The Great Curve

i like scatterbrain's idea to a certain extent. talking heads were very heavy into african and world music as we all know. african music and dance (especially in west africa) is very sexual in rhythm and movement.
like many talking heads songs the lyrics are good but are just as important as inflection and the music itself.
women in many african cultures hold higher authority than men because they are "life givers" with the ability to give birth. "the world" in this song revolves on the natural sensuality of women in general...their hips and the way they move etc... without women we couldnt procreate eh? :)

I'm seeing the whole female thing, but I think it's comparing women to Earth. I think it's trying to show the parallel between woman as creator and the earth as creator and the need for respect of both.

This song owns. I love that guitar solo in the middle. I also think it's about women in general. "The world moves on a woman's hips." Indeed it does.

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.

addicting. good beat. underrated.

This song makes me think of females in general. women dancing, thinking, striving, having sex, and then to me the great curve is being pregnant, the definition of femininity(ie the curve in the belly) all kinda happy things about women. i dont mean that to sound sexist if it came off like that, Its 330 am in the morning and im just kinda sayin what comes to mind

It almost sounds like a Earth Mother/Creation myth made up by Byrne. You have Mother Nature, Father Time, and the basic male/female duality that is both a symbol and the fact of our very existence. Whereas men seek to understand Nature via science and hard facts, the essence of women can be described as Intuitive.

You could also see it as meaning Mother Earth, the planet, this living being with a 4.5 billion year-old spirit. the Great Curve could then be the spherical surface of the earth, or possibly the edge where the Earth falls into shadow and then back into sunlight. (day/night being another fundamental duality). In this context, the first stanza suggests mortals' "connecting" with the spirit of the Earth, "but can't hang on". "She shakes them up..." refers to the moving crustal plates, and the earthquakes that result.

I think it's a bit of both.

I believe this song shows how television/movies are used as a way for people to obtain information and educate themselves on life, and sex and women being the objects through which many people seek their knowledge. The "World" that Byrne refers to just means people in general, and that the actual Earth is right outside and here, but people can't grasp it or don't have the patience to really understand the world or themselves for that matter. Because of the technology at hand with television and film, we have a more entertaining way of trying to understand the world via women and sex causing the "world" to tune in and be dictated in this manner. The clues that lead me to believe its television is "She's moving by remote control" and "The world of light..". This might be a very 90's-present interpretation (I wasn't born or raised in the 70's), but art is all about applying your view no matter what time period and David Byrne is a master of very open-ended songwriting.

I think the song is going from macro level to micro level--the world at large and one person within that world, who is trying to change it. "The Great Curve" is a metaphor for "mother earth", the earth being round and large (hence 'great'). It is also a metaphor for a woman (the great curve) that is trying to make a GREAT change? (maybe a girl byrne knows and respects)

The world is here but it's out of reach Some people touch it...but they can't hold on. (some people attempt to make a change to the world, but it is a BIG job..ya know?)

altho.. "The world moves on a womans hips The world moves and it swivels and bops" (this girl is making an attempt to change the world so the 'world' will move to her). It is like she is dancing to the world but taking a risk-"Hands that move her are invisible". Think about a natural disaster?!! that makes you realize how little power we have over the GREAT curve..

i'm not sure what the heck the song really means, but that is what it makes me think of?

SHE IS TRUTH: "She has messages for everyone..." "She...has got to move the world...to move the world...to move the world / A world of light...she's gonna open our eyes up..." "She shakes 'em up when she start to walk..."

"She" is divine. "She is only partly human being / Divine, to define, she is moving to define..." - this represents the divinity of truth and she is only present partly in human beings.

She can't control how she is used "Hands that move her are invisible..."

She lasts for eternity. "Holding on for an Eternity... Gone...ending without finishing..." - truth endures.

Night is the opposite of "...a world of light...". It must fall now, meaning it precedes truth.