I'm Not In Love

This had once been an extremely important idea for Byrne: his belief that "love" was an imaginary concept with little actual meaning. The song was performed in the band's earliest days, when they were still called alternately The Artistics or The Autistics.

The record label--worried by Byrne's somewhat-freakish persona--deliberately chose a producer for their first LP who'd tone down the weirdness. Byrne was sufficiently attached to this song--and "Warning Sign" which, although quite different, shares the suspicious attitude toward emotional attachment--to hang on to them until their second LP, More Songs About Buildings and Food. By then TH had a more-sympathetic producer in Brian Eno, and enough critical acclaim (and successful performances) that their label allowed David's more-twitchy songs to be recorded and released.

Three albums later (Speaking in Tongues), it's obvious from "Naive Melody (This Must Be the Place)" and "Girlfriend Is Better" that David--surprise, wonder of wonders--had fallen in love, and was beginning to discard some of his more-eccentric ideas and concepts. Still weird though. What's the first thing anyone says about the film Stop Making Sense? The word "geek", or something about David's awkward stage presence and gestures (and the "big suit" of course). I do like his repetitive-measuring-along-one's-arm gesture; it looks good. Actually I'll admit...in my college days I listened to the More Songs LP entirely too often; I was on the verge of adopting the anti-love stance and other "conceptual art"-ish notions, myself. Until a pair of more-warmly-human-minded friends (a boy-girl couple) helped show me how self-defeating it could be.

maybe a girl loves him but he doesnt love back, but that doesnt mean they cant be together. or maybe they dont love eachother at all. still.

I wasn't paying attention to the lyrics when I first heard it (maybe because the lyrics were pretty hard for me to hear in the first place). I thought "I'm not in love" really meant that he WAS in love, but he was denying it (maybe because he thought it embarrassing to be in love? It made sense at the time). Now, reading it, I think it has a different meaning. I think it's more about how you might find yourself liking a person, but you're not sure if you're really in love with them. It might seem kind of weird to some people who have never experienced a love relationship before, but given the right experiences, a person could understand that idea quite easily. David Byrne seems to write a lot about complicated and slightly odd experiences in human relationships and humanity in general.

Incidentally, when I first heard More Songs About Buildings And Food (the first Talking Heads album I ever listened to), I didn't particularly care for any of the songs save this one. Now Talking Heads are one of my favorite bands.

i'll explain these lyrics with substitute ones

"i'm quite self aware. really quite self aware. so i can't pretend i know what love is. i can't convince myself i love"

"I believe some day we'll live in a world without love" is a particularly strange assertion. After a casual listen, it's unlikely anyone would notice how this represents David's belief that a "world without love" would be desirable...his longed-for future in which his odd "opinions" are "respected".

It might not match the lyric sheet, but it's what he sings. There'd been many such discrepancies. Presumably David submitted lyrics for songs when they were still works-in-progress, and--when it came time to record--didn't sing the same thing.

Just today--in a different place on the Internet--I encountered someone having used the printed lyrics for "Air" as an example. He was irritated by lyric sheets not always reflecting what's sung on the recording.

This song for me has always made me think a lot. About love and our society and what it means to be human. I can never decide though if he is talking about love in a general sense or specifically boy and girl love i.e. relationships, marriage, etc. I find the latter of these two interpretations more comforting. A world without couples and marriage and relationships seems to me to be a transcendence of the human race beyond our natural tendencies. Most animals sole purpose is indeed only to make more animals. On the other hand the alternative interpretation, a world devoid of any love (familial fraternal or otherwise) seems to me a bleak concept. I can't see a world without this kind of love ever existing. Sure it would be egalitarian and everyone would be equal in each others' eyes but I think that devalues the individual. Consequently I've always seen it, for me, as an attack on the institute of monogamy, gender roles, and the culture of romance rather than an outright rejection of passion for another human being.

Also, I think I read in an interview Tina said, in reference to the band splitting, that david was "incapable of love" so idk take that for what its worth. i wish i could go talk to david byrne.

I read in a Creem [I think] issue from 1979 that Byrne said this song was about his relationship between himself and his father. It sounded strange when I read that [as Byrne is strange in himself], but because he wouldn't/refused to elaborate on the subject, it just left it open to a far wider interpretation. As it comes from a fantastic/brilliant album I really don't mind at all what/who it's about.

• Born Under Punches

A person with some degree of Asperger’s Syndrome would understand this song’s lyrics perfectly well. I personally like the sentiments it expresses, they are a welcome contrast to the thousands of sickly sweet love songs that get churned out every year. The genius of David Byrne to say something different.