Talking Heads    More Songs about Buildings and Food    The Big Country

The Big Country

I see the shapes,
I remember from maps.
I see the shoreline.
I see the whitecaps.
A baseball diamond, nice weather down there.
I see the school and the houses where the kids are.
Places to park by the fac'tries and buildings.
Restaurants and bars for later in the evening.
Then we come to the farmlands, and the undeveloped areas.
And I have learned how these things work together.
I see the parkway that passes through them all.
And I have learned how to look at these things and I say,

I wouldn't live there if you paid me.
I couldn't live like that, no siree!
I couldn't do the things the way those people do.
I couldn't live there if you paid me to.

I guess it's healthy, I guess the air is clean.
I guess those people have fun with their neighbors and friends.
Look at that kitchen and all of that food.
Look at them eat it, guess it tastes real good.

I say, I wouldn't live there if you paid me.
I couldn't live like that, no siree!
I couldn't do the things the way those people do.
I wouldn't live there if you paid me to.

I'm tired of looking out the windows of the airplane
I'm tired of travelling, I want to be somewhere.
It's not even worth talking
About those people down there.

Goo Goo Ga Ga Ga
Goo Goo Ga Ga Ga

- Talking Heads, ``The Big Country'' (Chords ...)

Harrison: I was at the house Tina, Chris and I lived in in the Bahamas, practicing the slide part.  I was having trouble so I slowed it down so I could play it right.  It was a fortuitous necessity as it made the song much better.
- Leaflet, ``Popular Favorites: Sand In The Vaseline''.
Byrne: ``Don't worry about the Government'' is about
liking ordinary things, living in a modern condominium
and working in an office.  I wrote ``The Big Country''
about hating that kind of stuff.  I thought I had to be fair.
I hoped that the description would sound almost clinical.
Benign and sympathetic, but still kind of clinical.
And then all of a sudden to have this extreme emotion
attached to it I thought was kind of a shock, because
there was nothing leading up to it; there was no reason
given for it at all.
          - From David Gans' ``Talking Heads, the band & their music''