“An emotional, pure id outburst”: David Byrne’s favourite punk song
As the big suit-wearing, lamp-swinging frontman of Talking Heads, David Byrne spent the 1980s securing his place as one of the most important names in new wave. He paired strange, sometimes nonsensical lyricism with groovy experimentalism and warm but wonky guitars, enlisting the help of Chris Frantz, Jerry Harrison and Tina Weymouth to do so. Together, they became one of the most referenced and revered bands in post-punk.
Though Talking Heads may have existed within that sphere of art school kids and angular guitars, they were never afraid to look outside of their world for sonic inspiration. Across the course of their career, they borrowed from Dadaism, played with polyrhythms, and incorporated almost every genre they stumbled upon, from funk to psych.
Expectedly, then, Byrne’s own listening habits are entirely unconstrained by genre. He’s heaped praise upon his peers and the art-rockers that succeeded him, embracing all the subjectivity and creativity that music allows for. His appearance on BBC’s Desert Island Discs only served as further proof of his wide-spanning taste, as his picks ranged from Woody Guthrie to Halsey.
In between picks from modern pop artists and Brazilian experimentalists, Byrne threw in an essential track that predated the punk movement, The Stooges’ ‘I Wanna Be Your Dog’. Released in 1969, just before Byrne himself ventured into the world of music, ‘I Wanna Be Your Dog’ preceded the full-blown punk movement by several years. Their sound seemed to hint at what was to come, at a new, raw form of rock.
The Talking Heads frontman deemed the song an “emotional, pure id outburst” that was also “very clever and consciously, creatively done” and had a sexual undertone. Harnessing punk energy before it had even been conceived of, the track certainly harnessed that pure emotion. Over muted sleigh bells and driving guitars, Iggy Pop makes simplistic declarations of desire.
“So messed up, I want you here,” he begins, “in my room, I want you here.” Each line only leans further into this animalistic desire, intensified each time he repeats the titular refrain. The straightforward lyrics seem to distil those urges right down, as they’re punctuated by proto-punk.
But Byrne’s assertion that ‘I Wanna Be Your Dog’ is a little smarter than it seems is well-founded. Iggy Pop’s words may be simplistic, but they’re intentionally written as such. Each word is perfectly chosen, placed and punctuated to drive home that sense of desire, that basic urge. If it’s an emotional outburst, it’s a carefully considered and intentioned one.
In the verses, too, the imagery seems to expand upon the dog metaphor and upon the sexual implications of the track. Lines like “I’ll lay right down in my favourite place” and “And now I’m ready to feel your hand” seem to serve both of these meanings at once. Though they may seem to flow out of Iggy Pop’s mouth with emotional abandon, each line is actually very cleverly written around the song’s central themes.
Though Byrne was born far too late for the proto-punk scene and even too late for the punk scene, he honed a wide-spanning appreciation for the music that preceded and succeeded his own. ‘I Wanna Be Your Dog’ is certainly a worthy pick for his favourite punk song, as well as for desert island accompaniment.
Revisit ‘I Wanna Be Your Dog’ by The Stooges below.
