| Talking Heads – This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody) Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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As has been mentioned before, David Byrne's quote in the Stop Making Sense self-interview is one of my favourite of his for sure: "I have written a love song, though. In this film I sing it to a lamp." I can't remember exactly which interview it was, but I'm sure I remember David Byrne mentioning that the 'Naive Melody' subtitle is a reflection of the fact that a lot of musicians would consider the underlying melody particularly simple or 'naive' . As he explains, mostly because it's the same few notes cycled through which are played by both the guitar and the bass simultaneously. I think how synonymous the track has become with weddings or to being 'our song' for couples is a true testimony to how true a love song it is. Not that I witnessed it at the time, but I also loved the idea of having a priest come up and marry people on the stage while David Byrne sung the song in Las Vegas! |
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| Lou Reed – Perfect Day Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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Like many people have said, I don't believe this song is about heroin. Lou Reed isn't often one to hide significant meanings in songs, however much of a taboo subject they may be - usually he's very explicit about drugs etc. But then again, considering Lou's links to the drug at the time I guess we really can't rule out that it is about heroin either. Maybe he was just trying to take a more subtle approach to writing about the drug, having already written outrightly about it, notably of course in 'Heroin' with the Velvet Underground. I think we can be more or less sure that this doesn't describe Lou's personal perfect day: as he told Jools Holland "I wouldn't know what my perfect day was if it came up and bit me on the nose". To me, it is more of a mock-romantic setup rather than a real life situation, perhaps meant to be a bit ironic or menacing ("you're going to reap just what you sow..."). |
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| Lou Reed – Berlin Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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I've never really thought of Nico at all in relation to this song, or album. As far as I can see the only definite similarities between Caroline(the female concerned, as we discover later in the album) and Nico is that they're both German, and both relatively tall. Aside from that, the relationship between Jim and Caroline implied in this song and accross the rest of the record doesn't seem to be too reminiscent of that between the supposed relationship between Lou and Nico. But who knows? To me, it seems that this song is setting the scene, and the mood, for the rest of the album. The lyrics indicate the sort of relationship Jim and Caroline had before the tragedies that follow struck: give us a bit of constrast. And that dramatic piano sets the depressing yet powerful feel that the record's become famous for. |
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