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Rating: How to get the white neurosis moving, this must have been the idea.
And to do it, four young lads very much from art school knocked on the alchemist's workshop so he could help them set up a psychotic and danceable cartoon movie soundtrack.
“Psychotic and danceable cartoon movie” is quite a crappy definition, I know, but this is what comes to mind right now.
In any case (and keep the word 'case' in mind) the alchemist seemed like just the right person for the task, given that, like Merlin, he was someone who could fit his entire house into a suitcase. And the house of an alchemist, as you can surely imagine, is full of very useful tools for exploring uncharted lands.
Among all the things packed into the suitcase, the most useful turned out to be a deck of cards...
A deck of cards from which to draw randomly.
Why the most useful of all?
Because, as the alchemist said, “What serves our case if not, when it's the case, drawing randomly?” A remarkably eloquent formula, you'll agree. Both in respect to the case, and to if and when it's the case,
Then again, I confess, this card stuff I'm exaggerating... It's just that those cards always made me trip... you draw one by chance and you get sentences like: “honor your error as a hidden intention” or “discover your formulas and abandon them”... too cool...
Even if, I admit, “too cool” isn’t much of an analysis.
Then again, cards or no cards, there was a lot of other stuff in the suitcase, not to mention that the talking heads had a decent hand luggage (black music, artiste experiences, and quirky ideas).
And anyway, the point was that “rock had to stop being a sloppy version of the Rolling Stones,” or always the same old story. So much so that you could go on tour with the Ramones and read scientific tomes while those rowdies did every kind of drug.
Everlasting glory to the Ramones, of course, but I imagine it would have been fun to be in the same van with the two groups. With the Ramones saying, "But what are these guys doing, reading?"
Ah, it seems impossible, but the two groups really did tour together. Like the most extraordinary of fantastical pairs.
They were something like no pathos, no romance, no uniform, no love songs. And, of course, no guitar solos. It was just about using rationality and chance to document madness, perhaps talking about food and buildings...
And then, of course, rhythm and rhythm and more rhythm, even if David Byrne, the singer, was as stiff as a board and moved jerkily, his body caught live in its own alienation...
All fabulous, even if our impression back then was that they were taking us for fools and not just because we were staunch haters of anything even slightly danceable. Besides this, we felt an incongruity and a sense of parody,
Oh yes, yes...incongruity and parody...
The same effect that album of the alchemist gave us, the one that had to do with the strategy for capturing the tiger. Oh God, not quite the same since here there was something dangerously similar to disco music involved.
And everything was so accelerated... everything was so rushed.
Not to mention that rhythm then wasn't the black songs' rhythm, or rather it was, but in a context that ended up seeming like something different, i.e., something unnatural.
Again alienation then...
Alienated the singing, alienated the body...and alienated the sounds.
That, overwhelmed by a lucid and sharp intelligence and the avant-garde flair, the rhythm was nothing but neurosis.
Ah, it’s no wonder the record turned out to be a cultural shock then.
It took some time, but then we appreciated it and, to this day, it's still one of the most enjoyable albums ever. And it's fantastic that an album about alienation is also an enjoyable album.
Of course, despite the passage of time, that subtle line of incongruity remains, which is somewhat the memory of the day we met strangeness in music and somewhat still the same effect of then, with the absurd, however, becoming an added value.
If I have to think of a song, I think of “Thank you for sending me an angel,” which is really a frightening intro. Concise and skeletal, it almost rushes along with David Byrne's hysterical singing, allowing only a few brief pauses which are then funny and alien rhythmic interludes.
Which, then again, rhythmic interludes are so to speak, since the record is, as we have already said, only rhythm... rhythm, rhythm, and more rhythm.
Not to mention that “Thank you...” is then, uniquely on the album, almost a furious rock'n'roll.
Then suddenly when it ends, track two starts with a sort of absurd march, and maybe track three also starts like a sort of absurd march. That perhaps instead of dancing, you should walk in circles like crazy...
The other tracks are more or less along the same lines and all resemble each other, despite the thousand shades of a million sounds, or perhaps of a million rhythms, or micro-rhythms, imperceptibly different (the alchemist was in good shape those days).
They are, in short, pieces from the same assembly line and the assembly line means alienation.
And yes, we reiterate, in this music, as funny and irresistible as it is, the alienation is felt, felt indeed.
Then maybe we could say that often the sounds have, especially in the absence of singing, the air of coming from futuristic playful machines...
Think, to understand, of a factory turned into an amusement park.
The effect is so powerful that you wish those twenty seconds without Byrne's voice became one minute, two minutes, three, four.
Ah, how many times have I imagined this record only instrumental with lots of Umpa Loompas dancing and working happily!!!
Who are the Umpa Loompas? But how?
The Umpa Loompas are the little hyper-rhythmic and singing workers at the service of Willy Wonka, the mad chocolatier who transformed the boldest psychedelic concepts into sweets.
The Umpa Loompas are the closest thing to a kind of dreamy workerism.
And so perhaps, beyond the perceived alienation, that music was not (and is not) anything but the soundtrack of a twisted sun of the future where two of the early Byrne's fixed ideas still took root (and still do), namely, corporate theory and Maoism,
A sort of conscious and joyful regimentation.
But I would end with Merlin/Brian. Indeed with the real Merlin...
Oh, how I would love the real Merlin to visit me and devise an educational program similar to the one in “The Sword in the Stone” that leads Wart to become King Arthur!!!.
Remember when Wart is turned into a fish or a squirrel?
Well, I would like to transform into a little Umpa Loompa and work, dancing and humming the songs of “More songs about buildings and food,” in the chocolate factory.
Also because it would be the only possible way to become a Maoist, even if a Maoist version Dahl/Burton/Byrne...a real cool guy then...
Trallallà...
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Thank You for Sending Me an Angel (02:11)
Oh, oh, baby you can walk, you can talk just like me
You can walk, you can talk just like me
You can look, tell me what you see
You can look, you won't see nothing like me
If you look around the world
Oh, baby you can walk, you can talk just like me
With a little practice you can walk like, talk just like me
If that's what you wanna do
Well you can look, you'll walk in circles around me
But first, I'll walk in circles around you
But first, I'll walk around the world
I'm walking 'round the world
I...you can
I'll walk in circles around you
But first, show me what you can do
03 The Good Thing (03:03)
I will fight, will fight with my heart
I will fight, will fight with understanding
In my mind the weather never changes
Skill overcomes difficult situations
A straight line exists between me and the good thing
I have found the line and its direction is known to me
Absolute trust keeps me going in the right direction
Any intrusion is met with a heart full of the good thing
Try to compare what I am presenting
You will meet with much frustration
Try to find...similar situation
You will always find the same solution
As the heart finds the good thing, the feeling is multiplied
Add the will to the strength, and it equals conviction
As we economize, efficiency is multiplied
To the extent I am determined the result is the good thing
So I say:
I have adopted this and made it my own
Cut back the weakness, reinforce what is strong
04 Warning Sign (03:54)
Warning sign, warning sign
I see it, but I pay it no mind
Hear my voice, hear my voice
It's saying something and it's not very nice
Pay attention, pay attention
I'm talking to you and I hope you're concentrating
I've got money now, I've got money now
C'mon baby, c'mon baby
Warning sign of things to come (take it over, take it over)
Someone's talking on my telephone (when we're older, when we're older)
Hear my voice, move my hair
I move it around a lot, but I don't care (what I remember)
Warning sign, warning sign
Look at my hair, I like the design
It's the truth, it's the truth
Your glassy eyes and your open mouth
Take it easy, take it easy
It's a natural thing and you have to relax
I've got money now, I've got money now
C'mon baby, c'mon baby
Warning sign of things to come (turn me over, turn me over)
Love is here but I guess it's gone now (hurry up babe, hurry up)
Hear my voice, move my hair
I move it around a lot, but I don't care
Do you remember
What it is that you remember
Baby remember
Baby remember
06 Found a Job (04:59)
"Damn that television...what a bad picture"
"Don't get upset, it's not a major disaster"
"There's nothing on tonight," he said, "I don't know what's the matter!"
"Nothing's ever on," she said, "so...I don't know why you bother."
We've heard this little scene, we've heard it many times
People fighting over little things and wasting precious time
They might be better off...I think...the way it seems to me
Making up their own shows, which might be better than T.V.
(Chorus)
Judy's in the bedroom, inventing situations
Bob is on the street today, scouting up locations
They've enlisted all their family
They've enlisted all their friends
It helped save their relationship
And made it work again...
Their show gets real high ratings, they think they have a hit
There might even be a spinoff, but they're not sure 'bout that
If they ever watch T.V. again, it'd be too soon for them
Bob never yells about the picture now, he's having too much fun
(Chorus)
Judy's in the bedroom, inventing situations
Bob is on the street today, scouting up locations
They've enlisted all their family
They've enlisted all their friends
It helped save their relationship
And made it work again...
So think about this little scene, apply it to your life
If your work isn't what you love, then something isn't right
Just look at Bob and Judy, they're happy as can be
Inventing situations, putting them on T.V.
(Chorus)
Judy's in the bedroom, inventing situations
Bob is on the street today, he's having a vacation
They've enlisted all their family
They've enlisted all their friends
It helped save their relationship
And made it work again...
07 Artists Only (03:35)
I'm painting, I'm painting again
I'm painting, I'm painting again
I'm cleaning, I'm cleaning again
I'm cleaning, I'm cleaning my brain
Pretty soon now I will be bitter
Pretty soon now will be a quitter
Pretty soon now I will be bitter
You can't see it 'til it's finished
I don't have to prove...that I am creative!
I don't have to prove...that I am creative!
All my pictures are confused
And now I'm going to take me to you
09 Stay Hungry (02:40)
I think that we can signify our love now
Ooh girl, you can initiate an impulse of love
Stay hungry, stay hungry, stay hungry
Move a muscle, move a muscle, move a muscle
Make a motion, make a motion, make a motion
Pull it tighter, pull it tighter, pull it tighter
Double beatin', double beatin', double beatin'
Double beatin', double beatin', double beatin'
Palpitation, palpitation, palpitation
Stay hungry, stay hungry, stay hungry
Here's that rhythm again
Here's my shoulder blade
Here's the sound I made
Here's the picture I saved
Here I am
10 Take Me to the River (05:03)
I don't know why I love her like I do
All the changes you put me through
Take my money, my cigarettes
I haven't seen the worst of it yet
I wanna know can you'll tell me
I really love to stay
Take me to the river, drop me in the water
take me to the river, dip me in the water
wash your feet out x3
I don't know why you treat me so bad
Think of all the things we could have had
Love is an ocean that I can't forget
My sweet sixteen I would regret
I wanna know can you'll tell me
I really love to stay
Take me to the river, drop me in the water
Take me to the river, dip me in the water
Hug me, squeeze me, love me, tease me
Till I can't, till I can't, till i can't, till i can't
I don't know why I love you like I do
All the trouble you put me through
Sixteen candles blown on my wall
here am I the biggest fool of them all
I wanna know can you'll tell me
I really love to stay
Take me to the river,drop me in the water
Dip me in the water , drop me to the river
dip me in the water
drop me in the river
push me in the water
11 The Big Country (05:32)
I see the shapes
I remember from maps
I see the shoreline
I see the whitecaps
A baseball diamond, nice weather down there
I see the school and the houses where the kids are
Places to park by the factories and buildings
Restaurants and bars for later in the evening
Then we come to the farmlands, and the undeveloped areas
And I have learned how these things work together
I see the parkway that passes through them all
And I have learned how to look at these things and I say
(Chorus)
I wouldn't live there if you paid me
I wouldn't live like that, no siree!
I wouldn't do the things the way those people do
I wouldn't live there if you paid me to
I guess it's healthy, I guess the air is clean
I guess those people have fun with their neighbors and friends
Look at that kitchen and all of that food
Look at them eat it, I guess it tastes real good
They buy it in the farmlands
Then they bring it to the store
They put it in the car trunks
Then they bring it back home
(Chorus)
And I say, I wouldn't live there if you paid me
I wouldn't live like that, no siree!
I wouldn't do the things the way those people do
I wouldn't live there if you paid me to
I'm tired of looking out the window of the airplane
I'm tired of traveling, I want to be somewhere
It's not even worth talking
About those people down there
Goo Goo Ga Ga Ga
Goo Goo Ga Ga Ga
(Repeat to fade)
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Other reviews
By hobbit
The Talking Heads were geniuses: stuff that you listen to today and think that clubs are missing something big by playing that Latin-American or techno-house garbage instead.
A genius record, like all the first four of this magical group, similar to Devo but less punk, not far from the Pop Group but more pop, to take with eyes closed, if you have at least a bit of taste for rhythm.
