It’s not often when a band can take a track and make it sound so much better live than it did in the studio. In the case of Talking Heads that’s exactly what they’ve done here, and why this track is so worthy of a mention as one of my favourite live tracks.

In 1984, Talking Heads produced a live concert record and movie, Stop Making Sense. In many respects, the film and album were ground-breaking and the production quality is absolutely outstanding. The stage and set design, the concert production, and the well-directed scenes were enough, in and of themselves, to make the project important and worth a look but beyond that, the music is incredible. Incredible.

Here you have David Bryne, the New Wave genius, dressed up like a computer programmer from IBM, strutting the stage like a chicken and delivering his lyrics with an obvious, honest passion. He’s into it. And he isn’t alone. It’s incredible how much energy they can pack into this relatively anti-climactic song. The quality of music, the arrangement of the song, the passionate delivery, really sells this track.

This is probably my favourite Talking Heads song and to hear it done so well, live, is an absolute treat.

This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)

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