Album: The Name of This Band is Talking Heads
Year: 1977
. . .
One of the reasons I preferred some of the live versions of Talking Heads songs to the studio versions were part of the basic reasons live albums exist in the first place: the songs were faster and rawer, and bereft of extraneous instrumentation. At those first two were definitely why I prefer the live version of “Pulled Up” to the version on Talking Heads: 77
Which isn’t to say that the studio version of “Pulled Up” is wimpy at all: indeed, they thought enough of it to have it end the album, putting it after the nearly unfollowable “Psycho Killer.”
And they probably put it there in order to have some light after the darkness, as “Pulled Up” is almost the exact opposite of “Psycho Killer:” instead of being about an loner who kills, it’s about a guy who quite literally is thanking his family for his success.
Mommy, Daddy, come and look at me now
I’m a big man in a great big town
Years ago who would believe it’s true
Goes to show what a little faith can do
Driven by little bursts of rhythm guitars from both David Byrne & Jerry Harrison, as well as the straight soul beats of Chris Frantz and yet another slinky bassline from Tiny Weymouth, “Pulled Up” goes through many musical moods while retaining a singular lyrical focus.
I slipped, and I got pulled
Pulled up, I tripped, and then you pulled,
You pulled me up
I slipped, and I got pulled,
Pulled up, I slipped, and then you pulled,
You pulled me up pull me up pull me up…
Pulled me up up up up up up up up
My favorite part is the practically disco bridge in which Byrne sings “I got up / ‘Cause you pulled me up” which eventually ends with a vicious Frantz drum roll. In the end, it’s all Byrne & Harrison yelling “up up up up up up up up” a bunch of times during which the song eventually slows to its end.
After which David Byrne says “thank you very mu-uhhhhhhhhch” in a way that I will be imitating for the rest of my life.
“Pulled Up (WCOZ 11-17-1977)”
“Pulled Up” Live in Berkeley, 1978
Did you miss a Certain Song? Follow me on Twitter: @barefootjim
The Certain Songs Database
A filterable, searchable & sortable somewhat up to date database with links to every “Certain Song” post I’ve ever written.
Certain Songs Spotify playlist
(It’s recommended that you listen to this on Spotify as their embed only has 200 songs.)
Support “Certain Songs” with a donation on Patreon
Go to my Patreon page