Tag Archives: Talking Heads

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Song of the Day #5,013: ‘Burning Down the House’ – Talking Heads

Maybe the Random iTunes Fairy was spooked by my suggestion last week that I should consider culling the dead weight from my music library. Once again, she has served up a great song by one of my favorite artists.

When ‘Burning Down the House’ popped up, I was sure I’d featured it before. But turns out I had only posted the live version from Stop Making Sense, two years ago on another Random Weekend. Shockingly, that was my first SOTD from the classic concert album. And I’ve only posted one more since.

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Song of the Day #4,934: ‘Life During Wartime (Live)’ – Talking Heads

Continuing my look at 1984, first by counting down my own top five albums of that year.

#2. Stop Making Sense – Talking Heads

The greatest live album ever recorded, and the greatest concert film, Stop Making Sense finds Talking Heads in peak form. Touring in support of 1983’s Speaking in Tongues, my favorite of their albums, the band tears through songs from that record and its predecessors, bringing new energy and warmth to already exhilarating material.

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Song of the Day #4,571: ‘This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody) (Live)’ – Talking Heads

Continuing the chronological presentation of my 25 favorite songs…

‘Magic’ – Olivia Newton-John (1980)

We move into the 80s now, but starting with a song that has one foot firmly planted in the 70s. The 1980 film Xanadu, with its cheesy effects and kitschy “Greek muse on roller skates” vibe, was widely panned, brought down by the anti-disco movement (and the fact that it’s an awful movie).

But despite the movie’s failure, the Xanadu soundtrack was a critical and commercial hit, going multi-Platinum and earning praise for both Olivia Newton-John and Electric Light Orchestra.

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Song of the Day #4,559: ‘I Zimbra’ – Talking Heads

Maybe it’s the David Byrne American Utopia movie released earlier this year, or maybe it’s pandemic-related, but I’ve been really digging on Talking Heads lately.

When today’s song — the opening track of the 1979 album Fear of Music — popped up as a Random Weekend selection, I was positively giddy. With lyrics based on a nonsensical Dadaist poem by Hugo Ball and music inspired by the African rhythms Byrne was increasingly drawn to, this song is unlike anything the band had done to that point, but still perfectly in character.

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Song of the Day #4,290: ‘This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)’ – Talking Heads

My second favorite album of 1983 is the fifth album by one of my favorite bands, Talking Heads. Speaking in Tongues followed the critically-beloved Remain in Light and became the band’s top-selling album to date.

In opening track ‘Burning Down the House,’ Talking Heads enjoyed the only Top Ten hit of their career, but this nine-track album boasts many more treasures. Writing for Rolling Stone, David Fricke made the spot-on observation that Speaking in Tongues “obliterates the thin line separating arty white pop music and deep black funk.”

These songs are at once deeply weird and thoroughly groovy.

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