| Talking Heads – Making Flippy Floppy (Stop Making Sense Version) Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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No no, foreverdrone, the song does have a meaning. After months of analyzing it, by breaking it down and looking at the figurative language used by Byrne and the notable transitions in this song, I have come to a general conclusion about what the song means. Keep in mind that Byrne's writing is highly metaphorical, scientific, technical, and often tells a story. In short, this song is about a baby being born and growing up. Then, after being exposed to a strange and screwed up reality, tries to make sense of it all, eventually discovering that life as an adult makes as little sense as it did in the womb. The first verse is about a baby in his mother's womb. "Nothing can come between us" seems to point to the umbilical cord shared by the baby and mom. "You don't have to wait for more instructions, no one makes a monkey out of me" appears to be a reference to evolution and cell replication. The instructions to make a human are in the chromosomes, so there is no need to wait for more direction. The "no making a monkey" line points to a human being made. "we lie on our backs, feet in the air/ rest and relaxation, rocket to my brain". This is one of the lines that really made it clear to me that Byrne is referring to a fetus. A baby in the womb is in full relaxation mode, with its feet in the air, lying on its back. The second verse is still a little fuzzy to me. "Snap into postion, bounce til you ache" sounds like the baby is "in position" to be born and causing the woman contractual pains. I'm not sure about the ending up in jail line though. Maybe someone can help me with that. In the third verse, the baby is born. The verse starts out with the words "Doctor, doctor" because that is the first thing the baby sees when he is born. "We have nothing left to offer" means that the baby is born so the relationship between the doctor and pregnant woman is effectively over. "Faces pressed against the window, hey, they are just my friends". What does a baby see when first born in the hopital? A bunch of faces looking at it in the window. The fourth verse is obviously about how we are born into the world blind to its ways. Everything is "sugar and spice "in the early years, before reality sets in. One of the most important lines in the song is the final one of the fourth verse, when Byrne says "We sleep in the darkness, and we open our eyes". Note, how after the phrase "open our eyes" there is a musical transition. There is a long synth interlude after the word eyes and if you can understand the song as a whole, then this interlude makes perfect sense, and, in fact, marks the most important transition in the song. What I see in my head is a youth waking up to reality, looking around and seeing the world for what it really is, or at least what reality seems to be. In the fifth verse the now adult young man (or woman)is describing his messed up reality. He can't believe what he sees: how strange people are, how crazy the president is, and how people will lie right to your face. In the final verse the young man gives some opinions about the world he has just started to understand: there are no big secrets, don't believe what you read, how full of ourselves we are. And finally, he conclude that after putting it all together, it still doesn't make sense. All he can do is Make Flippy Floppy, or that is, try to make sense of the strange reality surrounding him. The final line is still a question mark for me. Does kill the beast, perhaps mean to kill logic and reason? Maybe it means the young man has killed his curiousity and has accepted the world for what it is? I don't know. |
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| Talking Heads – The Great Curve Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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The world moves on a woman's hips seems to me to be about the earth's path around the sun and the sun's gravitational pull. The world does in fact swivel and bump along its path around the sun, and it bounces and hops. The "she" in this song is nature, or perhaps it can be interpreted as the universe itself. Let me paraphrase: Nature is describing herself Nature has messages for us Nature is acts according to its own law (remote control) The hands that guide nature are invisible The world of light is nature, and nature is going to open our eyes up In the first verse "the world" seems to mean the truth lying within nature. Her truth is out of reach, some of us reach that truth, but we can't hold on. The end line "she has got to move the world", I think is a reference to the forces of nature moving the world along. |
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| Talking Heads – Houses In Motion Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| The song is about a man digging his own grave. He is continually running the race, but never really accomplishes anything. That is why the contrast is so evident in the chorus. He is walking a tight line between life and death until all the material things he has built up divide and dissolve. I'm also getting the feeling that the man digging his grave is living a double life. Surrounded by "two houses" and "keeping (his) fingers behind (him)", as in lying about something. | |
| Talking Heads – Making Flippy Floppy (Stop Making Sense Version) Lyrics | 17 years ago |
|
No no, foreverdrone, the song does have a meaning. After months of analyzing it, by breaking it down and looking at the figurative language used by Byrne and the notable transitions in this song, I have come to a general conclusion about what the song means. Keep in mind that Byrne's writing is highly metaphorical, scientific, technical, and often tells a story. In short, this song is about a baby being born and growing up. Then, after being exposed to a strange and screwed up reality, tries to make sense of it all, eventually discovering that life as an adult makes as little sense as it did in the womb. The first verse is about a baby in his mother's womb. "Nothing can come between us" seems to point to the umbilical cord shared by the baby and mom. "You don't have to wait for more instructions, no one makes a monkey out of me" appears to be a reference to evolution and cell replication. The instructions to make a human are in the chromosomes, so there is no need to wait for more direction. The "no making a monkey" line points to a human being made. "we lie on our backs, feet in the air/ rest and relaxation, rocket to my brain". This is one of the lines that really made it clear to me that Byrne is referring to a fetus. A baby in the womb is in full relaxation mode, with its feet in the air, lying on its back. The second verse is still a little fuzzy to me. "Snap into postion, bounce til you ache" sounds like the baby is "in position" to be born and causing the woman contractual pains. I'm not sure about the ending up in jail line though. Maybe someone can help me with that. In the third verse, the baby is born. The verse starts out with the words "Doctor, doctor" because that is the first thing the baby sees when he is born. "We have nothing left to offer" means that the baby is born so the relationship between the doctor and pregnant woman is effectively over. "Faces pressed against the window, hey, they are just my friends". What does a baby see when first born in the hopital? A bunch of faces looking at it in the window. The fourth verse is obviously about how we are born into the world blind to its ways. Everything is "sugar and spice "in the early years, before reality sets in. One of the most important lines in the song is the final one of the fourth verse, when Byrne says "We sleep in the darkness, and we open our eyes". Note, how after the phrase "open our eyes" there is a musical transition. There is a long synth interlude after the word eyes and if you can understand the song as a whole, then this interlude makes perfect sense, and, in fact, marks the most important transition in the song. What I see in my head is a youth waking up to reality, looking around and seeing the world for what it really is, or at least what reality seems to be. In the fifth verse the now adult young man (or woman)is describing his messed up reality. He can't believe what he sees: how strange people are, how crazy the president is, and how people will lie right to your face. In the final verse the young man gives some opinions about the world he has just started to understand: there are no big secrets, don't believe what you read, how full of ourselves we are. And finally, he conclude that after putting it all together, it still doesn't make sense. All he can do is Make Flippy Floppy, or that is, try to make sense of the strange reality surrounding him. The final line is still a question mark for me. Does kill the beast, perhaps mean to kill logic and reason? Maybe it means the young man has killed his curiousity and has accepted the world for what it is? I don't know. |
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