In 1980, Talking Heads were at a crossroad. After releasing 1979's dystopian epic, Fear of Music, the band was ready for a new direction. Looped, African rhythms, and stream-of-consciousness lyrics would be that new direction. Talking Heads experimented with African styles on Fear of Music, in songs like "I Zimbra," but that influence became fully realized on 1980's Remain in Light. Lyrically, Remain in Light is fractured and dense. It's often hard to tell what David Byrne, the chief songwriter and lyricist, is saying. In many songs, his lyrics come off as free word association. With that in mind, I didn't know what to expect when I first approached this album. After analyzing Remain in Light, I found three major themes: Time, Motion, and Identity. Below, you'll find the tracklist, a download file for the audio version of this blog, and my analysis.
Tracklist: Time: 8/8 songs (Born Under Punches, Crosseyed and Painless, The Great Curve, Once in a Lifetime, Houses in Motion, Seen and Not Seen, Listening Wind, The Overload)
Motion: 8/8 songs (Born Under Punches, Crosseyed and Painless, The Great Curve, Once in a Lifetime, Houses in Motion, Seen and Not Seen, Listening Wind, The Overload)
Identity: 7/8 songs (Born Under Punches, Crosseyed and Painless, The Great Curve, Houses in Motion, Seen and Not Seen, Listening Wind, The Overload)
Least Thematic Song: "Once in a Lifetime" is the only song that doesn't contain all three themes. It's one of my favorite music videos though: Final Thoughts: Remain in Light surprised me. I'd listened to the album before, but I rarely knew what David Byrne was saying. Despite the freewheeling nature in which the lyrics were composed, they don't hide anything. Once examined, the themes become shockingly apparent. It tells the story of people attempting to change their realities. In "Seen and Not Seen," the character sees an ideal life in magazines, TV, and books. He sees the faces of people he'd like to be. The character desperately desires that artificial reality, so he tries to mold his face according to it. The character only gets halfway there, before desiring a new reality. This leaves his face in some grotesque limbo, neither original nor desired. He wonders if others have made the same mistake.
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