I fail Talking Heads

I was taking the train to Trader Joe's the other day (what do you expect from a white middle class guy (also, apparently, for those of you that live outside Chicago: people here do not call the train here the El...it goes underground, you know)), and put on some music for the ride. I chose Talking Heads' Speaking in Tongues, because it is just an amazing record. I mean, so many good songs. It starts with "Burning Down the House," and doesn't go downhill from there. That's a good album.

Anyhow, I put on the album in my headphones, and start listening. I arrive at my stop with the album mostly over, and that's okay. But as I get off the train, walk up the multiple flights of stairs, through the turnstiles, into the open air, and start walking...I realize, all of a sudden, the album's over.

That the album ended is fine. These things happen. That I was met with silence in my ears is fine. These things happen. But that "This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)" came and went with only a single mental notice is not fine. This should not happen. "Naive Melody" is a beautiful song - in fact, it's more than that. I wouldn't call it an anthem or anything, but it's "Naive Melody," for Christ's sake. It's a song that makes you take notice, makes you think to yourself, "This is what a perfect song should be." And, last week, I became inured to it. It didn't even register to me. And I hadn't even listened to the record for months.

A few years back, I decided I needed to give The Beatles a rest. Not because I listen to them all the time - I think they're absolutely brilliant, but I never was a Beatles defender, so to speak - but because we hear them so much, we tend to forget how innovative and wonderful their music is. So I intentionally stopped listening to The Beatles. For about a year. And then dusted off my copies of Revolver, Sgt. Pepper, and Rubber Soul, my three favorite albums of theirs. And, goddamn, were they more amazing than ever. Anyone younger than about 55, myself absolutely included, can't really understand the impact The Beatles had when they made music. And the way they literally transformed music, and held the hands (no pun intended or wanted) of listeners as they went from catchy songs about innocent love to extremely well orchestrated songs and studio manipulation to get a feeling across, as opposed to just releasing a song, made music what it is today.

Talking Heads did that in the 1980s, the same way Radiohead did that towards the end of the 1990s, and continue to do so today. And though I certainly wasn't around when Talking Heads released Speaking in Tongues, I've always listened intently, knowing I was listening to something special. It's an album you can listen to alone with the lights out and your eyes closed, and be completely satisfied. And "Naive Melody" is the perfect capstone to that record. And, last week, it went past my ears - with headphones on, no less - with only a single passing thought, which was "I should turn this song up," which I did. But I didn't listen to it. And that troubles me. I want Talking Heads to always stir emotions in me, and I don't want to put them on the shelf for a year to make that happen again.

As soon as the album ended, and silence came over me, I literally was saddened that I had failed in appreciating the beauty of "Naive Melody." I don't know when or how to listen to it again.