Song Of The Day 4/24/2014: Talking Heads - "This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)"

You Pick The Artist: Katrina Brede also suggested Talking Heads, along with a batch full of others that were just as appropriate. Emulate Katrina's eagerness if you want to get anywhere in life. Talking Heads were the focal point of my favorite music movie ever, Stop Making Sense. Until that came out I think Talking Heads were painted as "intellectualist," as if that's somehow an undesirable thing to be. Certainly there was a lot of cerebral that went behind their work, but Stop Making Sense was such a pure, smart exploration of the joy of making the exact kind of music you should be making, being in the moment. And in between it offered glimpses of the kinds of abstract thoughts that drove David Byrne, and somehow made them acceptable to the masses. Things like, what happens when you go to a bad tailor?

Their biggest-selling album was Speaking In Tongues, the lyrics to which were composed only because they sounded like appealing phrases to sing. Most of the album has no direct lyrical point; the words are just formed to fit the music. Try explaining what "Burning Down the House" is about. It's about nothing. It's not even about burning down houses. The big exception to that rule on Speaking In Tongues is "This Must Be the Place." It sort of ties the room together. It's not necessarily a naïve melody, as the subtitle says, but a grounded desire after spending the rest of the album flying without apparent purpose but with all the enthusiasm in the world. "The less we say about it the better. Make it up as we go along." That's all the purpose you need. That's pretty much all the purpose I can afford in this economic climate.

Thanks again, Katrina!