The KISS entry marks the beginning of the thesis statement I have for the worst songs of 1992: Good, or sometimes great, bands bottomed out and released the worst songs of their careers.  For more information on this, let’s go back to the alternative side of things.  I already went over the decline of INXS way back at my #10 pick, but do you know who else had a terrible ending?  Talking Heads.

Like INXS, Talking Heads were a good band.  David Byrne’s New Wave and Post-Punk band were truly one of the first alternative bands, shaking up the foundations of New Wave with their surrealistic lyrics and artistic music.  Songs like “Love – Building On Fire,” “Psycho Killer,” “Take Me To The River,” and “Once In A Lifetime” still sound just as modern today as they did when they were initially released.  But as with most bands, the hits eventually dried up.  Their 1986 album True Stories, which featured their final true hit “Wild Wild Life,” came out to mixed reviews.  While their final album Naked received better reviews, it failed to achieve a hit single.  Except…

During the sessions for Naked, this song was conceived.  And while “Not Enough Time” was a sad requiem for a once-good band, this song is just baffling and confusing.

“Sax And Violins” – Talking Heads

Modern Rock
#1 peak (February 1, 1992)
#22 year-end, 12 weeks on chart

With the “bloated rock song” segment out of the way, we have now reached the “WTH?” portion of the evening.  “Sax And Violins” is a mess, a song where it sounds more like Talking Heads were attempting to write a song that only entertained themselves.  While the other songs have obvious flaws, from poor production to questionable lyrics, “Sax And Violins” just leaves me lost, deep in the middle of the prairie.

Going through the music, I guess it isn’t that bad overall.  It’s just a little repetitive, with the same three chord sequence throughout most of the song.  The only real gripe I have with the song is that there are some baffling instrumental choices.  About twenty seconds in, someone in Talking Heads plays a keyboard part that makes a flimsy, high-pitched noise, that is very off-putting and annoying.  It becomes hard to focus on the primary synth when it comes in.  Also, for some reason, they put in a xylophone at the end of each verse.  I thought I was listening to a song about the future, not a song for a children’s show.  Well, that’s the vibe I got from this segment.  But I guess that’s a minor gripe.  Once again, the real problems are in the lyrics.

David Byrne wrote “Sax And Violins” as a portrayal of the year 2000, imagining what life would be like.  He came up with the title as a pun on the old cliche of “sex and violence.”  Granted, Byrne’s lyrics were always rather abstract, going into a bunch of random thought processes when discussing being a soldier in “Life During Wartime,” or the passage of time in “Once In A Lifetime.”  But at least those songs stayed on topic.  “Sax And Violins” goes so off the rails that Byrne no longer sounds like the genius he was.  He sounds like the genius who accidentally switched his brain off.  That may sound really harsh, but seriously, I don’t know what on earth this song is going for, nor do I know how this represents a vision of the future!

The first part of the first verse sounds like it’s about being helplessly transported to 2000, but then we get into the second part, where Byrne’s voice suddenly becomes grating and we have to hear him riffing on this dystopian world.  Oh, boy…

Daddy dear, let’s get outta here
I’m scared
Ten o’clock, nighttime in New York
It’s weird

How is it weird?  Well, I wouldn’t know.  They don’t really discuss how it’s weird in the song.  The only thing they mention that really comes across as weird in the future compared to the present is that Byrne and his woman are “criminals that never broke no laws.”  That is weird for you, but not necessarily weird for the landscape.  Plus, I’m pretty sure New York City is always weird for outsiders.  I’m from New York (as in Upstate New York, in an area closer to Cleveland than New York City), and based on my rather limited knowledge of what New York City before I was born, it was probably just as weird then as it is now.  Just as now, people were probably paying exorbitant amounts of rent for a crawlspace.  Just as now, people were probably getting around without a car.  Just as now, New York City was an insane city that never had an off period.  Thus, this “Nighttime in New York, it’s weird” lyric is invalid.

Mom and Pop, they will f**k you up
For sure

Wait, what?  What on earth do abusive parents have to do with a dystopian vision of the future?  Abusive parents existed before 2000 (probably more so, I’d say), and they still exist now in 2021, sadly.  What on earth does this have to do with the thesis of the song?  Also… Pop rhyming with up?

(NOT A RHYME BUZZER)

Also, come to think of it… Clock doesn’t rhyme with New York either.

(NOT A RHYME BUZZER)

Sex and sin, sax and violins
It’s hell
Wooden heads, furniture with legs
For sale

What on earth does furniture for sale have to do with this song?  I mean, the sun will always shine, the grass will always be green, and just like there was furniture with legs in 1900, there will probably be furniture with legs in 2100.  And again, heads does not rhyme with legs.  Just thought I’d bring that out there.

I hadn’t listened to Talking Heads in a long time before I worked on this list (my Mom is a big fan), but what I do remember about their songs is while their lyrics were abstract, their songs were also surprisingly relatable.  Take “Once In A Lifetime,” possibly their most iconic song.  When David Byrne announces “same as it ever was,” we have to nod and agree.  Because while the world changes, some things always stay the same.  And even “Found A Job” sounds relatable in the sense that, sometimes, TV and film (and for the purposes of this blog, music) really put out such garbage that one is simply left to think, “I could write a better TV show than this.”  But in “Sax And Violins,” there is nothing to relate to.  Byrne has created a vision of 2000 that only relates to him.  To everyone else, we are simply left to ask, “what’s the point of this?”

“Sax And Violins” was the final song Talking Heads released before their breakup in December 1991.  Quite frankly, Talking Heads should have stopped at Naked, and left this song on the cutting room floor.   While many Talking Heads songs have aged remarkably well and remained hits to this day (“Psycho Killer” has about 228 million streams on Spotify, far more than I would have predicted), “Sax And Violins” has fallen into obscurity, and for darn good reason.

UP NEXT: The worst Alternative song of the year at #4.

SOURCES

“Sax And Violins.” Genius 2022. Web. 14 August 2022 https://genius.com/Talking-heads-sax-and-violins-lyrics.

IMAGE SOURCES

Single cover from IMDb

Image from music video from Through The Shattered Lens