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Talking Heads — Memories Can't Wait
Album: Fear Of Music
Avg rating:
6.2

Your rating:
Total ratings: 1353









Released: 1979
Length: 3:28
Plays (last 30 days): 0
Do you remember anyone here?
No you don't remember anything at all
I'm sleeping, I'm flat on my back
Never woke up, had no regrets

There's a party in my mind...And it never stops
There's a party up there all the time...They'll
party till they drop
Other people can go home...Other peoplle they can split
I'll be here all the time...I can never quit

Take a walk through the land of shadows
Take a walk through the peaceful meadows
Try not to look so disappointed
It isn't what you hoped for, is it?
There's a party in my mind...And I hope it never stops
I'm stuck here in this seat...I might not stand up

Other people can go home...Everyone else will split
I'll be here all the time...I can never quit

Everything is very quiet
Everyone has gone to sleep
I'm wide awake on memories
There memories can't wait.
Comments (77)add comment
"Guys, we need another three and a half minutes to finish this album. Do you have something ready, of should we come back this weekend?"
EXCELLENT TUNE!!  Thanx RP!   
Not their finest.
Don't get me wrong. TH and David Byrne are great but i.m.o. they are overplayed at RP. 
Good song.
Live version from The Name of This Band Is... is just that much crunchier.
 jelgator wrote:

The Living Colour version is fantastic......



also Suicidal Tendencies cover is great ;-) 
he really commits, doesn't he? really makes a great effort to sing.
Brilliant! Really gets inside the head of somebody "on the spectrum"
i find byrne tedious, boring and a crappy voice, but I am in the minority!  
My first 10 vote :) 
 merobreno wrote:

Always hard to figure the RP crowd. Talking Heads, one of the most interesting and innovative bands to ever come along, usually pull a rating in the low 6's. Meanwhile, Philip Glass' childish, incipit, chopstick-esque dirges typically pull solid 7's. WTF (insert head scratching emoticon here)?



I like them both. A lot
 BlueHeronDruid wrote:

Shades of Bowie's much later Lazarus and Blackstar.


Brian Eno is a freaking God-like genius-genius, agreed, but I really question that Eno was stuck in musical groove for 37 years.  Eno's productions have a feel, at the atomic level, that scream his influence (albeit subtly).  I will accept that is what you mean by 'shades'.   
I always loved how this thing hits like a ton of psychedelic bricks from the very start, and how it only gets wilder from there, with lots of sideways-working weirdness going on to match the spooky vocals. When he hits those unhinged bits, it still sends chills down my spine and reminds me that this was a group that works best if you let them come right on in and take over, because they will then show you all the levels of pure genius that only they can illustrate so well. JAM
 merobreno wrote:

Always hard to figure the RP crowd. Talking Heads, one of the most interesting and innovative bands to ever come along, usually pull a rating in the low 6's. Meanwhile, Philip Glass' childish, incipit, chopstick-esque dirges typically pull solid 7's. WTF (insert head scratching emoticon here)?



Happy to be one of those who is able to appreciate the genius of both. 
 Relayer wrote:

Talking Heads, well I agree they are a good band, and most think they are exceptional.  Which they probably are, but I think I've just overdosed on them in the past 30 years and don't get much pleasure from their music anymore.  BUT, thankfully RP occasionally adds an oddball song like this to the playlist, and that gets me back to listening to them.  Thanks for playing the deep tracks. 



Amen! There is so much more to this band than the traditional fodder.
Talking Heads, well I agree they are a good band, and most think they are exceptional.  Which they probably are, but I think I've just overdosed on them in the past 30 years and don't get much pleasure from their music anymore.  BUT, thankfully RP occasionally adds an oddball song like this to the playlist, and that gets me back to listening to them.  Thanks for playing the deep tracks. 
Saw the 'Heads premiere this at the Palladium in NY (just prior to release) in '79. I'm still trying to get over (and under, around, and through) it!  Yeah baby -- just plain fierce.  B-52's opened. As Mr. Frantz is fond of saying, "There was a time...."

 phlattop wrote:
Damn. just went from Bonnie Raitt (thing called Love) to the Heads. It's all good.


History repeats, 11/24/21
 Segue wrote:


Generation Jones grew up on a wealth of warmth and richness is sound of all flavors, as RP keeps it lit. For some, Talking Heads was too mechanical and cold, despite the world beat thing. Too neurotic for the tail end of the Golden Age. And we knew how to spell insipid. Too much other good stuff goin on at the time. Less creepy.

Read the album's title again
 Segue wrote:


Generation Jones grew up on a wealth of warmth and richness is sound of all flavors, as RP keeps it lit. For some, Talking Heads was too mechanical and cold, despite the world beat thing. Too neurotic for the tail end of the Golden Age. And we knew how to spell insipid. Too much other good stuff goin on at the time. Less creepy.

As a GJer myself, I have to say I didn't like TH at the time they surfaced, and I think that sense of warmth and richness is a big reason why. I also didn't like Elvis Costello initially. But I grew to love both within a few years. 

I do often wonder how much it affects people's brains to not have that warmth and richness... growing up on the bleakness of Nirvana or the Smiths has got to leave as big an impression. Just to pull one of many names out of a hat, Stevie Wonder's music was so enormously popular and so very uplifting. And you'd hear it everywhere, no one was on their own device in their own musical universe.
 merobreno wrote:

Always hard to figure the RP crowd. Talking Heads, one of the most interesting and innovative bands to ever come along, usually pull a rating in the low 6's. Meanwhile, Philip Glass' childish, incipit, chopstick-esque dirges typically pull solid 7's. WTF (insert head scratching emoticon here)?



Generation Jones grew up on a wealth of warmth and richness is sound of all flavors, as RP keeps it lit. For some, Talking Heads was too mechanical and cold, despite the world beat thing. Too neurotic for the tail end of the Golden Age. And we knew how to spell insipid. Too much other good stuff goin on at the time. Less creepy.
 merobreno wrote:
Always hard to figure the RP crowd. Talking Heads, one of the most interesting and innovative bands to ever come along, usually pull a rating in the low 6's. Meanwhile, Philip Glass' childish, incipit, chopstick-esque dirges typically pull solid 7's. WTF (insert head scratching emoticon here)?
 
talking heads '77, more songs...fear o' music and remain in light were the best. after that...popularity and decline.
 CamLwalk wrote:
Been a TH fan since the early 80s.  This is my favorite.  Powerful song.
 

Agreed. The whole feel of this is just perfect and lyrically brilliant
This is incredibly brilliant. What Byrne was doing here, perhaps without realizing it, was once again giving us insight into what goes on in the mind of somebody "on the spectrum"
Been a TH fan since the early 80s.  This is my favorite.  Powerful song.
Good thing this wasn't the first Talking Heads song I heard. May not have listened to anything else from them, lol. But it doesn't sound dated, just not very good. I honestly thought it was a new David Byrne song that was just released. Even their average stuff was still interesting.
 justin4kick wrote:


This beautiful track is from FOM
 

You're right. I'm gonna PM BillG about this...

 cely wrote:
The fact that there are lots of folks who hate this song actually shows how excellent it is.
 
That's actually not how it works.


This beautiful track is from FOM
The fact that there are lots of folks who hate this song actually shows how excellent it is.
 BlueHeronDruid wrote:
Shades of Bowie's much later Lazarus and Blackstar.
 
Or perhaps Low, Heroes, or Lodger ... the connection being Brian Eno as producer (as he was on those Bowie albums and on this Talking Heads album).
Can't figure this song out.  Had it at 3 last time it played, today have it at 6.  Must be my mood.
 NelsonBlack wrote:
Almost superior to the 1980-81 live version that they released.
 
"The Name Of This Band Is Talking Heads" album is fantastic from top to bottom.
Damn. just went from Bonnie Raitt (thing called Love) to the Heads. It's all good.
 BlueHeronDruid wrote:
Shades of Bowie's much later Lazarus and Blackstar.
 
I hear it for certain!  That's a good ear you've got there. 
ONLY HEARD THE LIVING COLOR VERSION!!  Love this 
 
I remember when they first came on the scene, being struck by their boldness in NOT doing songs about being in love, or being broken hearted, or wanting to be in love, etc.  It seemed that everyone else just kept mining that seam of "mating songs" but they turned their backs on it. 
Shades of Bowie's much later Lazarus and Blackstar.
Back when Talking Heads were brilliant. Something entirely new. Funky, badazz backbeats with an awkward "somewhere on the spectrum"  front man. The lyrics, inscrutable to most, actually get inside the head of an Aspergers.
An average Talking Heads song that improves markedly about 2/3 of the way through as Byrne raises his voice an octave and the key shifts. Solid 7 but still my second-least favorite tune from “Fear of Music.”
Very interesting list, Bill. Getting some nice chatter going {#Wink}
So artsy and interesting. David Byrne...you're the best! 
The song before "Psycho Killer"?
 Jelani wrote:
This is somehow reminiscent of a SugarCubes tune...
 
hmmm, yeah. Though maybe vv since this preceded the Cubes by 10 years.  
This is somehow reminiscent of a SugarCubes tune...
 lasker98 wrote:
As mentioned previously, this song is from "Fear of Music", not "More Songs About Buildings and Food".

 
Looks like they fixed it for you!
The Living Colour version is fantastic......
As mentioned previously, this song is from "Fear of Music", not "More Songs About Buildings and Food".
Almost superior to the 1980-81 live version that they released.
Chomping (at) and chewing (the scenery) are two words that erupt quickly to mind while hearing these awesome musicians squeeze out this particular track. Arguably my favorite album - ever.
 kcar wrote:
If you like this—and I love it—how in Hell can you like the bland World Music tourist that Byrne's turned into?

 
Yes I really liked this album when it came out and the Remain in Light that followed it.  However, as you say, something happened and I dislike much of his output after that. 
 kcar wrote:
If you like this—and I love it—how in Hell can you like the bland World Music tourist that Byrne's turned into?

 
Because people have a wider appreciation than you?
If you like this—and I love it—how in Hell can you like the bland World Music tourist that Byrne's turned into?
 coloradojohn wrote:
INDEED! Remain In Light shall retain its quantum-layered brilliance to Infinity and Beyond! but OH! we must also eternally wonder, What if Mr. Guitarhead could have done some more immortal Musical Art with them?!
——- 

jbuhl wrote:

Wish we could have got one more album out of them especially with Adrian Belew in the band


 
{#Yes}{#Meditate}{#Yes}
 DaidyBoy wrote:
Brilliant and so ahead of everything else around at the time. Such as "Uptown Top Rankin'" by Althia and Donna, for example.  Or "Mull of Kintyre".  And so on.   6.4 rating? I don't think so ...

 
Couldn't agree more.  I can only imagine the dislikers just weren't in the proper frame of mind back in 1979 ...
 
THERE'S A PARTY IN MY MIND...AND I HOPE IT NEVER STOPS! Love DB's hysteria and Zappa-like brilliance here...
By the way, I recommend playing and revisiting the amazing and essential Sand In The Vaseline collection... Thanks, RP!
 I do not say this much here.... But Thank the gods for PSD,
JoepKoperdraat wrote:
Memories can't wait is on the album FEAR OF MUSIC and not on MORE SONGS....
Both albums are classic and cannot be played enough on RP!!!!{#Guitarist}

 

... and unless my mind is playing tricks on me, this is not the version of this song I listened to on Fear of Music when the album first came out.
I loved TH since the earliest days (and earlier days at RISD), but ye gods, Byrne can sing out of tune sometimes, as in this one!
 raga wrote:
Better the Living Colour cover

 
No, thank you.
1. As usual. Can't help myself.
Brilliant and so ahead of everything else around at the time. Such as "Uptown Top Rankin'" by Althia and Donna, for example.  Or "Mull of Kintyre".  And so on.   6.4 rating? I don't think so ...
Better the Living Colour cover
And I hope it stops....

...phew, it did. 
 JoepKoperdraat wrote:
Memories can't wait is on the album FEAR OF MUSIC and not on MORE SONGS....
Both albums are classic and cannot be played enough on RP!!!!{#Guitarist}

 
Joep is right! Again.
INDEED! Remain In Light shall retain its quantum-layered brilliance to Infinity and Beyond! but OH! we must also eternally wonder, What if Mr. Guitarhead could have done some more immortal Musical Art with them?!
——- 

jbuhl wrote:

Wish we could have got one more album out of them especially with Adrian Belew in the band

 coloradojohn wrote:
It still boggles the mind & staggers the senses how weird, wild & wonderful it was to have this band blow us away way back in the day!

 
Wish we could have got one more album out of them especially with Adrian Belew in the band
 merobreno wrote:
Always hard to figure the RP crowd. Talking Heads, one of the most interesting and innovative bands to ever come along, usually pull a rating in the low 6's. Meanwhile, Philip Glass' childish, incipit, chopstick-esque dirges typically pull solid 7's. WTF (insert head scratching emoticon here)?


Art is not often appreciated. The dopey old stoners just wanna hear some Floyd.
It still boggles the mind & staggers the senses how weird, wild & wonderful it was to have this band blow us away way back in the day!
Always hard to figure the RP crowd. Talking Heads, one of the most interesting and innovative bands to ever come along, usually pull a rating in the low 6's. Meanwhile, Philip Glass' childish, incipit, chopstick-esque dirges typically pull solid 7's. WTF (insert head scratching emoticon here)?
Have not heard this TH song before - LIKE!
 JoepKoperdraat wrote:
Memories can't wait is on the album FEAR OF MUSIC and not on MORE SONGS....
Both albums are classic and cannot be played enough on RP!!!!{#Guitarist}

 
Didn't know that great song ...

thx for playing! 
Memories can't wait is on the album FEAR OF MUSIC and not on MORE SONGS....
Both albums are classic and cannot be played enough on RP!!!!{#Guitarist}
Play it again and again and again...
What is it with Radio Paradise and Talking Heads. I have to disconnect every time this band comes on cause it is just painful to listen t; which is way too often cause you play them way too much. This is my only complaint against the station as a long time listener, but it is a big one!
err, shouldn't this great song have been played by now?
There's a party in my mind, and I hope it never stops. Seriously. ;)