Album: More Songs About Buildings and Food
Year: 1978
. . .
Back in the late 80s/early 90s, it was a running trope in our social circle that the girls all went to the bathroom together becausue that were they were serviced by the Greek gods who hung out there. Why the greek gods hung out in the womens room of the Wild Blue in Fresno was never explaned, but I have to assume that it some kind of metaphysical thing, not to be understood by the likes of me. But thinking about it now, I have to assume that another reason was that they instinctively knew it was bad to leave any of their number alone with the boys, of whom even the sweetest, most intellectual, non-handsiest probably still had his thoughts dominated by two things: when he was going to eat next, and when he was going to have sex next.
All of this, of course, was the subtext of one of David Byrne’s funniest songs, “The Girls Want to Be With The Girls,” which opens with Jerry Harrison’s tinkling piano in one speaker and David Byrne’s jangling guitar in the other over a relatively straight Chris Frantz drumbeat and a pingponging Tina Weymouth bassline.
Girls don’t want to play like that
Just want to talk to the boys
Just want to do what’s in their hearts
And the girls want to be with the girls
On a chorus — announced by a big Frantz drumroll — it gets a bit funkier, as Tina Weymouth walks her bass over everything while Byrne sings about the boys’ confusion that the girls aren’t as into them as they are into the girls.
And the boys say, “What do you mean?”
And the boys say, “What do you mean?”
Well, there’s just no love
When there’s boys and girls
And the girls want to be with the girls
Girls want to be with the girls
The chorus is followed by an instrumental section where Harrison plays a long airy keybord part, no doubt treated by old sourpuss himself, Brian Eno, after which the song stops and starts back up again.
Girls want things that make common sense
The best for all concerned
Don’t want to have to go out of their way
And the girls want to be with the girlsGirls are getting into abstract analysis
Would like to make that intuitive leap
They’re making plans that have far-reaching effects
And the girls want to be with the girls
It’s possible, of course, that the girls are simply lesbians, I guess, but in a weird way that might be a bit reductive: they don’t have to be lesbians to prefer their own company to the boys. Either way, it’s a great song, and one of the most shorter and most efficient songs on More Songs About Buildings And Food, as well as one of their earliest songs, as you’ll see from one of the live clips below.
“The Girls Want to Be With The Girls”
“The Girls Want to Be With The Girls” Live at the Kitchen, 1976
“The Girls Want to Be With The Girls” Live in NYC, 1978
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