Rhymes with Nothing… Talking Heads and the Art of Lyrical Disorientation
Ever tried to write a poem and ended up sounding like a Dr. Seuss knockoff having a crisis… “I once met a man with a hat … Who was friends with a cat … And they sat on a mat”… you get the idea… Most pop songs lean hard into rhyme because it sticks… It sells… It worms into your brain like a jingle about toothpaste…
But Talking Heads… They looked rhyme in the eye… shrugged… and wandered off mumbling something cryptic about a shotgun shack…
This band… known for their genius blend of rock, funk, and whatever David Byrne felt like that day… took a different path… Instead of chasing catchy couplets, they embraced rhythm, mood, and meaning… Byrne has described his lyrics as “a melodic poem, not prose”… Which sounds fancy, until you realize that means lines don’t have to rhyme, make linear sense, or explain what the song is about… And that’s exactly the point…
Take “Once in a Lifetime,” for example… The lyrics drift by like a half-remembered dream…
“And you may find yourself living in a shotgun shack … And you may find yourself in another part of the world…”
There’s no rhyme… No chorus that screams “sing me back at karaoke”… Just a man questioning how he got here, possibly while possessed by an existential funk spirit and a conga line of philosophers…
Then there’s “Psycho Killer,” where Byrne announces, “I can’t seem to face up to the facts … I’m tense and nervous and I can’t relax…”
Still no rhyme… Just anxiety, paranoia, and the sudden realization that someone may or may not be making direct eye contact with you on public transport… The words sound like they were dropped out of a typewriter mid-panic attack… and that’s exactly why they work…
Bassist Tina Weymouth once said Byrne doesn’t care about rhyming as much as grooving… The words fit the beat, not some rhyme scheme your high school English teacher would approve of… And weirdly, this makes the songs feel more real… More human… Like the lyrics were eavesdropped from someone muttering on a street corner while adjusting their tinfoil hat…
Talking Heads lyrics don’t just describe modern life… they imitate it… Fragmented, anxious, and oddly philosophical… The absence of rhyme creates space… space to think, to misinterpret, to dance awkwardly in your kitchen at 1 a.m… It’s like the music knows that life rarely rhymes either…
So next time you’re trying to rhyme “love” with “above” for the seventeenth time, remember… you could always throw out rhyme altogether… Say something strange… Let it groove… Let it babble… Let it panic… Let it live…
Author’s Note…
This article does not rhyme… It does, however, contain at least one metaphor, two references to existential dread, lots of dots (…) and a passing jab at rhyme-dependent songwriting… David Byrne, if you’re reading this, please know that I once tried to write a song about my microwave and gave up because nothing rhymes with “door beep”… Talking Heads made it okay to sound confused, paranoid, and mildly electrified… and honestly, that’s the closest I’ve ever felt to being understood by music.
Also, if anyone finds themselves in a shotgun shack, please hydrate and consider reevaluating your GPS settings…
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