David Byrne: “Burning Down the House” wasn't a song about arson. When I wrote the lyrics in 1982, the title phrase was a metaphor for destroying something safe that entrapped you. I envisioned the song as an expression of liberation, to break free from whatever was holding you back.
Couldn't agree more! One of the greatest (and unusual) live concerts ever. Starting off with one man on the stage and gradually bringing in the whole band. Classic!!
I love watching Brad trying to make sense of this. These guys made up their words by skatting to their own music and then piecing together words from those basically random sounds. This is musical Dadaism (they were art students, originally). Lex pretty much gets it on this one
STOP MAKING SENSE It's kinda fun watching him trying to figure out lyrics that are somewhat abstract, especially when the real meaning comes through the music itself. ...have they done The Beatles' Come Together?
guys, this song is one of the true legendary songs of the 80's - when we used to listen to it we ignored MOST of the lyrics, all we sang was the chorus line; "burning down the house" the whole point of this song at the clubs, on your home stereo or in your car was just to bop along to the awesome beat and cray out, "burning down the house"....nothing more. You could read into it that they were saying that your going to leave behind your old life or what problem and issues you have, pack your bags, burn down the house, and just leave....but even that is a stretch. Just bop to the beat and sing the chorus. For me 40 years later when this song comes on my car radio you have no idea how happy it makes me feel, the memories of my friends back then and the fun we had.
Talking Heads is most definitely an art/experimental type band. sometimes lyrics are just lyrics and aren’t that deep lex is right here. Great band to expand upon and listen to more of
Good pick. These guys have a very good catalogue. "Life During Wartime" is a must. And "This Must Be the Place". It's good that you bring up Beck. The Talking Heads were huge a huge influence on Beck. You can hear them loud and clear in just about every one of his albums. They are there (along with The Pixies) in every Modest Mouse album as well. Your education in "alternative rock" is coming along nicely lol.
Like KISS, this is a band where the visual of them performing really helps to contextualize how to 'take' their songs. Even if they don't show it to us, they would likely find the band a little less mysterious if they saw how they approach doing something like 'Life During Wartime,' live.
@@TheTussman oh he definitely makes his own music. You can hear the Talking Heads influence in his work though, which is not taking away from Beck, but acknowledging a lineage so to speak.
I love the percussion and tempo. Very clever structure. I think David is saying, in order to "get out of" an uncomfortable situation, you've got to Burn.Down.the.House. Raze it and rebuild.
logic? i think he just dont get it ... most of the time he s confused because he cant make a interpratation of the lyrics ......... not much about the music ........ lex is more on the tract
Brad & Lex, I'd recommend their "Life During Wartime" and "Take Me To The River" next. This band has some of the more creative videos out there. They started in the 70's and were big in the 80s
seymour stein would hang around the exits of downtown clubs in new york after the talking heads gigs to catch the band before they headed back to their dorms at risd and offer them a deal on his punk/new wave label sire records ...it took nearly a year of weekly rejections until seymour's tenacity paid off and he finally heard the band say yes... he brokered a deal with warner bros for distribution and well soon enough the talking heads debut was available on vinyl at local record stores across the u.s...along with the ramones, the dead boys, the undertones and as the 70s faded into the 80s soft cell, the cure, the smiths, depeche mode, echo & the bunnyman, the pretenders, madonna....seymour knew what was up before it was up
A good follow up to Talking Heads is their side project Tom Tom Club, made up of their drummer and his wife their bassist, and their mega dance hit "Genius Of Love" which is one of the most sampled songs from the 1980's.
Lex you are so cerebral with music. Anyone can be cerebral with the lyrics but you are with the music itself. At times when I first started watching you I thought you were over thinking the music. Now I realize I was just not getting the music on the level you do. You should have been a musical interpreter teacher. You are ahead of us all.
I've never verified whether this is true - but my understanding of Talking Heads is that they all met while they were art students in college in the 1970s and decided to form a musical band. They were on the forefront of the new wave movement. If you keep in mind their "artsy" beginning - then their music makes a little more sense. But I could be wrong. THanks for your reactions.
My dad took me to Mexico as a high school graduation present in 1991 and in this little diving town we stopped at, "Burning Down the House" was playing at the bar and the Mexican bartenders were singing along to it. I don't even remember it, but my dad would remind me of it every now and then. He must've thought Mexican bartenders singing Talking Heads in the middle of nowhere was pretty random.
Ordinary guy have happiness and hey just wait for weather change. Then you watch tv with wrong person in your side while dream walking outside in daylight 360 degrees. You have to stay and extinguish fire with fire or burn down the house. Sense of humor. It’s completely ordinary, water is everywhere just put the raincoat. You have leaving ticket out of the situation just burn down the house.😂 Amazing song
"The psychologist Carl Jung said that fire represents the process of psychological transformation so burning down the house is destroying one personality and creating another one, As you can see in the video one person takes over another. David Byrne said the song was about this in an interview for the BBC (but he looked high at the time)." -mbhvisbyon October 07, 2011
It made sense for the time frame. Lots of phrases used or in movie, commercial or TV. Random things leave ppl today clueless. It's like..if ya knw ya knw. Lol Kool beat that stuck in your head.
When I first heard this song I ran out and bought the 45'. It has been a favorite of mine ever since. Then I saw the video. At the time this was a favorite video. When MTV actually played videos. The video is awesome; at least for 1980's standards.
Every time Brad & Lex do a lyric video of a song I know, the music video plays in my head. I’m definitely Gen X and old 😂. Most interesting couple on UA-cam, love their content 💜.
Talking heads had some concert filmed and turned into a concert movie. Yes, shown in movie theaters. For these concerts they added some extra band members, like from the The Brothers Johnson band. That really injected some Funk & Soul into their songs. A must whatch..
Remember Tom Tom Club’s “Genius Of Love”? Covered and sampled my MANY wrappers and even Maria Carey. The Bass player (Tina W.) and others are from this band. Great bass/ rhythm section on this one!!!
HaHa...I feel like you guys are the perfect counter balance for the other. You both look at music from completely different places but it works. She brings him more out of the box and he pulls her more in. Y'all work and I love it!
To give you a clue, the Talking Heads did an album and a documentary film in 1984 called "Stop Making Sense." They were successful at marrying new wave rock with funk in the '80s. It's all about the sound and feel of the songs.
Also someone you can count on to take any mundane thing and give you a perspective on it that makes it almost unrecognizable. If you're ever having a day that's just too ordinary, David Byrne can fix that, sharpish.
"You like Weezer and Cake!" Damn, Lex is throwing back at Brad in this one! Poor Brad's face when he paused to figure out the song...I can't stop laughing!
Funny story...trying to get sober in the mid 90s, staying at a halfway house in Phoenix Arizona. Small apartment style recovery house. 14 apartments surrounding a swimming pool. 4 to a apartment. My 3rd day, came home from work round 2:30pm and eating in the cafeteria/mtg room when the fire alarm went off. Counselors gathered us and walked us out the complex. I could see smoke coming from my apt. As we passed an open door on our way out, this song was playing. Come to find out, one of my roommates had pushed their bed up against a wall receptacle and a plug from a clock/radio was exposed and lit his mattress on fire. Even Alzheimer's won't take that memory away....whenever I hear this song, it always takes me back. ☮️🔥
Christmas 1977, I was 10, my brother got Talking Heads 77. We shared a bedroom and Talking Heads became part of the soundtrack of our lives. I didn’t care what any of it meant, it was just a joy to listen to. Made me a fan for life.
Talking Heads were one of the bands that nerds/geeks liked a whole lot back in the day. As far as "random", you should listen to "Once In A Lifetime", "And She Was", and "Wild Wild Life". :)
I'm not sure about the rest of the band, but David Byrne was an art student at RISD. Completely original, no one else like them group and music. Byrne still tours and performs and, when I saw him about a dozen years ago, his band (different members from Talking Heads, who had long since disbanded) and him put on an amazing show. Oddball genius at its finest.
That was the entire point of the lyrics to the entire Speaking In Tongues album...Byrne put together a bunch of couplets that worked with each other and then randomly threw them together for each song. This band was comprised of 4 visual arts students who just came at music from an entirely different perspective and to me and many others it was brilliant. And they grooved liked no one's business too. Definitely one of my very favorite bands of all-time.
Brad used his scrunch face in the thumbnail. Funny. Being 1983, when MTV was the new fire, videos were essential, and many saw them just as important as the song. If you view it, the song would probably make more sense. "Once in a Lifetime" and "Take Me to the River" are quintessential Talking Heads.
Brad, Bad, Brad. Music like any other art form does not necessarily follow logic or lend itself to analytical scrutiny. Trying to force music to make "sense" can be an exercise in futility. Just sit back my friend and enjoy the sounds, patterns, rhymes, and mood. Love watching you guy's discover this great music. Keep it up!
The overwhelming theme of most of Talking Heads' work is feeling out of place and disconnected from modern society. You see it in "Life During Wartime", "Once in a Lifetime" and "And She Was", as well as this song. (All of those are awesome, btw.)
You need to check out the Talking Heads doing this song, or any of their songs, live. They are incredible. You're right to kind of lump them in with the B-52's for several reasons.
Lex you are really on point with this one. Some songs are just fun to sing along with and dance to. This is one of them. No deep philosophical meanings in the lyrics. Their leader David Byrne once said that lyrics are only there so that you will pay attention to their music.
Interestingly lex kept mentioning the B52s, both talking heads and the B52s were both quirky, and both played early on during the early Punk, new wave scene in New York (CBGBs and Maxs Kansas City) along with The Ramones, television, Blondie, Devo, the dictators etc.
I hope you go back and watch the Music Video. David Byrne and the Talking Heads is a must watch Music Videos to really feel the vibe of the song. I think David Byrne is a GENRE all on his own mixed in the New Wave Era,
'Burn down the house!' was something Pariament/Funkadelic used to shout (You should react to them if you can find live footage). Chris Frantz, the drummer, went to a Parliament gig & during the next rehearsal, he would randomly shout 'Burn down the house!'. David Byrne liked it & the band wrote this song. I would suggest Life During Wartime if you want to react to more Talking Heads (& why wouldn't you?), especially a live version.
Take me to the river is a great one - my dad used to be a drummer in a band and whenever I hear it, it takes me back to being a little girl dancing while they play. Love the talking heads ♥️
"Once In Lifetime", "Take Me To The River", "Life During Wartime", "Burning Down The House", "This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody)", "Girlfriend Is Better", "Pulled Up", "Crosseyed and Painless", "Nothing But Flowers" are the names of some of Talking Heads better known songs. Check them out when you're ready for more from them. Also check out Tom Tom Club "Genius of Love", the hit Talking Head's bass player Tina Weymouth scored with the side group she formed with her husband Talking Head's drummer Chris Frantz. Listen to the 7 minute long dance hall version of that when you can. I think you'll dig it.
Great band! This is a great song and a fun Official video. Would love to see a reaction to "And She Was" and "Wild, Wild Life"! If you can, maybe do the Official videos as they were done in the day when videos were events...just some fun vibes.
Quirkiness and randomness were part of the aesthetic of New Wave music. It was kind of a reaction to the “we can make the world better” message of 60s-70s music. It’s like accepting that life can seem random and lack sense.
The video to this song is recommended to understand it. With the birth of Mtv in the 1980s, songs had a video that went with them, to give the audience an idea of what the artist was trying to get across in the song. Watch the video.
David Byrne: “Burning Down the House” wasn't a song about arson. When I wrote the lyrics in 1982, the title phrase was a metaphor for destroying something safe that entrapped you. I envisioned the song as an expression of liberation, to break free from whatever was holding you back.
The song was inspired by listening to Parliament Funkadelic. Even the line "burnin' down the house".
Yes! Brad & Lex, read some poetry. You don’t have to understand it first listen. It’s not random.
I had to take my like away from this comment, so it would stay at 69 ... Nice
I used to play this lp on the regular as a teen!💕
Beautiful metaphor
Their whole Stop Making Sense concert is gold, would highly recommend watching it!
Fire 🔥 stuff …. Brad couldn’t handle it
Awesome concert movie directed by Oscar winner Jonathan Demme (The Silence of the Lambs). How the band exercizes to an entire song leaves me winded!
Sir, truer words have never been said
Couldn't agree more! One of the greatest (and unusual) live concerts ever. Starting off with one man on the stage and gradually bringing in the whole band. Classic!!
True true true! Might help Brad's lack of imagination w good video illustrating! 😊❤
I love the look of disgust on Brad’s face!
I love watching Brad trying to make sense of this. These guys made up their words by skatting to their own music and then piecing together words from those basically random sounds. This is musical Dadaism (they were art students, originally). Lex pretty much gets it on this one
I believe that David wrote the lyrics and the music is credited to all four of them.
(He should just) STOP (tryin') MAKING SENSE (instead) !
STOP MAKING SENSE
It's kinda fun watching him trying to figure out
lyrics that are somewhat abstract,
especially when the real meaning comes
through the music itself.
...have they done The Beatles' Come Together?
Brad ALWAYS looks like he's trying to make sense of what he's made to listen to.
Brad trying to understand lyrics is why I want him to tackle Frank Zappa and the Mothers.
guys, this song is one of the true legendary songs of the 80's - when we used to listen to it we ignored MOST of the lyrics, all we sang was the chorus line; "burning down the house" the whole point of this song at the clubs, on your home stereo or in your car was just to bop along to the awesome beat and cray out, "burning down the house"....nothing more. You could read into it that they were saying that your going to leave behind your old life or what problem and issues you have, pack your bags, burn down the house, and just leave....but even that is a stretch. Just bop to the beat and sing the chorus. For me 40 years later when this song comes on my car radio you have no idea how happy it makes me feel, the memories of my friends back then and the fun we had.
i couldn't help but toke to it.
The Talking heads "Facts Of Life"! Love it!
Talking Heads is most definitely an art/experimental type band. sometimes lyrics are just lyrics and aren’t that deep lex is right here. Great band to expand upon and listen to more of
Some "lyric" is just sounds. "a rose is a rose is a rose..... " what does that "really" mean ???
I saw David Byrne play a solo show at a small club in Indy about 20 years ago. It was fantastic. He even wore the pink fur suit.
Lucky! That must’ve been amazing! I want to see him live so bad
One of the most original bands ever! Watch LIFE IN WARTIME from their live concert epic concert STOP MAKING SENSE for the full experience.
One of the few bands that were better live than in studio in my opinion
Stop Making Sense changed my LIFE!! It's def in my top 5 EVER!!
Life During Wartime. Forgive me. I am a fanatic. 🎶
@@MrUndersolo duh. What was I thinking?
@@themadcow71 You...stopped making sense!?😗
Good pick. These guys have a very good catalogue. "Life During Wartime" is a must. And "This Must Be the Place". It's good that you bring up Beck. The Talking Heads were huge a huge influence on Beck. You can hear them loud and clear in just about every one of his albums. They are there (along with The Pixies) in every Modest Mouse album as well. Your education in "alternative rock" is coming along nicely lol.
Agree about Beck. Favorite artist of this 66 yr old dude. TH undertones, but Beck creates a real landscape of sounds, beats and grooves.
Like KISS, this is a band where the visual of them performing really helps to contextualize how to 'take' their songs. Even if they don't show it to us, they would likely find the band a little less mysterious if they saw how they approach doing something like 'Life During Wartime,' live.
@@TheTussman oh he definitely makes his own music. You can hear the Talking Heads influence in his work though, which is not taking away from Beck, but acknowledging a lineage so to speak.
Life During Wartime live 100%
@@CaptainAmercia From the "Stop Making Sense" film.
"Take me to the river" live is some epic Talking Heads
This was from the 1st New Wave stream yall did last year (Jan/Feb 2022). Need to do more new wave streams.
I love the percussion and tempo. Very clever structure. I think David is saying, in order to "get out of" an uncomfortable situation, you've got to Burn.Down.the.House. Raze it and rebuild.
Violent Femmes, They Might Be Giants, Ween, Cake, Soul Coughing, all kinda fall into this category of nerdy rock often deceptively smart.
Once in a Lifetime is one of my favorite songs
I was waitin on Brads head to explode LOL and Lex's impersonation was spot on !!!
Brad is like a Vulcan, very logical. Lex is human, enjoys the sound.
logic? i think he just dont get it ... most of the time he s confused because he cant make a interpratation of the lyrics ......... not much about the music ........ lex is more on the tract
Talking Heads are soooooo funky.
Brad & Lex, I'd recommend their "Life During Wartime" and "Take Me To The River" next. This band has some of the more creative videos out there. They started in the 70's and were big in the 80s
Born Under Punches live in Rome 1980. Hypnotic performance.
Take me to the river for sure
The original Al Green version of take me to the river? Or the Foghat version?
No wrong rub your nose in that
Both of those are fantastic. I also recommend I Zimbra, to see that sort of random song that still feels like it has a secret meaning.
You like it,,,I love it. Brad is a VERY smart man. 👍😎
seymour stein would hang around the exits of downtown clubs in new york after the talking heads gigs to catch the band before they headed back to their dorms at risd and offer them a deal on his punk/new wave label sire records ...it took nearly a year of weekly rejections until seymour's tenacity paid off and he finally heard the band say yes... he brokered a deal with warner bros for distribution and well soon enough the talking heads debut was available on vinyl at local record stores across the u.s...along with the ramones, the dead boys, the undertones and as the 70s faded into the 80s soft cell, the cure, the smiths, depeche mode, echo & the bunnyman, the pretenders, madonna....seymour knew what was up before it was up
The Great Bernie Worrell from Parliament Funkadelic on the keyboards!!!
Music video to this one was excellent, too. Big ass early radio/MTV hit. Tons of airplay.
A good follow up to Talking Heads is their side project Tom Tom Club, made up of their drummer and his wife their bassist, and their mega dance hit "Genius Of Love" which is one of the most sampled songs from the 1980's.
Lex you are so cerebral with music. Anyone can be cerebral with the lyrics but you are with the music itself. At times when I first started watching you I thought you were over thinking the music. Now I realize I was just not getting the music on the level you do. You should have been a musical interpreter teacher. You are ahead of us all.
I'm soo glad you picked Talking Heads, finally!
Go lex love watching you're reaction
A truly visionary band. They were something completely new and original.
I would strongly recommend watching the movie Stop Making Sense. Pure joy. Pure joy.
This is great higher volume song from Talking Heads. I turn this up, every time.
Yes check out the talking heads “stop making sense”
Brad 😍
Love this song! Those drums!!
I've never verified whether this is true - but my understanding of Talking Heads is that they all met while they were art students in college in the 1970s and decided to form a musical band. They were on the forefront of the new wave movement. If you keep in mind their "artsy" beginning - then their music makes a little more sense. But I could be wrong. THanks for your reactions.
My dad took me to Mexico as a high school graduation present in 1991 and in this little diving town we stopped at, "Burning Down the House" was playing at the bar and the Mexican bartenders were singing along to it. I don't even remember it, but my dad would remind me of it every now and then. He must've thought Mexican bartenders singing Talking Heads in the middle of nowhere was pretty random.
Ordinary guy have happiness and hey just wait for weather change. Then you watch tv with wrong person in your side while dream walking outside in daylight 360 degrees. You have to stay and extinguish fire with fire or burn down the house. Sense of humor. It’s completely ordinary, water is everywhere just put the raincoat. You have leaving ticket out of the situation just burn down the house.😂 Amazing song
Magic - B52s were around at the same time - the dancefloors were crazy! Lex would have loved it!!!
Nice. I love the lady on the 🎸
This and other songs from this album were played in clubs and LOTS OF MOVIES
Love me some Talking Heads, 'Road to Nowhere' or 'She Was'...really good stuff.
They have a famous concert movie called "Stop making Sense" Great advice for Brad! Lol
"The psychologist Carl Jung said that fire represents the process of psychological transformation so burning down the house is destroying one personality and creating another one, As you can see in the video one person takes over another. David Byrne said the song was about this in an interview for the BBC (but he looked high at the time)."
-mbhvisbyon October 07, 2011
A Phoenix
I think it was about liberation from the norms//// A tune of randomness opposed to extreme structures and meanings..
It made sense for the time frame. Lots of phrases used or in movie, commercial or TV. Random things leave ppl today clueless. It's like..if ya knw ya knw. Lol Kool beat that stuck in your head.
This is one of my favorite songs. Great piece of music
0:35 THE EXUBERANCE OF A YOUNG CHILD! LEX IS PERFECT! LUCKY BRAD!
Got to love the drums!!
When I first heard this song I ran out and bought the 45'. It has been a favorite of mine ever since. Then I saw the video. At the time this was a favorite video. When MTV actually played videos. The video is awesome; at least for 1980's standards.
Talking Heads is one of the best New Wave bands.
First time I saw the lyrics was tonight. Love the song because its The Talking heads...guess you had to be there.
Every time Brad & Lex do a lyric video of a song I know, the music video plays in my head. I’m definitely Gen X and old 😂. Most interesting couple on UA-cam, love their content 💜.
same here. LOL!
Talking heads had some concert filmed and turned into a concert movie. Yes, shown in movie theaters. For these concerts they added some extra band members, like from the The Brothers Johnson band. That really injected some Funk & Soul into their songs. A must whatch..
Remember Tom Tom Club’s “Genius Of Love”? Covered and sampled my MANY wrappers and even Maria Carey. The Bass player (Tina W.) and others are from this band. Great bass/ rhythm section on this one!!!
HaHa...I feel like you guys are the perfect counter balance for the other. You both look at music from completely different places but it works. She brings him more out of the box and he pulls her more in. Y'all work and I love it!
To give you a clue, the Talking Heads did an album and a documentary film in 1984 called "Stop Making Sense." They were successful at marrying new wave rock with funk in the '80s. It's all about the sound and feel of the songs.
Brilliant insight from Lex
🤠 David Byrne is a musical genius! 🕺
Also someone you can count on to take any mundane thing and give you a perspective on it that makes it almost unrecognizable.
If you're ever having a day that's just too ordinary, David Byrne can fix that, sharpish.
Thats what I was about to say John
"You like Weezer and Cake!" Damn, Lex is throwing back at Brad in this one! Poor Brad's face when he paused to figure out the song...I can't stop laughing!
Funny story...trying to get sober in the mid 90s, staying at a halfway house in Phoenix Arizona. Small apartment style recovery house. 14 apartments surrounding a swimming pool. 4 to a apartment. My 3rd day, came home from work round 2:30pm and eating in the cafeteria/mtg room when the fire alarm went off. Counselors gathered us and walked us out the complex. I could see smoke coming from my apt. As we passed an open door on our way out, this song was playing. Come to find out, one of my roommates had pushed their bed up against a wall receptacle and a plug from a clock/radio was exposed and lit his mattress on fire. Even Alzheimer's won't take that memory away....whenever I hear this song, it always takes me back. ☮️🔥
The lyrics remind me of Once in a Lifetime. A guy disappointed with his reality and wanting to get out. In this case it was to burn his "house" down.
Love "Life During Wartime."
Makes perfect sense to me...!
i love Lex's reactions, she totally gets it!!
Christmas 1977, I was 10, my brother got Talking Heads 77. We shared a bedroom and Talking Heads became part of the soundtrack of our lives. I didn’t care what any of it meant, it was just a joy to listen to. Made me a fan for life.
Someone in high school made me laugh my ass off when he sang this song. He made up the lyrics as he went along & it was different every time...
Talking Heads were one of the bands that nerds/geeks liked a whole lot back in the day. As far as "random", you should listen to "Once In A Lifetime", "And She Was", and "Wild Wild Life". :)
Girlfriend is Better
Can't hear this song without thinking of "Revenge of the Nerds." Great movie.
I'm not sure about the rest of the band, but David Byrne was an art student at RISD. Completely original, no one else like them group and music. Byrne still tours and performs and, when I saw him about a dozen years ago, his band (different members from Talking Heads, who had long since disbanded) and him put on an amazing show. Oddball genius at its finest.
Another great Canadian band!!!
That was the entire point of the lyrics to the entire Speaking In Tongues album...Byrne put together a bunch of couplets that worked with each other and then randomly threw them together for each song.
This band was comprised of 4 visual arts students who just came at music from an entirely different perspective and to me and many others it was brilliant. And they grooved liked no one's business too. Definitely one of my very favorite bands of all-time.
Brad used his scrunch face in the thumbnail. Funny. Being 1983, when MTV was the new fire, videos were essential, and many saw them just as important as the song. If you view it, the song would probably make more sense. "Once in a Lifetime" and "Take Me to the River" are quintessential Talking Heads.
Brad, Bad, Brad. Music like any other art form does not necessarily follow logic or lend itself to analytical scrutiny. Trying to force music to make "sense" can be an exercise in futility. Just sit back my friend and enjoy the sounds, patterns, rhymes, and mood. Love watching you guy's discover this great music. Keep it up!
The thumbnail got the song stuck in my head. Lmao I only every knew the chorus 😆 🤣 😂
This was a great album. Try once in a lifetime and and she was.
The overwhelming theme of most of Talking Heads' work is feeling out of place and disconnected from modern society. You see it in "Life During Wartime", "Once in a Lifetime" and "And She Was", as well as this song. (All of those are awesome, btw.)
Add Psycho Killer and you've got my list of must listens.
And she was about acid, though lol. Easy to understand.
You need to check out the Talking Heads doing this song, or any of their songs, live. They are incredible. You're right to kind of lump them in with the B-52's for several reasons.
I agree! When you see them perform, its a whole different experience compared to just audio. ✌❤
I hope you guys do more Talking Heads. They are capable of doing songs with meaning. You might try "(Nothing But) Flowers".
Songs with meaning... You mean, like this one? Because it definitely has meaning.
Stop Making Sense! It’s life changing...incredible live band!
Always trust your resonations 🤘
Bringing up B 52's during a Talking Heads reaction. 🙏 Respect
Love love love Talking Heads. Even during my all hip-hop all the time days I was loving them.
Lex you are really on point with this one. Some songs are just fun to sing along with and dance to. This is one of them. No deep philosophical meanings in the lyrics. Their leader David Byrne once said that lyrics are only there so that you will pay attention to their music.
Epically underrated band
Interestingly lex kept mentioning the B52s, both talking heads and the B52s were both quirky, and both played early on during the early Punk, new wave scene in New York (CBGBs and Maxs Kansas City) along with The Ramones, television, Blondie, Devo, the dictators etc.
Lol Lex gets David Byrne on a molecular level, and I’m very happy about it.
I hope you go back and watch the Music Video. David Byrne and the Talking Heads is a must watch Music Videos to really feel the vibe of the song. I think David Byrne is a GENRE all on his own mixed in the New Wave Era,
I 100% recommend the "Stop Making Sense" movie/concert, they're amazing live, and seeing the entire band perform some of their best songs is amazing.
'Burn down the house!' was something Pariament/Funkadelic used to shout (You should react to them if you can find live footage). Chris Frantz, the drummer, went to a Parliament gig & during the next rehearsal, he would randomly shout 'Burn down the house!'. David Byrne liked it & the band wrote this song. I would suggest Life During Wartime if you want to react to more Talking Heads (& why wouldn't you?), especially a live version.
P-Funk legend Bernie Worrell plays synth on Stop Making Sense.
Take me to the river is a great one - my dad used to be a drummer in a band and whenever I hear it, it takes me back to being a little girl dancing while they play. Love the talking heads ♥️
"Once In Lifetime", "Take Me To The River", "Life During Wartime", "Burning Down The House", "This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody)", "Girlfriend Is Better", "Pulled Up", "Crosseyed and Painless", "Nothing But Flowers" are the names of some of Talking Heads better known songs. Check them out when you're ready for more from them. Also check out Tom Tom Club "Genius of Love", the hit Talking Head's bass player Tina Weymouth scored with the side group she formed with her husband Talking Head's drummer Chris Frantz. Listen to the 7 minute long dance hall version of that when you can. I think you'll dig it.
Never get tired of this. I love before the end on the percussion part when the acoustic guitar comes in. Strummin' the shit out of it.
Great band! This is a great song and a fun Official video. Would love to see a reaction to "And She Was" and "Wild, Wild Life"! If you can, maybe do the Official videos as they were done in the day when videos were events...just some fun vibes.
Talking Heads! Brilliant. Lyrics in songs like this are almost metaphorical.
It's about seeing a Parliament Funkadelic concert.
Quirkiness and randomness were part of the aesthetic of New Wave music. It was kind of a reaction to the “we can make the world better” message of 60s-70s music. It’s like accepting that life can seem random and lack sense.
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Talking Heads "Life during wartime". Live version is crazy.
This song is one that I'd requested dozens of times on streams. So glad that you got to it.
I always felt like letting the days go by was about L.A. and Burning Down the House was about NYC.
But maybe they were both about L.A.
I gotta agree with you Brad. I used to dance to this song back in the day and I am still confused
The video to this song is recommended to understand it. With the birth of Mtv in the 1980s, songs had a video that went with them, to give the audience an idea of what the artist was trying to get across in the song. Watch the video.
Omg finally ! Yay one of my fave bands , u gotta try “life during wartime and sugar on my tongue” there’s so many hits
Great band, lots of good songs