More Songs About Buildings and Food

Certain Songs #2613: Talking Heads – “Take Me to The River”

May 10, 2023 by Jim Connelly

Album: More Songs About Buildings and Food
Year: 1978

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While Talking Heads did covers in their early live shows — in Chris Frantz’s recent book, Remain in Love: Talking Heads, Tom Tom Club, Tina, he helpfully sprinkles in early set lists so you can see that they covered things like “96 Tears” and the Troggs’ “Love is All Round” (later covered by R.E.M.) — the only song they ever covered on record was, of course, Al Green’s “Take Me to The River,” making it an outlier in their recorded output.

Certain Songs #2612: Talking Heads – I’m Not In Love”

May 9, 2023 by Jim Connelly

Album: More Songs About Buildings and Food
Year: 1978

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When I first bought it, More Songs About Buildings and Food affected me differently from just about any album I’ve ever owned: I knew I enjoyed it, maybe even loved it, but I couldn’t figure it out, so I kept playing it for two reasons: to get to the bottom of it, and to differentiate the individual songs on it. The opening gallop of “Thank You For Sending me An Angel” and the closing chill-out of “Take Me to The River” and “The Big Country” were easy to wrap my head around, but all of the songs in between — with their tempo changes, weirdly funny lyrics, and spaced-out instrumental sections — were hard for me to distinguish for a long time.

Certain Songs #2611: Talking Heads – “Found a Job”

May 8, 2023 by Jim Connelly

Album: More Songs About Buildings and Food
Year: 1978

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Very very few Talking Heads songs featuring David Byrne swearing, so the opening of “Found a Job,” which comes at the end of side one of More Songs About Buildings and Food, is extra startling, as he yells “Damn that television!” with the rest of the band starting right up with him as he continues: “what a bad picture!”

Certain Songs #2610: Talking Heads – “The Girls Want to Be With The Girls”

May 7, 2023 by Jim Connelly

Album: More Songs About Buildings and Food
Year: 1978

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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.

Certain Songs #2609: Talking Heads – “Thank You For Sending Me an Angel”

May 5, 2023 by Jim Connelly

Album: More Songs About Buildings and Food
Year: 1978

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It’s probably not a coincidence that my favorite Talking Heads album, 1978’s hilariously-tiled More Songs About Buildings and Food, opens with the complete blast of unfettered joy that is “Thank You For Sending Me an Angel.” From the start, the entire band is galloping full speed ahead, led by Chris Frantz’s roiling tom work and the scratchy guitar interplay of David Byrne and Jerry Harrison, over which Byrne acts as if he’s just discovered love.