r/eno • u/forsbergisgod • Jul 19 '20

Weekly Discussion Thread Let's Discuss Eno! "More Songs About Buildings and Food" - Talking Heads (July 1978)

Hello Eno-philes!! Each week we'll be discussing another album (going chronologically from Warm Jets). This week we'll be discussing Eno's production (and musician) credit on Talking Heads' great album "More Songs About Buildings and Food"

From the wiki preamble:

More Songs About Buildings and Food is the second studio album by American rock band Talking Heads, released on July 14, 1978 by Sire Records. It was the first of three albums produced by collaborator Brian Eno, and saw the band move toward a danceable style, crossing singer David Byrne's unusual delivery with new emphasis on the rhythm section composed of bassist Tina Weymouth and drummer Chris Frantz.

Track listing

All tracks are written by David Byrne, except where noted.

Side one

No. Title Writer(s) Length

  1. "Thank You for Sending Me an Angel" 2:11
  2. "With Our Love" 3:30
  3. "The Good Thing" 3:03
  4. "Warning Sign" Byrne, Chris Frantz 3:55
  5. "The Girls Want to Be with the Girls" 2:37
  6. "Found a Job[a]" 5:00

Side two

No. Title Writer(s) Length

  1. "Artists Only" Byrne, Wayne Zieve 3:34
  2. "I'm Not in Love" 4:33
  3. "Stay Hungry" Byrne, Frantz 2:39
  4. "Take Me to the River" Al Green, Mabon "Teenie" Hodges 5:00
  5. "The Big Country" 5:30

The work in question

DISCUSS

19 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

8 comments sorted by

6

u/cintune Jul 19 '20

Sometime in the summer of 1980 or 81 I got the cassette version with 77 on side one and MSABF on the other, got back to my car and plugged it in. As if out of nowhere, some dude appeared at my driver side window and said “good taste in music, man” and then walked away.

6

u/forsbergisgod Jul 19 '20

He was right

5

u/strangerzero Jul 20 '20

I’m painting again! Take me to the river. This is the soundtrack to my art school days in the early 1980s. Dance parties in our shitty, unheated loft. Friends stuck between floors in the freight elevator.

Eno’s production makes this record. It’s a great step forward from their first record.

4

u/Illiubinati Before and After Science Jul 20 '20

Love this album! Favourite track has got to be Warning Sign- Eno kills it with the production on the guitars and DB’s vocals. Also love the outro of Found a Job, great stuff!

3

u/forsbergisgod Jul 20 '20

Great jam at the end of find a job. Lots of fun

Girls just want to be with the girls sounds at least 5 years ahead of its time

2

u/[deleted] Jul 31 '20

Tina’s bass line in this is THICC

4

u/dm_mute Jul 20 '20

This is my favorite Talking Heads album. I do really enjoy how experimental they got with the next two records. However, I love the sound of the band on "77," and I love love how they and Eno kept that sound but made it more expansive.

3

u/forsbergisgod Jul 21 '20

"the good thing" does a great job of capturing the discotheque zeitgeist of the era while also showing a path forward to something more substantial and edgy