David Byrne explains how lyrics can ruin good music
David Byrne has mastered nearly every creative pursuit that he has set his mind to. From writing to filmmaking to performing, Byrne’s unrelenting eclecticism and curiosity has birthed some of the most wonderful art of our time. He has a penchant for both sound and words, marrying the two with ease.
As the frontman of new wave pioneers Talking Heads, in particular, Byrne demonstrated his capabilities as the primary lyricist. From the nonsense lyrics on Speaking In Tongues to the comforting words of ‘Road to Nowhere’, Byrne’s lyrics combined the niche and the universal. Though they’re just as weird as the music they accompany and the frontman who delivers them, Talking Heads’ lyrics are often vague. This leaves room for the listener to ascribe their own meaning.
Accordingly, many of Byrne’s lyrics have taken on their own life beyond Talking Heads’ studio releases. The words “This must be the place” and “Same as it ever was” have been plastered onto walls as posters and LED lights for years now. Nonetheless, even Byrne has made mistakes when writing lyrics.
The frontman spoke about the danger of bad lyrics in his music memoir, How Music Works, explaining: “At times words can be a dangerous addition to music – they can pin it down.” Byrne finds that this is due to their constricting nature. He said: “Words imply that the music is about what the words say, literally, and nothing more. If done poorly, they can destroy the pleasant ambiguity that constitutes much of the reason we love music.”
Holding onto this ambiguity has allowed Byrne to create some of his most successful lyrics – there are few lines in music as open to interpretation as, “And you may ask yourself, ‘Well, how did I get here?’” Byrne continued to explain: “That ambiguity allows listeners to psychologically tailor a song to suit their needs, sensibilities, and situations, but words can limit that, too.”
Words can be damaging even to the most beautiful song, Byrne suggests, if they’re poorly written: “There are plenty of beautiful tracks that I can’t listen to because they’ve been ‘ruined’ by bad words – my own and others.” He picks out Beyoncé’s ‘Irreplaceable’ as an example, complaining, “she rhymes ‘minute’ with ‘minute,’ and I cringe every time I hear it (partly because by that point I’m singing along).”
Byrne isn’t afraid to acknowledge the faults in his own lyricism either, picking out ‘Astronaut’ from his 2004 album Grown Backwards to critique. He recalls: “On my own song ‘Astronaut,’ I wrap up with the line ‘feel like I’m an astronaut,’ which seems like the dumbest metaphor for alienation ever. Ugh.”
For an artist as prolific as Byrne, or Beyoncé for that matter, it’s understandable that sometimes “bad” lyrics might slip through the cracks. Still, despite his self-proclaimed blip on ‘Astronaut’, Byrne seems to have mastered the art of ambiguity.
