submissions
| Talking Heads – (Nothing But) Flowers Lyrics
| 4 years ago
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This is not a pro-environmental song or even an anti-environmental song. It is a person figuring out what they can live with. It's really a rewrite of The Big Country (another great song), but the sentiment is the same. The narrator needs the trashy culture to be who he is despite the benefits of the clean natural world. Personally I love the idea of the natural world that he imagines, but the narrator rejects it. If I had to guess I think DB is more aligned with the narrator though he is not saying the natural world isn't necessary - it is just something he is not interested in. He's used the beauty of the natural world to draw you into his dystopian viewpoint. The song gets its strength from the contrast of the sweet natural world with the narrator's opposing viewpoint. This narrators viewpoint is in fact close to how most listeners feel despite their own idealized yearn for a real life garden of Eden. |
submissions
| Talking Heads – The Big Country Lyrics
| 4 years ago
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I don't think you need to imagine DB in being character to write The Big Country. Looking at DB's life it's pretty clear he's chosen urban over suburban/rural. He's not an old style hippie. At the end of the song he says he wants to be somewhere. I take that to mean a place where thoughts and ideas are important - not eating, drinking, and playing ball or whatever people do out there in the clean air. I tried to live that way in NYC for 15 years, but I opted for the clear air, but I have problem with creative people in the arts who NEED the cities to thrive. Even the Grateful Dead did - Truckin is about going from one city to another. Only picked GD because they're so laid back. For me there would be very little music to listen to if there weren't artists hanging around in the darkest corners of the biggest cities. |
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