Talking Heads – "Take Me to the River' (1978)

[NOTE:  It’s become a tradition for 2 or 3 lines to interview 2 or 3 lines every year on the anniversary of the first 2 or 3 lines post, which appeared on November 1, 2009.  Here’s part two of this year’s interview, which marks the 13th anniversary of my wildly popular little blog.]

2 or 3 lines: 2022 marked the fifth year that you’ve been doing the 2 OR 3 LINES “GOLDEN DECADE” HIT SINGLES HALL OF FAME and the 2 OR 3 LINES “GOLDEN DECADE’ ALBUM TRACKS HALL OF FAME.  I assume we can count on you to induct another class into both of those halls of fame next summer?

2 or 3 lines: Yes indeed – I’m already making a mental list of deserving “Golden Decade” hit singles and album tracks.

Happy 13th anniversary to 2 or 3 lines!

Q: Last February, you devoted your always-popular “28 Posts in 28 Days” to roll out the 2 OR 3 LINES “SILVER DECADE” HALL OF FAME.  Remind us again what years are covered by the “Golden Decade’ and the “Silver Decade”?

A: The “Golden Decade” of pop music runs from the summer of 1964 to the summer of 1974 – that is, from the summer before I started junior high school to the summer after I graduated from college.  We’re talking the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, the Beach Boys, Led Zeppelin, the great Motown groups, “House of the Rising Sun,” and so on.

Q:  And the “Silver Decade” was the decade that followed?

A:  The “Silver Decade” picks up in the fall of 1974, runs through my law school years and swinging-single days, and ends in the fall of 1984, when I decided to leave apartment living behind and buy a house for myself, my wife, and my infant son.  My favorite artists from that decade include the Pretenders, Talking Heads, Elvis Costello, and so on.

Q:  Any new halls of fame in the works?

A:  I considered doing a one-hit-wonder hall of fame – but there are already a number of one-hit wonders in the “Golden Decade” hit singles hall of fame.  I also thought about creating a rap/hip-hop hall of fame – accusations of cultural appropriation be damned.  But then I had a better idea.

Q:  Which is . . . ?

A:  I’ve decided to do a “Golden Decade” cover records hall of fame.

Q:  Why cover records?

A:  For one thing, covers don’t get no respect – the original recording of a song is usually considered to be better.  But the best covers illustrate something that I’ve come to believe in very strongly – that it’s the singer, not the song, that really matters . . . not literally but figuratively.

Q:  Please explain.

A:  What I mean is that starting with a great song doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll end up with a great record.  You need a great arranger and a great producer in addition to great musicians.  A great song is to a great record what a great screenplay is to a great movie – necessary, but not sufficient.  Read the screenplays for “The Godfather Part II” or “The Wild Bunch” or “Mean Streets” or “The Long Goodbye” – they’re interesting, but pale in comparison to the finished movies.  The same is true for a great song – there’s no guarantee that a record that’s made from a great song will be a great record.  In fact, there are a lot of bad recordings of great songs.

Q:  Aren’t most covers just attempts to capitalize on the success of previously-released hits?

A:  A lot of them are.  They don’t bring much new to the party.  But look at a great cover record like Vanilla Fudge’s version of “You Keep Me Hangin’ On.”  The original recording of that song by the Supremes is wonderful, but I like Vanilla Fudge’s cover even more.  It’s completely original – it not only doesn’t borrow anything from the Supremes, it turns the original upside down and inside out.  It’s like having a girlfriend who seems pretty perfect – until a girl who is different in every way comes along and makes you realize that she’s better.   

Q:  Can you give us a little preview of the first group of inductees into the 2 OR 3 LINES “GOLDEN DECADE” COVER SONGS HALL OF FAME?

A:  You’ll have to wait until January for the announcement of which cover records made the cut.  But I will tell you something about the records that will be in the first group of inductees into that hall of fame: virtually all of them will be either covers by a black group or individual performer of a song originally recorded by a white group or individual performer, or vice versa.

Q: So I’m guessing that Ike and Tina Turner’s cover of Creedence Clearwater’s “Proud Mary” will be one of your selections.

A:  No comment.

Q:  That sounds like a “yes” to me!

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Click here to listen to the original Al Green recording of “Take Me to the River,” which was released in 1974.  (Winner, winner, chicken dinner!)

Click here to listen to the Talking Heads’ very different but equally great cover of “Take Me to the River.”  It was released in 1978, so it doesn’t qualify for the 2 OR 3 LINES “GOLDEN DECADE” COVER SONGS HALL OF FAME.

Click here to buy the Talking Heads’ cover from Amazon.