Saturday, February 07, 2009

Share The Same Space For A Minute Or Two

I have a theory that you can listen to the music of Talking Heads and actually figure out how to live your life.

Exhibit A, "This Must Be the Place (Naïve Melody)":



Exhibit B, "Life During Wartime":



Exhibit C, "Road To Nowhere":

3 comments:

Howard said...

Tim, do you have an opinion about the best available version of Life During Wartime? I'm not sure I've ever seen this YouTube version in mp3 or on a CD; the live version I own isn't as good as the studio take.

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Tim said...

Hi, Howard!

This is from Stop Making Sense, and this take is on that CD -- I recommend the re-released Special Edition, where the sound and mix are better -- although none of the CD versions seem to capture the background vocals and low end as well as even this tinny YouTube video of the movie.

I like this version because it's just a little more dynamic than the one on Fear of Music. Also, the band included this live version of this song and "Girlfriend Is Better" on the best-of comp Sand In the Vaseline, which suggests that they consider this to be the definitive version of the song.

The Name Of This Band Is Talking Heads is, I think, generally a bit better than Stop Making Sense, but not on this track, at all. I'm assuming that's the other live version you're talking about.

Howard said...

Thanks.

I knew I had Sand In the Vasaline somewhere, and after your note I dug around and found the CDs. Reminds me how much harder it was to keep track of music in the pre-mp3 age.

My old CDs are cataloged the way they resided in an old Sony 400-disc changer, with the list later alphabetized independently of location. Talking Heads falls between Sibelus Symphony No. 2 and Art Tatum.

O.S. I don't seem to have an email address for you, if you don't mind.

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