I'm a longtime fan of your writing and especially loved the part in this essay about how you can experience something ineffable in an auditorium and then sometimes access it later in your mind. So true! I always thought "Take Me to the River" was a song about baptism, not suicide. Hmmmm.
Lovely piece, Gina, but echoing Beth, that's not what "Take Me to the River" is about. I can see how you get there, with the verses about being maltreated by the lover - and it's a bracing interpretation. But I think the chorus is pretty clear that it's about being refreshed and reborn from that experience, using the tradition of baptism in local waters as the metaphor: "Take me to the river/ And wash me down/ Won't you cleanse my soul/ Put my feet on the ground." It's very much in line with Al Green's way of blending the secular and the sacred in soul music.
It's so rewarding when someone reinforces your feelings about an album. My two favorite rock albums of my college years were Talking Heads: 77 and The Cars. I still listen to songs from Talking Heads: 77 regularly. In particular, side B is spectacular.
The first album by a band is often my favorite one. The best ideas from a great songwriter often come early, and the band is generally drawing upon years of material to create that first attempt at recognition. The Talking Heads evolved and grew in musical sophistication, but the simple, dorky songs of TH: 77 are the ones that move me. Like you suggest, the transition from a world without the Talking Heads to TH: 77 was a leap, a revelation.
The song I never get over is "Pulled Up." It's kind of like the Beatles concluding their one day recording session for their first album Please Please Me by having Johnny Rhythm sing "Twist and Shout" just once, because it always wrecked his voice. "Pulled Up" is the quintessential big finish; listening to it this afternoon fired me up as it always does. That last verse, oh man.
There's a video circulating of the Talking Heads playing "Pulled Up" in Berkeley in 1978, but that must be the year after you first saw them. Thanks for the great memory.
Not his first time at UC Santa Cruz, either! I started college in 1982 and was stunned to see that the Heads had played in my college Town Hall, about 40 yards from my bedroom, albeit 5 years earlier. It seemed like a punky imprimatur on this new phase in what was otherwise still more Grateful Dead than Clash/X territory.
In 1977, my college (Kresge) had been a marginal corner of the campus. The campus shuttle buses didn't stop at Kresge. The Registrar tried to avoid scheduling classes at Kresge. Faculty didn't want to have their offices at Kresge. That would all start to change the very next year, but in 1977 it was the wild wild west.
Turns out that Talking Heads drummer Chris Frantz mentioned the gig in his recent autobiography, 'Remain In Love.'
"On the tall walls of Kresge Town Hall at UC Santa Cruz, there are silkscreen paintings of bands who have graced that cozy stage including Talking Heads, who played one of their first West Coast gigs there on Dec. 3, 1977. Frantz writes in “Remain in Love” of the Santa Cruz gig; “The students were high on the best herb. They seemed gentle, sweet, and smart. The only thing missing was flowers in their hair.”
I'm a longtime fan of your writing and especially loved the part in this essay about how you can experience something ineffable in an auditorium and then sometimes access it later in your mind. So true! I always thought "Take Me to the River" was a song about baptism, not suicide. Hmmmm.
Lovely piece, Gina, but echoing Beth, that's not what "Take Me to the River" is about. I can see how you get there, with the verses about being maltreated by the lover - and it's a bracing interpretation. But I think the chorus is pretty clear that it's about being refreshed and reborn from that experience, using the tradition of baptism in local waters as the metaphor: "Take me to the river/ And wash me down/ Won't you cleanse my soul/ Put my feet on the ground." It's very much in line with Al Green's way of blending the secular and the sacred in soul music.
But maybe I'm only arguing because I'm so envious of your early Talking Heads concert experiences! <g>
It's so rewarding when someone reinforces your feelings about an album. My two favorite rock albums of my college years were Talking Heads: 77 and The Cars. I still listen to songs from Talking Heads: 77 regularly. In particular, side B is spectacular.
The first album by a band is often my favorite one. The best ideas from a great songwriter often come early, and the band is generally drawing upon years of material to create that first attempt at recognition. The Talking Heads evolved and grew in musical sophistication, but the simple, dorky songs of TH: 77 are the ones that move me. Like you suggest, the transition from a world without the Talking Heads to TH: 77 was a leap, a revelation.
The song I never get over is "Pulled Up." It's kind of like the Beatles concluding their one day recording session for their first album Please Please Me by having Johnny Rhythm sing "Twist and Shout" just once, because it always wrecked his voice. "Pulled Up" is the quintessential big finish; listening to it this afternoon fired me up as it always does. That last verse, oh man.
There's a video circulating of the Talking Heads playing "Pulled Up" in Berkeley in 1978, but that must be the year after you first saw them. Thanks for the great memory.
Not his first time at UC Santa Cruz, either! I started college in 1982 and was stunned to see that the Heads had played in my college Town Hall, about 40 yards from my bedroom, albeit 5 years earlier. It seemed like a punky imprimatur on this new phase in what was otherwise still more Grateful Dead than Clash/X territory.
In 1977, my college (Kresge) had been a marginal corner of the campus. The campus shuttle buses didn't stop at Kresge. The Registrar tried to avoid scheduling classes at Kresge. Faculty didn't want to have their offices at Kresge. That would all start to change the very next year, but in 1977 it was the wild wild west.
Turns out that Talking Heads drummer Chris Frantz mentioned the gig in his recent autobiography, 'Remain In Love.'
"On the tall walls of Kresge Town Hall at UC Santa Cruz, there are silkscreen paintings of bands who have graced that cozy stage including Talking Heads, who played one of their first West Coast gigs there on Dec. 3, 1977. Frantz writes in “Remain in Love” of the Santa Cruz gig; “The students were high on the best herb. They seemed gentle, sweet, and smart. The only thing missing was flowers in their hair.”
good one. the stark reality of now and then. thanks for taking me back to that time.