The Talking Heads song about TV commercials
Following on from the punk movement of the 1960s, post-punk combined the preceding genre’s politicised, community drive with influences from wider art and culture. Sonically, the movement pushed guitar music into more quirky, artistic spheres. Bands borrowed from other genres like funk and krautrock to make jangly, danceable records rife with experimentation. The scene was full of art school kids preoccupied with culture, art, and politics, so these themes came through in the lyrics of the period, particularly in the work of post-punk pioneers Talking Heads.
Though much of their commentary was subtle, David Byrne’s eccentric vocals were often caught up with the state of the world around him. In ‘Making Flippy Floppy’, he exclaims: “Our President’s crazy! Did you hear what he said?” while ‘Houses in Motion’ comments on the American dream, following a man who can’t afford to stop digging his own grave.
In 1986, Byrne took his artistic endeavours and satirical writing from the airwaves to the screen. Inspired by tabloid culture, he wrote and directed the surreal feature film True Stories. Narrated by Byrne, who dons a cowboy hat, the film follows a fictional town in Texas and comments on small-town Americana. The film has been praised for its commentary on our current landscape as well as for its depiction of autism. Talking Heads released an album of the same name before the film’s debut, which soundtracked the project.
The opening track ‘Love for Sale’ is a guitar-powered commentary on television commercials. Byrne sings, “I was born in a house with the television always on, guess I grew up too fast and I forgot my name”, before launching into a commercial-style sales pitch for love. Byrne parodies the increasing commercialism of our culture, in which audiences are sold anything and everything. He urges, “C’mon and try it, I got love for sale”. Byrne also pokes fun at a number of real commercial slogans, including Coca-Cola’s, “It’s the real thing”.
The track was written for the film to accompany a scene featuring Swoosie Kurtz as Miss Rollings, a woman who spends the length of the film lying in bed. Her television screen shows the music video for the song, directed by Byrne and Melvin Sokolsky, a photographer who worked in commercials. The film splices ads for lipsticks and lawnmowers with clips of the band performing the track in monochrome outfits as Miss Rollings watches from beneath her blanket. The scene concludes with Byrne blowing a kiss at the camera.
Discussing the project, Byrne later told Rolling Stone: “The songs were really written for the characters, for the scenes they appeared in. That was the first time I’d written songs from a character’s point of view before, but it was an attempt to jump in and make it not just a character, but a scene and a moment that the character is going through.” With ‘Love for Sale’, the track reflects Miss Rollings’ undying love for television.
Reflecting on the commentary of True Stories, Byrne stated, “It’s funny how everything the movie talks about – the way the computer industry and landscapes of cities and towns are all changing – are still happening and have been going on since the movie was made. So it’s nice to see that it doesn’t seem that dated.”
In fact, the commentary on commercialism featured in ‘Love for Sale’ and True Stories (both the film and the album) seems more relevant than ever.
Watch the video for ‘Love for Sale’ below.
