Album: Fear of Music
Year: 1979
. . .
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.
No matter what, today’s song is in that vein, as “Heaven” is hardly a celebration of the place. It’s also the fourth Certain Song with that title — “Heaven,” “Heaven,” and “Heaven” were all written and released after “Heaven” — and they all came out between 1979-1985, which is one of those things that probably seems more meaningful than it really is.
“Heaven” is hardly a banger, instead loping with an almost countryish feel filled with some psychedelic guitar, prominent piano and Tina Weymouth’s big, hooky bass.
Everyone is trying
To get into the bar
The name of the bar
The bar is called Heaven
The band in Heaven
They play my favorite song
Play it once again
Play it all night long
With a shitton of reverb added to Byrnes voice, making it weird and disorienting — not as much as on the more overtly psychedelic songs like “Memories Can’t Wait” and “Drugs” — but, you know, weird and disorienting enough, especially when it slips right into the chorus, Byrne now supported vocally by old sourpuss himself, Brian Eno, as well as an almost impossible amount of echo.
Heaven
Heaven is a place
A place where nothing
Nothing ever happens
Heaven
Heaven is a place
A place where nothing
Nothing ever happens
HA! I love this so much, especially given that Byrne sings it with an almost wistful air of detached sadness. You know: “It gives this reporter no pleasure to report that Heaven has turned out to be a place where nothing ever happens.” Unlike most of the other songs on Fear of Music, we’re not really given the respite of an instrumental break, as if he just wants to let us know then get the hell away.
There is a party, everyone is there
Everyone will leave at exactly the same time
It’s hard to imagine that nothing at all
Could be so exciting, could be so much fun
Over the years, it seems to me that “Heaven” has asserted itself as perhaps the post popular of all of Talking Heads deep cuts, perhaps because it’s the second song on Stop Making Sense (the film), and the utterly gorgeous melody has stuck in peoples heads because of that. And deservedly so.
“Heaven”
“Heaven” from Stop Making Sense, 1983
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