Day 288: Talking Heads – More Songs About Buildings and Food

I recently watched Stop Making Sense, so I’m in the market for listening to Talking Heads more right now. Boy are they a band, I don’t know why I stopped listening to them for so long. Today I thought I’d go for an album I’ve listened to less, so I went with their 1978 album More Songs About Buildings and Food.

Album cover courtesy of Sire

I wrote about Remain in Light very early on during the project on day 57, so please go back to that one for a bigger introduction to the band. More Songs About Buildings and Food was the group’s second studio album, and the first one that was produced by Brian Eno. Eno had seen them live in London when they were touring with the Ramones, and he introduced David Byrne to Fela Kuti’s music and agreed to work together.

The group’s bassist Tina Weymouth said that when it comes to the name of the resulting album, they kept it simple:

When we were making this album I remembered this stupid discussion we had about titles for the last album," Tina smirked. "At that time I said, ‘What are we gonna call an album that's just about buildings and food?' And Chris said, ‘You call it more songs about buildings and food.'

For such a mundane name, it’s a very colourful album. It’s incorporating more of the danceable elements into their music, and while the afrobeat influence is still a while away for Talking Heads, you can hear Brian Eno’s influence all over it. It’s honestly nothing short of a phenomenal album, and no one is still doing it like them. It’s innovative but still danceable, or artsy but somehow still very approachable. And it’s obviously a little bit pleasantly off-kilter. I’m giving it a 9/10.

As a bonus, here’s my favourite David Byrne story, as told by Brian Eno:

“He’s a genuine eccentric,” Eno said of Byrne. “He’s always been exactly like that, and I’ve seen him remain like that in quite extreme situations.”

Eno continued: “For instance, we were mugged together once in New York. It was quite frightening; we were mugged by 14 people. My enduring memory is of David being dragged off into the bushes, saying, ‘Uh-oh!’ That’s absolutely true; it was like a cartoon scene.”