Album: The Name of This Band is Talking Heads
Year: 1979
. . .
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.
All of which is to say that I had no idea that the original single of “Love –> Building on Fire” was so different from the version I loved from The Name of This Band is Talking Heads. To the point that when I finally heard that original single, which had jaunty horns, which made it so incredibly uncharacteristic from their other songs from that early period that, in retrospect, it’s completely in character.
Anyways, the 1979 live version of “Love –> Building on Fire” opens with Byrne playing a dinky little four-note repeating motif while Chris Frantz plays stop-time rolls throughout most of the opening of the song.
When my love
Stands next to your love
I can’t compare love
When it’s not love
At this point, Byrne just lets his guitar float in mid-air, as he continues.
It’s not love
It’s not love
Which is my face
Which is a building
Which is on fire
On fire
At the point the whole band sidles in, still in quiet mode, but at least there is some forward motion, as evidenced by a cool Frantz drum fill.
When my love
Stands next to your love
I can’t define love
When it’s not love
It’s around the second chorus where “Love –> Building on Fire” truly begins to kick in.
It’s not love
It’s not love
Which is my face
Which is a building
Which is on fire
First, after a Frantz drum fill that Byrne harmonizes with, Jerry Harrison unexpectedly chimes in on the “It’s NOT Love” parts, then David Byrne appends “Which is a building” with a cool “na naaaaa”, and finally, after “Which is on fi-rrrrrreee” the whole band just takes off, especially Chris Frantz who hammers his toms with gleeful abandon. And because this is where the jaunty horns came in on the studio version, Byrne replaces them with some of his best animal noises, which I’m not even going to try to reproduce. It’s at this point you realize that “Love –> Building on Fire” one of those early Talking Heads songs that’s more of art song than a groove song. While you know, still being incredibly groovy.
And so after the fast tom and animal noise filled part, they then drop down into almost a march, Byrne’s and Harrison’s guitars in total lockstep while Byrne invents Twitter:
I’ve got two loves
I’ve got two loves
And they go tweet tweet tweet tweet tweet tweet tweet tweet tweet like little birds
They’re my two lovesCount ’em one, two loves
Count ’em one, two loves
Which is my face
Which is a building
Which is on fire na-na
On fire
Once again, there is so much to love here in Byrne’s singing: the joy in “two lovvvvvvves” the cadence of “count ’em on, twwwwo loves”, and of course “tweet tweet tweet tweet tweet tweet tweet tweet tweet like little birds” which makes no fucking sense whatsoever, but still rules.
Also ruling: the instrumental break that follows, which starts with Harrison and Byrne’s guitars warily swirling around each other and then slowly and beautifully intermingling. Apparently, Jerry Harrison has compared this part to what Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd were doing in Television, and while my initial thought is “hold on there a minute, hoss,” he also said that the best nights were never recorded, so maybe? It’s still utterly gorgeous — and is nowhere to be found on the original recording, or even in the US Festival recording below, which was only three years later — one more dimension to an already multi-dimensional song.
After that, one last grand and glorious chorus and the whole band crashing to the end as Byrne sings “which is on fiiii-eeeer.”
And while there is no competition for what my favorite Talking Heads is (because that song — “Once in a Lifetime,” duh — is one of the greatest songs anybody has ever recorded, as we’ll discuss in a few days), it might surprise you that “Love –> Building on Fire” — pronounced “Love Goes to A Building on Fire” in case you ever wanna have a IRL conversation about it with me — is my second-favorite Talking Heads song.
“Love –> Building on Fire (Passaic, 11-17-1979)”
“Love –> Building on Fire” Original Single
“Love –> Building on Fire” Live at the US Festival, 1982
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