Episode 22: Velvet Hamsters
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Description
On Side A, well - to be clear - we really just wanted to find an excuse to talk about The Talking Heads. And so we begin with 'This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody),' The song is a highlight of Talking Heads' terrific fifth album, is a love song -- a rarity for the band, which typically stayed away from such mundane subjects. Still, it's a love song with an arty twist. Byrne rattles off a series of trite phrases to form the randomly inserted lyrics. The lovely music, though, takes the song to a much earthier place. 'This Must Be the Place” for all its rarity is the Talking Heads most covered song and we will be diving into some of the better versions. And on Side B we will be chatting about Roy Orbison’s legendary song “Crying” which was originally written by Orbison and Joe Melson for the album of the same name, released as a single in July 1961. Sounding not unlike much of the pop music of the era (heavily orchestrated, many an instrument sort of undermining the lyrics, in this writer’s personal opinion), it is Orbison’s swoony voice, paradoxically frail and strong that gives the track its power. It has that signature echo of falsetto from Orbison. Leave it to Rebekah Del Rio to strip the song down to its purest form in a Capella cover in Spanish (titled “Llorando”) for David Lynch’s film Mulholland Drive to bring out the song’s emotions in a manner Orbison did not.
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