David Byrne created a lot of the lyrics for the songs on Speaking in Tongues by writing down commonly-spoken phrases on little slips of paper then rearranging them randomly. As a starting point, anyway.
Some of the songs--"I Get Wild/Wild Gravity", "Moon Rocks", "Girlfriend Is Better", and "Naive Melody (This Must Be the Place)" seem clear enough...the latter two being something of a stunning 360 from the man who once wrote, "I believe someday we'll live in a world without love" and meant it hopefully ("I'm Not In Love", from More Songs...) I wonder how much of Byrne's weirdness was heartfelt, and how much was driven by having learned in art school it's more important to be original than to have something to say.
This one seems just random. I like it though.
Longer versions were created of about half of the songs on Speaking In Tongues. Originally the long versions appeared only on limited 12-inch singles, and the songs were cut so that the LP wouldn't drag on too long...or maybe because 33 1/3 vinyl longer than about 40 minutes starts to sound bad (not enough room for the grooves).
But the box set--the one with all the studio recordings--substitutes the long versions. Not as extra tracks...the short ones are gone! So if you fondly remember the original versions, don't get rid of your old CD of Speaking In Tongues if you should happen to buy the box set. "Making Flippy Floppy" is the only one I think is better (maybe) in its longer version.
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...
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.
David Byrne created a lot of the lyrics for the songs on Speaking in Tongues by writing down commonly-spoken phrases on little slips of paper then rearranging them randomly. As a starting point, anyway.
Some of the songs--"I Get Wild/Wild Gravity", "Moon Rocks", "Girlfriend Is Better", and "Naive Melody (This Must Be the Place)" seem clear enough...the latter two being something of a stunning 360 from the man who once wrote, "I believe someday we'll live in a world without love" and meant it hopefully ("I'm Not In Love", from More Songs...) I wonder how much of Byrne's weirdness was heartfelt, and how much was driven by having learned in art school it's more important to be original than to have something to say.
This one seems just random. I like it though.
Longer versions were created of about half of the songs on Speaking In Tongues. Originally the long versions appeared only on limited 12-inch singles, and the songs were cut so that the LP wouldn't drag on too long...or maybe because 33 1/3 vinyl longer than about 40 minutes starts to sound bad (not enough room for the grooves).
But the box set--the one with all the studio recordings--substitutes the long versions. Not as extra tracks...the short ones are gone! So if you fondly remember the original versions, don't get rid of your old CD of Speaking In Tongues if you should happen to buy the box set. "Making Flippy Floppy" is the only one I think is better (maybe) in its longer version.
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...
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.