This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)

"This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)"
Single by Talking Heads
from the album Speaking in Tongues
B-side "Moon Rocks"
Released November 1983[1]
Format 7"
Recorded 1982
Genre New wave
Length 4:56
Label Sire
Writer(s)
Producer(s) Talking Heads
Talking Heads singles chronology
"Burning Down the House"
(1983)		 "This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)"
(1983)		 "Slippery People"
(Live)
(1984)

"This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)" is a song by new wave band Talking Heads, released in November 1983 as the second single from their fifth album Speaking in Tongues. The lyrics were written by David Byrne, and the music was written by Byrne and the other members of the band, Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth and Jerry Harrison.

Composition

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:[3]

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.

According to the Stop Making Sense commentary track, the title "Naive Melody" refers to the music. On the track, the guitar part and the bass part are doing the same thing throughout the whole song. According to David Byrne, many professional musicians would not play a song written in that fashion, and that is what makes the melody naive. Byrne played the lead keyboard solo.

"We jammed to create this song," clarifies bassist Tina Weymouth in the liner notes of Once in a Lifetime: The Best of Talking Heads. "I played guitar (I don't really know how to play anything, so it was all the same to me, whatever instrument I played); Chris (Frantz, drummer) played drums (no jam really got off the ground if anyone else tried to play them); Jerry played a Prophet keyboard, including the left-hand bass line; Wally Badarou used the same keyboard to add the stabs; and David kept going between guitar and another Prophet keyboard, where he went wild with the pitch modulation wheel and campy piano glissandos. It was great and it was truly naive."

Stop Making Sense

The song is featured in Stop Making Sense (1984), a concert film featuring Talking Heads and directed by Jonathan Demme. Throughout the Stop Making Sense version, Byrne and his bandmates perform by a standard lamp, while close-up images of various body parts are projected onto a screen behind them. As revealed on the commentary to the film, the body parts belong to Byrne and his girlfriend (later wife) Adelle Lutz who was also known as Bonnie. When the song reaches a bridge, the musicians step back and Byrne dances with the lamp, a reference to Fred Astaire's similar dance with a coat-rack in the film Royal Wedding. During the song, Weymouth is seen playing a rare Fender Swinger electric guitar, instead of her usual bass.

The Stop Making Sense version was released as single in 1986, peaking at #100 on the UK Singles Chart.[4]

Music video

The music video depicts the band members and their session musicians watching light-hearted home movies, before going down into the basement and playing their instruments.

In other media

The name of the song serves as the title of a 2011 drama film starring Sean Penn as an aging rock star. In one scene, the main character attends a concert in which David Byrne performs the song. During the performance, a staged setting of a sixties-style living-room behind the band is gradually suspended perpendicular to the floor and crosses the concert hall towards the camera. The musicians all bow at the same time not to be hit by the stage with a very theatrical effect.

The song was featured in the 2007 film Lars and the Real Girl during a party scene.

It was also featured in the Oliver Stone 1987 film Wall Street, starring Michael Douglas and Charlie Sheen, as well as the 2010 sequel, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.

In 2011 the song briefly appears in the Steve Carell romantic-comedy Crazy, Stupid, Love.

The song is briefly played in the 2009 romantic-comedy He's Just Not That into You.

The song briefly appears on a radio in the Once Upon a Time episode "Welcome to Storybrooke".

Part of the song was played in the final moments of the Season 6 premiere of the Northern Exposure episode "Dinner at Seven-Thirty" in September 1994.

Covers

The song was covered live by the Montreal-based band Arcade Fire, and is featured as the B-side to their single "Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)". Their version features David Byrne on guest vocals. The song is featured on the album Sing into Your Mouth by Band of Horses and Iron & Wine, which is named after a lyric from this song.

The song is sampled in the song Mama by the Spice Girls. The song has also been covered by Kishi Bashi,[5] In Wilderness, Keller Williams, The Lumineers, Hotel X, Shawn Colvin, Perpetual Groove, MGMT, Mysteries of Life, Animal Liberation Orchestra, The String Cheese Incident, Gunnar Madsen, Counting Crows, Ryan Montbleau Band, Miles Fisher, Tim Bowness, Samuel Smiles, Weatherbox, Youthless, Walk the Moon, Kyp Malone, Cornmeal, Euforquestra, Logger and the Fatties, Alex Mills, Alex Patten, Hidden Ballroom,[6] and the Swedish band, Gloria.[7]

Charts

Original version
Chart (1983) Peak
position
UK Singles Chart[4] 51
US Billboard Hot 100[8] 62
Live version
Chart (1986) Peak
position
UK Singles Chart[4] 100

References

  1. ↑ http://www.45cat.com/record/729451
  2. ↑ ASCAP entry for song
  3. ↑ Talking Heads The Band & Their Music, page 113, David Gans ISBN 0-7119-0980-6
  4. 1 2 3 "Chart Stats - Talking Heads". Chart Stats. Archived from the original on 24 July 2012. Retrieved 13 August 2011.
  5. ↑ "Kishi Bashi This Must Be The Place Cover - KBV Records, NY". youtube.com. 2013-05-13. Retrieved 2014-12-24.
  6. ↑ "SPIKE// • "This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody)"". Loscheiner.tumblr.com. 2010-12-16. Retrieved 2012-04-12.
  7. ↑ Link
  8. ↑ "Talking Heads > Charts & Awards > Billboard Singles". Allmusic. Retrieved 13 August 2011.

Further reading

External links

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