Track 3: "This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)" by Talking Heads

Out of all those kinds of people
You've got a face with a view
I'm just an animal looking for a home
and share the same space for a minute or two

I have no qualms in admitting I'm a sucker for a good love song, and this Talking Heads tune ranks up there as one of the best. Except it's so cool and lacks all the sentimental claptrap of most other love songs.

This band made being geeky cool (seriously, is there a bigger and more endearing weirdo than David Byrne? I've seen the guy perform in a pink tutu and a skin-tight leotard that looked like a human body with all the skin removed). All of their songs have such awesome grooves, melodies, and lyrics and you can never go wrong with a Talking Heads tune in any bar juke box situation.

It's some sort of unwritten rule that any jam band must have at least one Talking Heads song in their repertoires and I say with no doubts that they are always well received by whichever audience.

A major highlight of my writing career was a chance to do a telephone interview with David Byrne before he did a show in Charleston in 2004. Unfortunately it didn't happen as our schedules never seemed to match up...BUT I did get a voice mail message from him that went something like this:

"Hey Mark, this is David Byrne calling. I'm in Miami. I guess I'll try you again later."

So it never happened, but how many voice mails have YOU gotten from David Byrne? In your face!

The show on October 29, 2004 at the Charleston Music Hall ranks as one of my all time favorite concerts which is saying quite a lot. It's an intimate 900-seat venue and the sound in the place is top-notch. The show was a lot of Byrne's solo stuff but really heavy on Talking Heads tunes--he even had a string section that replicated all the keyboard parts of the songs.

here's a link to the bio piece I did on David Byrne: http://archives.postandcourier.com/archive/arch04/1004/arc10281995976.shtml

and a review of the show I did as well: http://archives.postandcourier.com/archive/arch04/1104/arc11042007162.shtml

Byrne even made some comments in his own blog after the show about how blown away he was by the Chucktown crowd!

This version of "This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)" is from the live concert DVD "Stop Making Sense" which is supremely bad ass. But the song itself is my all time favorite Talking Heads tunes and one of my favorites in general. I think you'll agree.

And if you're not in the place to say it already, I think deep down we all want to look at our respective mates one day and say "I can't tell one from another, did I find you or you find me?"


*in case there wasn't already enough shameless self-promotion in this blog post, I've also interviewed Bernie Worrell--he's the black keyboard player in the video. Super cool cat!