Disjointed lyrics to fit your life to

My memories of Friday nights when I was in high school center around two things: playing in the band at football games and watching late night TV while eating a much-delayed dinner afterwards. In the early part of the 1980s, the show that I tuned in was Wolfman Jack's Midnight Special, where I was first exposed to the music video form, since we lived outside of town and didn't have MTV. I recall seeing Nick Lowe's "Cruel to Be Kind," Elvis Costello's "Accidents Will Happen," Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody," Alice Cooper's "How You Gonna See Me Now," and Talking Heads' "Burning Down the House." These songs were staples of rock radio, even if the artists weren't, and the video portion did exactly what it was supposed to: increase my interest in the artist.

I didn't buy Speaking in Tongues until 1985, when most others had already moved on to other, newer, albums. But I was commuting back-and-forth between my home in Gatesville and community college in Killeen, a trip of roughly 40 minutes, and my soundtrack for that commute quickly became this album by Talking Heads which I had found in a used cassette store outside the local army base, Ft. Hood.

Why this album? A combination of circumstances surrounded it, making it appropos of the moment. I was living at home and attending Central Texas College because I had flunked out of the University of Texas at Austin, and the white-guy funk of David Byrne somehow matched the awkwardness of my situation, while being bouncy enough to keep my spirits up on that depressing commute, taking my mind off my failure and uncertain future. The fact that the lyrics of this album are an associative mass rather than a logical series allowed me to connect every song to my personal situation.

I can recall as if it were yesterday putting the steering wheel of a Ford Escort in my hands, bouncing in my seat as I sing-a-long with Byrne. From the gospelish chorus of "Swamp" to the infectious beat and call-and-response of "Slippery People," I would join in on each song, probably surprising a number of the pickups that passed me by with my spasmodic renditions of Bryne's stage moves.

And then there's that last song, a paeon to the comfort of home. Byrne sings, "Home is where I want to be, but I guess I'm already there" perfectly captured my confusion of appreciating that I had this generous spot to fall-back on while at the same time wanting to be somewhere else (a home of my own, not one made by my parents). The song always seemed to be playing as I drove up the hill to the house, too. It, and the other songs on this album, never fail to take me back to that time, even now that I've moved far from that home. But then, isn't that one of the functions of music?

The Talking Heads Find American Funk...

Talking Heads, the seminal mainstream art band of the 1980's find American funk in its fullest form. David Byrne once said that Speaking in Tongues was an opportunity to make music similar to Remain in Light, but to make it less dense. Well he did accomplish that in a way, except the music contains more Parliament then Fela Kuti, the synths here are much more noticible and the music once again centers itself around Chris Franz heavy 4/4 drumming and uses the complex African percussion as more of an effect than an actual way to keep rythm. This made Speaking in Tongues their pop breakthrough, and their first slip up.

The abscence of long time producer, and virtual fifth member takes its toll here, and with the new technology the electronics became shaper, more varying and as a result they lost the organic sound achieved on their Eno assisted albums, especially Remain in Light. Gone are the harsh griding sound of "Life During Wartime", and in are the George Clintonesque colorful synth squiggles of "Girlfriend is Better". And thats not the last of George Clinton here, just listen to "Making Flippy Floppy" and then listen to "One Nation Under a Groove" from Clinton's mega-band Funkadelic.

But here the Talking Heads lose their edge, they do manage to make their brand of funk unique to them, but here is where their influences outweigh their own unique contributions, its not by mutch but compared to the unique dance mausic they ceated on Remain in Light, this just seems weak, for any other band this album would probably have been their best, but for the Talking Heads it is their first less than brilliant release. But for first time or inexperienced listner, this is a good album to get after Stop Making Sence because it happy and pop oriented, but still contains the much of the inventiveness of earlier releases, plus it has "Burning Down the House" which is the most popular and well known Talking Heads song.

The problem I have with this version of the album is that it unfortunatly is simply a copy from the tapes used to record the original material. It hasn't been digitally remastered, and the complete absence of bonus material is a major downside. It is such a mystery to me why the Talking Heads catalogue has been treated so poorly by record companies, but for now its the best we're gonna get.

worth it for one song

"this must be the place" is not only the best song the heads ever recorded, it's one of the best songs you're ever going to hear. absolutely moving.