but it is catchy. Even if it contains the most nonsensical lyrics every written. Trying to analyze these lyrics is like recovering from a stroke: you recognize all the sounds the words make, but it still sounds like Dutch.
“Making Flippy Floppy” first of all, if making flippy floppy means what I think it does, it’s no wonder I was terrified of sex growing up. Byrne spends the whole song giving directions: “lie on your back, put your feet in the air, bring me a doctor, I have a hole in my head.” It’s like if David Lynch wrote a ‘Dear Penthouse’ letter. The instrumental section sounds like a sea lion have sex with a power drill. I remember listening to this song in my dark bedroom when I was 13 and swearing swearing swearing that I would becoming a monk and never think about girls again.
“Girlfriend is Better”- This is a sad true story. When I was a freshmen in high school, I used to sing the refrain to this song (“I’ve got a girlfriend that is better than that”) out by my locker so that girls would either think I had a girlfriend or ask me if I had a girlfriend. This was my plan for getting a girlfriend. It didn’t work. I don’t know exactly my thought process was--maybe that if enough girls associated me with the word girlfriend one of them would want to become mine. Only one girl--Jill Pittsley--even noticed. She said something like, “Wait. Do you have a girlfriend?” And I was like, “No.” And then she walked away.
“Slippery People”- As I mentioned, I heard the live version of most of these songs well before I heard their studio counterparts, so I always think that my ipod is dying when I hear this song. It’s soooooo mucccchhhhh slllloooowwwweerrrr than the live version. Which makes it creepier. Because it’s about people. People who are slippery. Why are they slippery? Have they been making flippy floppy with each other? Do you have to get slippery to make flippy floppy. I swear swear swear I’ll become a monk and I’ll never think about girls again. Please don’t make me get slippery.
“I Get Wild/ Wild Gravity” -I think I’ve spoken before about my distrust about songs with parenthesis, but I’m ever more dubious of songs with slashes. Am I supposed to circle which one I think the title should be? Is this a test? I think it should be… Wild Gravity. That seems more like a Talking Heads song title. I Get Wild sounds like something by Morris Day and the Time. Or something that someone who has never gotten wild says to impress some college guys, or like what a narc says to try and convince somebody to sell him drugs. Wild Gravity sounds like something that happens while you’re making flippy floppy. Do you see a pattern forming?
“Swamp”- While the groove starts, the vocal microphone picks up Byrne mumbling. Maybe he’s calling somebody from the studio, telling them a dirty joke or something, or telling them about the last time he got wild. The band lets him do this for about half a minute, and then he realizes what’s happening and starts singing the song. I don’t know why it’s called “Swamp” (well, yes, I do. I listened to the commentary on the Stop Making Sense DVD.) It was called “Addiction” and then they remixed in an attempt to make it more swampy. Nowadays, that’s just an effect in protools. You just click a button. But back then, the only way to make something more swampy was to douse it with a special chemical, light it on fire and toss it into a swamp. At least that’s how it worked for Alec Holland.
I like the idea that you just name your song based on how you want it to sound. “Give it more reverb. We’ll call this song, ‘Reverb’.” If this were the way bands named songs, then every Boston song would be called ‘Better’.
“Pull Up The Roots”- David Byrne has told us how to have sex on side A, so now that we’re on side B, he’s giving us gardening tips. Songs that were recorded for this album but not included were: “Rotate Your Crops”, “Stain Your Deck”, and “Plunge the Drain”.
“Moon Rocks”- David Byrne starts off this song by claiming that he can do flying saucers. I’m not really sure how one does flying saucers. He then tells us that because of protons and neutrons he ate some moon rocks. Also that he has some of those rocks in his boots. Maybe this is a song about an astronaut. Because who else would have moon rocks in his boots? Unless moon rocks is 1983 slang for some kind of drug. Like, “Oh, man, I got wild last night with some moon rocks in my boots.” Actually, that really does sound like an outdated drug reference. “I are a rock on the moon.” God, I hope that’s a drug reference, because I’d hate if we were meant to interpret this literally. Imagine what eating moon rocks would do to your teeth. Also, wouldn’t you have to take your helmet off to eat the moon rock? Or are you eating the moon rock back in the space ship? Didn’t NASA send you up with any of that space ice cream? Do moon rocks go good with Tang? Damn, these lyrics are deep.
“This Must Be the Place (Naïve Melody)” - Finally, some parenthesis. This is a really beautiful song. At least I thought so. I was asked to DJ a dance when I was in 8th grade, and I played this song, expecting it to be a good song to slow dance to. It’s a little too fast for a slow song. Also, it sounds a little bit like the music from “legend of Zelda”. And while I was the kind of 13-year old who thought lines like “We drift in and out. Sing into my mouth” were romantic gold, I was also the kind of 13-year old who thought singing about how my imaginary girlfriend was better than that would somehow nab me a real girlfriend. Needless to say, the dance floor cleared, and shortly thereafter somebody commandeered the stereo system and put on a BoyzIIMen tape.
David Byrne taught me a lot about romance. He taught me that suit jackets should always be several sizes too big with giant shoulder pads. He taught me that sex involved lying on my back with my feet in the air until I got slippery. And that “hit me on the head and I go who-oo-ooo” was a tender romantic pick-up line.
It’s a miracle that I’m not a celibate, sexless freak.
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