Talking Heads – "Psycho Killer" (1977)

Say something once

Why say it again?

Psycho killer, qu’est-ce que c’est?

A lot of rock groups never outdid their debut albums.  

Led Zeppelin is a good example of that – they produced a lot of great music, but Led Zeppelin I is unquestionably their best album.

I’m not sure that Talking Heads: 77 is the best Talking Heads album, but I am sure that “Psycho Killer” (the first track recorded for that album, although not the first track on the album itself) is their best song, although it peaked at #92 on the Billboard “Hot 100” singles chart.  (The record made it all the way to #11 on the Dutch singles chart – those Dutch know a good record when they hear one.)

The Talking Heads’ 1984 concert movie, the Jonathan Demme-directed Stop Making Sense, opens with frontman David Byrne walking on to the stage with a boom box and an acoustic guitar and performing a solo version of “Psycho Killer.” 

If you haven’t seen Stop Making Sense, click here and watch it now.  (Robert Christgau, the most influential music music of his generation, said it was “the finest concert film” ever made.  Pauline Kael, the most influential movie critic of that generation, said it was “close to perfection.”  Both were right.)

“Psycho Killer” was an easy choice for the 2 OR 3 LINES “SILVER DECADE” HALL OF FAME – like Mariano Rivera, it was a unanimous first-ballot selection.

I’m a little surprised I haven’t featured it on 2 or 3 lines already.

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Speaking of Robert Christgau – a/k/a/ “the Dean of American rock critics” – here’s what he had to say about the Talking Heads’ debut LP:

Like Sparks, these are spoiled kids, but without the callowness or adolescent misogyny; like Yes, they are wimps, but without vagueness or cheap romanticism.  Every tinkling harmony is righted with a screech, every self-help homily contextualized dramatically, so that in the end the record proves not only that the detachment of craft can coexist with a frightening intensity of feeling – something most artists know – but that the most inarticulate rage can be rationalized.  Which means they're punks after all.

I don’t know about all that, but I included that Christgau quote to have an excuse for quoting something his wife, Carola Dibbell, said after John Lennon was murdered:

Why is it always Bobby Kennedy or John Lennon? Why isn’t it Richard Nixon or Paul McCartney?

Carola Dibbell: not a McCartney fan

Lou Reed’s live album, Take No Prisoners, includes this rant about Christgau (who gave albums letter grades in his Village Voice reviews):

Critics.  What does Robert Christgau do in bed?  I mean, is he a toe fucker?  Man, anal retentive . . . what a moron. . . . Can you imagine working for a fucking year, and you get a B+ from some asshole in The Village Voice?

Christgau thanked Reed for pronouncing his name correctly, and gave his album a C+ grade.

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Click here to listen to “Psycho Killer.”

Click on the link below to buy the song from Amazon: