Certain Songs

Certain Songs #2621: Talking Heads – “Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On)”

May 19, 2023 by Jim Connelly

Album: Remain in Light
Year: 1980

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The final song on Talking Heads 1980 masterpiece Remain in Light is called “The Overload.” And while it’s not specifically about the experience of listening to Remain in Light — David Byrne could be pretty meta, but not that meta — it’s certainly the word I would use to describe Remain in Light. An absolute overload of sound, which starts from the very first song, which has so much going that they needed parenthesis in order to try to capture it: “Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On)”

Certain Songs #2620: Talking Heads – “Life During Wartime (Central Park 08-27-1980)”

May 18, 2023 by Jim Connelly

Album: The Name of This Band is Talking Heads
Year: 1980

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In the summer of 1980, at around the same time Talking Heads were working on Remain in Light, they decided that they would add more musicians for their live performances. And while a couple of them — guitarist Adrian Belew and vocalist Nona Hendryx — were on the album, the rest were not. Those rest were singer Dolette McDonald, percussionist Steve Scales, bassist Busta “Cherry” Jones — most notably — Funkadelic keyboardist Bernie Worrell. From the start, the sound this band made was incredible, and as captured on The Name of This Band is Talking Heads, is some of the greatest live music ever recorded full stop.

Certain Songs #2619: Talking Heads – “Love –> Building on Fire (Passaic 11-17-1979)”

May 17, 2023 by Jim Connelly

Album: The Name of This Band is Talking Heads
Year: 1979

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In the early 1980s, there were three CBGB band non-album singles that I had read about but hadn’t actually heard: Patti Smith’s “Piss Factory,” Television’s “Little Johnny Jewel” and Talking Heads’ “Love –> Building on Fire.” Because indie wasn’t really a thing yet, it was a lot harder to find these songs the way I could find non album singles by the Sex Pistols, Clash and Jam, many of which I happily bought at Tower Records.

Certain Songs #2618: Talking Heads – “Air (Passaic 11-17-1979)”

May 16, 2023 by Jim Connelly

Album: The Name of This Band is Talking Heads
Year: 1979

. . .

It often happens that when you play a relatively new song live, it reveals more of itself to you, and I think that this is one of the things that happened with “Air,” a pretty great Fear of Music song that is tremendous in its live incarnation, finding new depths of both gorgeousness and weirdness, especially in the vocals.

Certain Songs #2617: Talking Heads – “Artists Only (Passaic 11-17-1979)”

May 15, 2023 by Jim Connelly

Album: The Name of This Band is Talking Heads
Year: 1979

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The second side of The Name of This Band is Talking Heads featured five songs from their 1979 tour supporting Fear of Music, all recorded on the same night at the Capitol Theatre in Passaic, New Jersey, and is definitive proof of just how great they’d become, even before they added the extra people in 1980.

Certain Songs #2616: Talking Heads – “Heaven”

May 13, 2023 by Jim Connelly

Album: Fear of Music
Year: 1979

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Another thing that set Fear of Music apart from the other two albums Talking Heads recorded with Brian Eno was that rather than recording at Compass Point Studios in the Bahamas, the basic tracks were recorded at Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth’s loft in New York City. Also, it was basically a brand-new batch of songs, to boot — the songs on the first two albums went back to their earliest days — which might account for Byrne’s lyrics about war, animals, drugs, memories, not being able to change someone’s mind, and how air is bad for you. Or might not.

Certain Songs #2615: Talking Heads – “Cities”

May 12, 2023 by Jim Connelly

Album: Fear of Music
Year: 1979

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Fading in with sirens rushing at you from a distance — one of the more universal sounds you encounter when you find a city to live in — “Cities” is kinda sorta the Talking Heads paying Brian Eno back for “Kings Led Hat” while also looking forward to Remain in Light.

Certain Songs #2614: Talking Heads – “Mind”

May 11, 2023 by Jim Connelly

Album: Fear of Music
Year: 1979

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The second album of the trilogy that Talking Heads made with old sourpuss himself, Brian Eno, 1979’s Fear of Music, isn’t quite held in the same highest regard as the albums that surrounded it, More Songs About Buildings and Food and Remain in Light. So, in that respect, it’s kinda like The Two Towers. But that might be because it’s easily the darkest of those three albums, which is understated in the title: music is just one of the many many many things to fear on this record.

If Byrne’s persona was normally kind of a bemused joy, that often goes right out the window on Fear of Music, where nothing seems to satisfy him — not even breathing or eternal life, as we’ll see — and he’s at war with the entire world, opening the record spouting gibberish and ending the record tripping balls. So it’s a dark masterpiece, which might even secretly be their best album. So, in that respect, it’s like The Empire Strikes Back.

Certain Songs #2613: Talking Heads – “Take Me to The River”

May 10, 2023 by Jim Connelly

Album: More Songs About Buildings and Food
Year: 1978

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While Talking Heads did covers in their early live shows — in Chris Frantz’s recent book, Remain in Love: Talking Heads, Tom Tom Club, Tina, he helpfully sprinkles in early set lists so you can see that they covered things like “96 Tears” and the Troggs’ “Love is All Round” (later covered by R.E.M.) — the only song they ever covered on record was, of course, Al Green’s “Take Me to The River,” making it an outlier in their recorded output.

Certain Songs #2612: Talking Heads – I’m Not In Love”

May 9, 2023 by Jim Connelly

Album: More Songs About Buildings and Food
Year: 1978

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When I first bought it, More Songs About Buildings and Food affected me differently from just about any album I’ve ever owned: I knew I enjoyed it, maybe even loved it, but I couldn’t figure it out, so I kept playing it for two reasons: to get to the bottom of it, and to differentiate the individual songs on it. The opening gallop of “Thank You For Sending me An Angel” and the closing chill-out of “Take Me to The River” and “The Big Country” were easy to wrap my head around, but all of the songs in between — with their tempo changes, weirdly funny lyrics, and spaced-out instrumental sections — were hard for me to distinguish for a long time.