Who took the money away?

I . . who took the money?
Who took the money away?
I . . . it's always showtime
Here at the edge of the stage
I, i, i, wake up and wonder
What was the place, what was the name?
We wanna wait, but here we go again...

I . . . takes over slowly
But doesn't last very long
I . . . no need to worry
Everything's under control
O - u - t but no hard feelings
What do you know? take you away
We're being taken for a ride again

Down, down in the basement
We hear the sound of machines
I, i, I'm driving in circles
Come to my senses sometimes
Why, why, why, why start it over?
Nothing was lost, everything's free
I don't care how impossible it seems

 

Comments

[J. Maggio]

....you may find yourself, living in a shotgun shack.

:-)

[Michael K.]

thanks for this. I was looking for just the right song to match this moment's structure of feeling.

[Seb]

Ooh... good pick. The tune I've been spinning the most to settle myself is a bit less grabbing - "Hexen Definitive/Strife Knot" by The Fall, which goes in part:

Tied up to posts
Blindfold so can't feel maintainance
Kickback art thou that thick?
Death of the dimwits

Businessman hits train
Businessman hits train
His veiled sex seeps through his management sloth
The journey takes one hour

If I were to pick a single Talking Heads tune that would be the ideal epitaph on our particular epoch, "(Nothing But) Flowers" would be a cheerfully sardonic choice, but I gotta go with the obvious: "Life During Wartime".

[Jodi]

Good choices, Seb. I was thinking the other night that I don't know of any covers of Talking Heads songs. This strikes me as weird. Why aren't they covered?

Glad that people like this pick. I confess, though, that it was probably seeded by the use of "Once in a Lifetime" in the previews for the new Oliver Stone movie, W.

[Seb]

I think Talking Heads covers are so scarce because anyone with the sensibilities to do it RIGHT dare not risk defiling the music. So only the likes of cokehead glam-metalers Velvet Revolver attempt to cover, say, "Psycho Killer" (with predictably atrocious results).

There are a very few exceptions: the Arcade Fire did a suitably stirring, torch-song version of "Naive Melody (This Is the Place)" and gritty brawlers the Constantines did a broke-down-and-beautiful "Thank You For Sending Me an Angel".

[Seb]

My guess: the only musicians with the appropriate sensibilities to do the Talking Heads justice are terrified of defiling the tunes. The only people who take a swing are tactless jetrash like cokehead glam-metalers Velvet Revolver, whose version of "Psycho Killer" was like Ipecac for your ears.

There are a couple of exceptions: the Arcade Fire did a stirring, torch-song version of "Naive Melody (This Is the Place)", and the Constantines did a gritty, broke-down-but-beautiful take on "Thank You For Sending Me an Angel".

[Seb]

Bloody hell! Sorry about the double-post. My internet connection's been dodgier than an organ salesman from Jakarta. Let it be said: whatever Germans can do with cars, they can NOT do with IT.

[Richard Grusin]

I'd go with "Warning Sign" or "Road to Nowhere." But "Girlfriend is Better" is an inspired choice.

[Bob Allen]

http://www.mtv.com/overdrive/?vid=9956

Money's Too Tight (To Mention), Simply Red