80s Music Experts Needed
December 10, 2014 4:05 AM   Subscribe

Is "This Must Be The Place" by the Talking Heads a happy song or a sad song?

Very important. Internet must settle life or death battle between SOs. Thank you :)
posted by meta x zen to Media & Arts (2 answers total)

This post was deleted for the following reason: This is not really answerable as phrased, in any sort of objective or definitive way at least, and it will likely just lead to the same debate being continued here, sorry. -- goodnewsfortheinsane

 
From the wiki, David Burns says of "This Must be the Place":

"That's a love song made up almost completely of non sequiturs, phrases that may have a strong emotional resonance but don't have any narrative qualities. It's a real honest kind of love song. I don't think I've ever done a real love song before. Mine always had a sort of reservation, or a twist. I tried to write one that wasn't corny, that didn't sound stupid or lame the way many do. I think I succeeded; I was pretty happy with that."


My impression has always been that its about the fear you feel falling in love - its happy because you're falling in love but you also know in your gut that you'll be hurt if anything goes wrong.
posted by stinkfoot at 4:17 AM on December 10, 2014


According to wikipedia:

In the "Self Interview" on the DVD of the concert film Stop Making Sense, Byrne states that it is a love song, a topic he tends to avoid because it is "kinda big." He also said of the song:

"That's a love song made up almost completely of non sequiturs, phrases that may have a strong emotional resonance but don't have any narrative qualities. It's a real honest kind of love song. I don't think I've ever done a real love song before. Mine always had a sort of reservation, or a twist. I tried to write one that wasn't corny, that didn't sound stupid or lame the way many do. I think I succeeded; I was pretty happy with that."


Though I don't know if that settles the debate wether the song is happy or sad.
posted by leopard-skin pill-box hat at 4:18 AM on December 10, 2014


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