I borrowed a live concert DVD of one of my favorite ’80s pop-rock groups Talking Heads. I remember buying the cassette tape of their 1983 album Speaking in Tongues from Glo-Ri Supermarket in Metro Manila back when I was in grade school. I didn’t “get” them right away. But I enjoyed their music anyway, without knowing exactly why.
So much so that in high school, my garage band played this tune live. I was on drums … and vocals. Which is a real scary idea in and of itself. While other cool bands were doing cover versions of New Order or The Police, we were sophomores doing the live version of “Burning Down the House” that appears in the Stop Making Sense movie and album.
Nowadays, their theatrical sense of the absurd mixed with tinges of world music make more sense the more the world STOPS making sense.
The concert DVD inspired me to come up with a cover version of their 1985 hit song, which, if I recall correctly hit #99 in the year-end American Top 100 countdown, hosted by Casey Kasem.
This cover version is made with software and big bellowing beautiful electropop beats. No vocals. No nonsense.
Enjoy!