Heaven

Certain Songs #2616: Talking Heads – “Heaven”

May 13, 2023 by Jim Connelly

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.

Certain Songs #2093: The Rolling Stones – “Heaven”

April 27, 2021 by Jim Connelly

Album: Tattoo You
Year: 1981

. . .

Not all of the songs on Tattoo You were reclamation jobs from previous albums. There were a couple that were written especially for the record, both by Mick, as it happens, but still. The first, “Neighbors” was a drum-driven stomper all about Keith’s desire to annoy his neighbors with loud music, but the second, “Heaven” was something entirely different.

Performed by just Mick, Charlie and Bill, “Heaven” is probably the most atmospheric song on a Rolling Stones album since “I Just Wanna See His Face”

Certain Songs #1959: Robyn Hitchcock – “Heaven (London 04-27-1985)”

November 17, 2020 by Jim Connelly

Album: Gotta Let This Hen Out!
Year: 1985

. . .

So while I played Fegmania! a lot on KFSR, I utterly wore out Gotta Let This Hen Out! playing pretty much the whole record: things like “Kingdom of Love,” “Brenda’s Iron Sledge,” “The Cars She Used to Drive,” “My Wife and My Dead Wife,” were at least the equal and usually much better than their original studio versions as pared-down arrangements plus the excitement of live performance pushed them higher..

And the highest push was for “Heaven,” which went from being one of the better songs on the relatively weak Fegmania! to being one of the better songs on one of Robyn Hitchcock’s masterpieces.

Certain Songs #1671: The Psychedelic Furs – “Heaven”

October 31, 2019 by Jim Connelly

Album: Mirror Moves
Year: 1984

. . .

It’s not a hard-and-fast rule, but in general, beware the album by a band that with a cover that features only the lead singer. Especially when their previous records always featured the full band. For example, the first Rolling Stones album to to have just Mick Jagger on the cover was Goats Head Soup, nobody’s pick for the best Rolling Stones album. Obviously, there are exceptions — there are always exceptions — but outside of (ironically) Tattoo You, I can’t think of any.

So in retrospect, the fact that Mirror Moves features only a frowning, posing Richard Butler on the cover and the other two Furs, Tim Butler and John Ashton — Vince Ely having left in the wake of Forever Now — was probably the first clue as to the album’s un-goodness. The second clue was, of course, on the inner sleeve, as well as the record label: “Produced by Keith Forsey,” who at that point was primarily known for smoothing out Billy Idol’s punk sneer with a pop sheen, and, oh yeah, Flashdance.