Road to Nowhere - 2005 Remaster

Two years before R.E.M. proclaimed "It's the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)," Talking Heads shared the sentiment on their single "Road To Nowhere," a deceptively upbeat pop-rock tune about facing a dire future with optimism. "I wanted to write a song that presented a resigned, even joyful look at doom," Talking Heads singer David Byrne recalled in the liner notes of Once in a Lifetime: The Best of Talking Heads. "At our deaths and at the apocalypse… (always looming, folks). I think it succeeded. The front bit, the white gospel choir, is kind of tacked on, 'cause I didn't think the rest of the song was enough… I mean, it was only two chords. So, out of embarrassment, or shame, I wrote an intro section that had a couple more in it."

Byrne told Q magazine in 1992 how the chorus came first and the rest of the song fell together: "It was just the four lines of what became the chorus that started the whole thing: We're on a road to nowhere Come on inside Takin' that ride to nowhere We'll take that ride That pretty much laid out the whole song. It's this little ditty about how there's no order and no plan and no scheme to life and death and it doesn't mean anything, but it's all right." Drummer Chris Frantz tells a different origin story, saying the song started with a marching cadence he recorded alone in the studio (without a click track). He and Byrne often butt "heads" over contributions and songwriting credits - Byrne is the only writer credited on "Road To Nowhere."

After the band put down their tracks, they felt it needed more to flesh it out, so got some help, notably Jimmy Macdonnell of the Cajun group Loup Garou, who played the accordion. Additional personnel include former Tower of Power member and Saturday Night Live musical director of Lenny Pickett on the saxophone; washboard player Andrew Cader (who played it with spoons); and percussionist Steve Scales, who is one of the touring musicians they used in 1983 - he plays a big role in the concert film Stop Making Sense. Singer Lani Groves put together the team of backing vocalists, which included Diva Gray, Gordon Grody, Erin Dickens and Kurt Yahijian. Little Creatures engineer Eric Thorngren told Sound On Sound: "When I told her the configuration we were looking for, she put together that whole thing. They did real gospel, and the blend of that with Talking Heads really took the song to another place. I was just floored."