The 10 worst Talking Heads songs
One of the most acclaimed bands of the 1980s, Talking Heads boasts an extensive and varied discography. Ranging from beloved hits like ‘Psycho Killer’ and ‘This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody)’ to more experimental sounds in their later albums, in the years before their hiatus in 1991, the band played around with almost every genre and style available to them.
Becoming known as one of the most influential bands of our time, the unique lyricism of David Byrne and the inspiring bass of Tina Weymouth have no doubt birthed so many modern bands we’re coming to know and love. But amidst all that experimentation, there are naturally some duds. Not every Talking Heads song is made equal.
The recent re-release of their 1984 concert film Stop Making Sense has undeniably revived the cultural conversation about the band. Performing a selection of their greatest hits from the band’s early releases, tracks like ‘Burning Down The House’ and ‘Life During Wartime’ enjoy the resurrection they deserve. With the movie featuring David Byrne’s infamous big suit and some of his finest dance moves, Talking Heads are finding new fans in a new generation, 40 years from the original tour.
But while much of their work was groundbreaking, pioneering an utterly genreless sound with threads of rock, punk, dance and country woven into one, sometimes that tireless experimentation becomes too much. Occasionally straying over the line into exhaustive, sometimes their instrumental adventures were pushed too far, resulting in some genuinely terrible tracks.
Here are ten of the worst Talking Heads songs that should maybe stay forgotten…
The 10 worst Talking Heads songs:
10. ‘Psycho Killer’ (Stop Making Sense Live Version)
There is no denying that ‘Psycho Killer’ is one of, if not the most iconic and incredible Talking Heads songs. Full of big builds, boisterous climaxes and a lyrical storyline that makes you shiver, the 1977 track saw them boom to notoriety. For all these reasons, the track has remained on repeat ever since, acting like most people’s gateway into the band.
But in their 1984 concert film, Stop Making Sense, the deconstructed version is lifeless in comparison. Opening up the stage show, David Byrne steps onto the stage solo and delivers the infamous one-liner; “Hi, I’ve got a tape I’d like to play”.
The stripped-back acoustic rendition features nothing but a drum machine, Byrne and an acoustic guitar. Sure, there’s a funny little breakdown at the end as he stumbles around the stage, but no level of cheap laughs can replace the full-band might of the original track.
Why did they choose to open with this track before the rest of the band joined Byrne on stage, who knows? But the decision to give ‘Psycho Killer’ out of all their tracks the limp paired-back treatment is baffling.
9. ‘The Big Country’
Another of their most well-known tracks, ‘The Big Country’ doesn’t deliver on the hype it carries. With a rolling acoustic guitar foundation that doesn’t really go anywhere and featuring one of David Byrne’s most drawling vocal performances, ‘The Big Country’ is the most skippable of all their hits.
Tina Weymouth herself would agree. In conversation with Far Out, Weymouth talked about her love for all Talking Heads music, apart from this one song. She said: “The only one that I really don’t like is ‘The Big Country’”.
Weymouth continues: “I deliberately wanted to create something really dumb.” Contrasting David Byrne’s dark lyricism with a pastiche country backing, it’s the contrast that falls flat for Weymouth: “Sometimes we would make it very happy if it was a very sad thing, you know, and mostly, people took it as being ironic, but in ‘The Big Country,’ I thought, ‘Oh my gosh!’ So you had to pick one’s battles. We couldn’t say ‘Noo!’ to things that might turn out well, so who was I to say no to ‘The Big Country’?”
8. ‘Swamp’
A painfully 1980s track from their 1983 album Speaking In Tongue, ‘Swamp’ all the musical mainstays of the decade in a now cringingly aged way. From the heavy effects on the rock guitar to the intense synth licks, ‘Swamp’ marches itself down the road to nowhere as the repeated refrain of “hi, hi, hi” never really goes anywhere.
With rich storytelling lyrics, ‘Swamp’ also feels a bit on the nose in comparison to David Byrne’s other works. Telling of a devilish evil, ‘Swamp’ is ‘Psycho Killer’’s boring successor.
7. ‘Love For Sale’
From the 1986 album True Stories, ‘Love For Sale’ feels more like a Jerry Harrison song than a David Byrne number, despite being written for Byrne’s musical comedy film. As the guitar player really came into his own, ‘Love For Sale’ is heavy with guitar licks and little much else of substance. Settled into their late period as a band, just before they broke up, their style seemed to get rockier, less experimental and more boring – despite being their most commercially successful era.
True Stories stands up as a great movie soundtrack, but as a stand-alone album, none of its tracks can live up to their earlier work or the hits we’ve come to love.
6. ‘Road To Nowhere’
From the choral intro to the synth organ, ‘Road To Nowhere’ is annoying. Sure, it might be one of their biggest hits, but after a few listens, the marching beat starts to become grating.
Another of the band’s attempts to merge dark lyrics with a danceable instrumental, David Byrne described ‘Road To Nowhere’ as “a resigned, even joyful look at doom”. It seems even Byrne wasn’t really sure about this song, admitting to its most notable moment being an afterthought: “The front bit, the white gospel choir, is kind of tacked on, ’cause I didn’t think the rest of the song was enough… I mean, it was only two chords. So, out of embarrassment, or shame, I wrote an intro section that had a couple more in it.” Half hymn and half hootenanny, this strange rock-country hybrid is a song only Talking Heads could come up with, but it’s nowhere near their finest hour.
5. ‘Cool Water’
Imagine if David Byrne wrote a Radiohead song – or if Thom Yorke briefly took over Talking Heads – that’s what ‘Cool Water’ sounds like. If you’re a fan of both of those artists, this track might stand out as a favourite, but for regular Talking Heads fans who love the band for their upbeat, kooky choices, ‘Cool Waters’ is a drab addition. Sitting on their last album, Naked, where they seemed to lean into longer tracks that break the five-minute mark, ‘Cool Water’ drags on beyond the point of interest.
Giving no one in the band their time to shine, the vibrant group feel held back on this slow, dark ballad. Always at their best when they’re merging rock and punk with flavours of reggae and beyond; this more lo-fi sound doesn’t do them justice.
4. ‘Popsicle’
Another Talking Heads track that seems to have aged badly, ‘Popsicle’ is once again painfully ’80s in all the wrong ways. Originally recorded as part of the Speaking In Tongues sessions, the track didn’t make the cut of the final album. Finally being released in 1992 as part of their Popular Favourites 1976-1992 / Sand In The Vaseline compilation of demos and re-releases, it’s forgettable at best.
Lyrically, David Byrne’s overly sexual metaphors feel a bit too on the nose, straying too deep into cliche and dangerously close to cringe.
3. ‘Gangster Of Lover’
Similar to ‘Popsicle’, ‘Gangster of Love’ was not only cut from Remain In Light but also Naked, begging the question of why it was released at all if the band repeatedly deemed it not good enough to make it to the tracklist.
Lacking the signature sharpness of David Byrne’s pen, ‘Gangster of Love’ once again takes a metaphor and runs it into the ground. The only positives to the track are that Tina Weymouth’s bass really shines through, and David Byrne’s vocals sound great, but not much else positive can be said about this forgotten cut.
2. ‘Totally Nude’
Talking Heads go tikki on this Naked album cut. Bringing the whole band together for a tropical tune, the island vibes are fun but almost too silly to be good.
It would seem that Talking Heads really loved a bongo solo, with Steve Scales previously playing a major role in Stop Making Sense. On ‘Totally Nude’, one strength comes from outside of the band in the form of Abdou M’Boup, who underpins the whole track with a funky conga drum line. That will get you grooving, but after one play, you’ll be sick of the silliness.
1. ‘Facts Of Life’
The worst Talking Heads song, ‘Facts Of Life’ is a headache.
Overall, their 1988 final album, Naked, is far from their finest work, lacking any of the hits or intrigue of their prior releases. But ‘Facts Of Life’ stands out as the worst of a weak bunch thanks to its relentless instrumental and nasally vocal performance. Straying into an almost industrial rock territory, ‘Facts Of Life’ swaps out their usual upbeat band backing for mechanical, clanging chaos to an unpleasant effect.
At one point, David Byrne puts on an irritating Mickey Mouse voice, the guitars wade back into strange tropical tikki waters and the pounding, relentless drums keep pushing you closer to that skip button. From start to end, ‘Facts Of Life’ is undeniably the Talking Heads’ worst song.
