The hit song that David Byrne couldn’t stand listening to without getting irked
It’s probably pretty clear now, to anyone who happens to witness David Byrne for more than a few seconds, that the man very much lives in his own world.
The man possesses a kaleidoscopic mind which very much gets expressed through his own highly unique channels, whether that be in costume, stage design, or, indeed, his love of cycling. The notion of the absurd, the bizarre, or the unconventional has no meaning in Byrne’s world, but in a lot of ways, he is only more beloved for it.
All of this is to say that the former Talking Heads frontman seems like a pretty unflappable guy, never one to concern himself with life’s more menial issues or sweat the small stuff. It’s not like everything he encounters is bound to be like water off a duck’s back, but being in his own mind, where he and only he is king, nothing else matters.
So, Byrne can sail along through these later stages of his life and career quite contentedly, it seems – until he is reminded of one particular song which may have helped to skyrocket the start of his musical tenure, but was fraught with a heavy dose of frustration. Damn you, ‘Take Me to the River’.
Of course, it should be clear that this is said with a certain level of jest, because after all, this was one of the earliest breakout Talking Heads hits, setting them on a trajectory to become the beacons of New York City and far beyond, but given that it was a cover of Al Green, and the band were far from the only ones performing it, Byrne has always viewed it with some annoyance.
He explained this much when he previously appeared on the viral series Track Star, where he said: “The first song that really started getting radio play might have been ‘Take Me to the River’, which was on our second record, and it was an Al Green song. I mean, we were doing OK playing clubs up until then. In fact, we quit our day jobs, so we were doing alright. The year that that song came out, ‘Take Me to the River’, I think there were like three or four versions.”
This was clearly a source of irritation for Byrne, who had resisted recording the track in the first place because it wasn’t an original. But to make matters worse, “Bryan Ferry had a version and a band called Foghat had a version of the same song. It was great, but it was also frustrating that it wasn’t our song.”
In fairness to the frontman, this is perhaps painting him in too self-centred a light. “It wasn’t the money,” he insisted. “It was just like artistically, you’ve got to hear what we do. But we got a fair amount of airplay, so it was good.” Naturally, the Talking Heads were never copycats, so being in a situation where they needed to fight to the death to be heard over others was somewhat of a nightmare.
It all worked out well in the end, though, and it’s something Byrne must be grateful for deep down, even if he did separately describe the influx of covers as “More money for Mr Green’s full gospel tabernacle church, I suppose.” He must be at peace with it now – but if you play the song, and look very closely, you might just see his eye do the tiniest flicker of a twitch.
