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.
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.