Wild Wild Life - 2005 Remaster

David Byrne, the most talkative of the Talking Heads, wrote "Wild Wild Life" for the 1986 movie True Stories, which he starred in and directed. He recorded the songs for the film with the band, and that became their seventh album, True Stories. Many of these songs were used in the movie with the actors replacing Byrne's vocals, but the "Wild Wild Life" film version is identical to the one on the album. The band shot a music video for the song that was incorporated into the film, getting Byrne's bandmates into the credits. The scene is a lip-sync contest where the citizens of the fictional town of Virgil, Texas each step up to the microphone and mine a line or two of the song as a band plays it on stage. (These lip-sync battles were a trend at the time, staged at bars at a time before Karaoke became popular). There was a great deal of tension between Byrne and the other Talking Heads at this time - the movie was his project and he brought them to Los Angeles to record the songs - but they had a great time making the video. Byrne let them choose their own costumes. Here are the characters they picked: Drummer Chris Frantz: Heavy metal singer in the tradition of Ozzy Osbourne Country singer modelled after Hank Williams Sports fan with baseball cap that says "wild wild life" Bassist Tina Weymouth: Highfalutin society woman Deranged lady who takes off her wig to reveal shaved head Prince protégé Apollonia Keyboardist Jerry Harrison: Prince (with Weymouth's Apollonia) Billy Idol-like rocker Bruce Lee type Shady guy in zoot suit

David Byrne often inhabits strange characters in his songs. The guy in this one is certainly off-kilter (as are the inhabitants of the True Stories film), with his fur pajamas and hot potato. But he's also an observer, checking out the doctor, the stockbroker and the businessman, commenting on their wild, wild lives. He may be sleeping on the interstate, but they're the wild ones.

With lyrics like: Check out Mr. Businessman, he bought some wild, wild life On the way to the stock exchange, he got some wild, wild life the Talking Heads remind us that they took satire and social commentary back from punk rock and repackaged it in new wave drag. In the book Avant Rock - Experimental Music From Beatles to Bjork by Bill Martin, Martin argues, "If punk was in part the music of the outcast ne'er-do-well, new wave of the Talking Heads variety was the revenge of the nerds." Talking Heads' label boss Seymour Stein is the one who coined the term "new wave" to describe the band's music. It caught on as a way to dissociate the Heads and bands like Blondie from the punk tag.