Talking Heads — Love → Building on Fire

from Love → Building on Fire 7” b/w ‘New Feeling’ (1977)

Hadn’t heard this before—the first single by Byrne & Co., released in Feb 1977, seven months before their debut LP, Talking Heads: 77. (This track didn’t appear on the LP until the 2005 reissue, whereas the b-side ‘New Feeling’ did get a spot on the original release.)

Characteristically strange and lovely Byrne lyrics. Again, the obsession with buildings!

newspeedwayboogie:

Been listening to this on repeat lately.  Infectious.

It’s not love, which is my face, which is a building, which is on fire.

Greatest weird song ever.  Or weirdest great song ever.  

via fuckyeahnewyorkpunk

Jorge Ben — O Homem da Gravata Florida

from A Tábua de Esmeralda (1974)

This is starting to turn into Jorge Ben appreciation week, but that’s ok. He’s always been one of my favorite musicians. But not until yesterday was he also one of my favorite lyricists. I was compelled to translate every song on A Tábua de Esmeralda — thanks to Google Translate, not my Portuguese skills. And what I found were GEMS! Great gems of lyrics. Like this one, O Homem da Gravata Florida, The Man with the Floral Tie.

I’d always loved Jorge Ben’s music, and particularly this album, but it’s incredible I was missing all this. The Portuguese and the English, side by side, in the image below.