I recently got an invite to Shantel’s open air concert here in Toronto, but it was too late and I couldn’t make it. And I remembered Talking Heads.

The Concert was part of the Luminato festival, which will soon (today) be over.

I knew I had written an article about Shantel, when mentioning Balanescu, so I went back to re-read it, listen to some selected video clips and clean up dead links. And thus I happily rediscovered David Byrne and his quick introduction to drugs and rock’n’roll.

Incidentally, so did James Verini, from the Culture Desk of The New Yorker.

In Jonathan Lethem’s new book, “Fear of Music,” a study of the Talking Heads album by the same name and a riff on his emotional history with the band, Lethem refers to an earlier essay of his on the subject: “At the peak, in 1980 or 81, my identification was so complete that I might have wished to wear the album Fear of Music in place of my head so as to be more clearly seen by those around me.” But no sooner has he quoted himself than Lethem applies the eraser of time, deciding “Like everything I’ve ever said about Talking Heads, or about any other thing I’ve loved with such dreadful longing—there’s only a few—this looks to me completely inadequate, even in the extremeness of its claims, or especially for the extremeness of its claims.”

Truth be told, I did not grow up with their music. They were a foreign band, in every sense of the word, and their themes – alienation, longing, boredom – were not my parents’ values (i.e., a young couple struggling to buy a washing machine and join the material culture these guys were so sick of and unhappy about). I’ve discovered their music much later, when only echoes of their presence at the top of Pop-funk pyramid could be heard, such as David’s appearance in an Oscar contender last year.

Home is where I want to be
Pick me up and turn me around
I feel numb, burn with a weak heart
Guess I must be having fun
The less we say about it the better
Make it up as we go along
Feet on the ground, head in the sky
It's okay, I know nothing's wrong, nothing
I got plenty of time
You got light in your eyes
And you're standing here beside me
I love the passing of time
Never for money, always for love
Cover up and say goodnight, say goodnight

Even though it’s about love as a break from loneliness in the big city (I guess it’s just a feeeeeliiing), this song is atypical for the band. The lyrics by themselves give it an positive zing, especially considering that the band “’sonifies longing and regret”. On Song Meanings, where even in the nicest song someone sees Jesus Christ, the consensus is best expressed by:

david byrne said this is the only love song he's written. in "stop making sense," he sings it to a lamp. the man is a genius (bamargero)

and

I think this song is about a bird. (thebosslemur)

And that is the whole point of making a song. You want the meaning to be as general and vague as possible. Let people find connections and make their own personal interpretations.

It’s interesting how my readers expect something completely different from my articles – they expect either “clarity” or they expect to be moved “emotionally.” Well, I don’t have nor do I try to have the power of music, I’m not famous nor do I want to be, but the closest I can get to Talking Heads is to be vague. Just like them, I don’t want to make sense – you make your own sense.

Through the power of serendipity, I’ve also discovered that someone posted Timpuri Noi original Perfect, billed as the first Romanian music clip. I tried so hard to get it. I talked to and dated people working for TVR, I even met the band at their concert in Toronto after “lobbying” for it and asked both Artan si Dan Iliescu for it – Artan promised he was going to send it to me, but I didn’t follow up; I didn’t want to be pushy and I felt a bit silly for being one of the many who keeps asking for stuff from people who have given so much already.

And now I got it

Seeing it again, after all this time, I couldn’t help wondering: isn’t the video concept similar to Colleen by The Heavy?

Serendipity, I know.

Sources / More info: ny-th, luminato, sm-this