Crosseyed and Painless by Talking Heads

Talking Heads were a part of the New York punk scene in the late 1970's, but by the beginning of the 1980's their tendency toward art and the avante garde took precedence. The band experimented with sounds and loops of tracked grooves. Their fourth album, Remain In Light (1980), is considered to be their magnum opus, their best work. It's not everyone's cup of tea, especially for punks, but it's just interesting enough to grab my attention. After a while the looped tracks and rhythm become an aural experience. 

The lyrics are secondary to sound. Talking Heads producer for Remain in Light, Brian Eno, certainly felt that way. The band recorded tracks of music and rhythms first, with no preconceptions as to what the lyrics might say. Lyrics came only after the tracks had been recorded and ordered in some kind of song form. At that point David Byrne took to writing lyrics as he listened to the recordings.

The other day during a conversation about facts and how they can be used to manipulate or distort the actual truth, I immediately thought of the song Crosseyed and Painless.  According to an article on Wikkipedia...

The lyrics discuss a paranoid and alienated man who feels he is stressed by his urban surroundings. These lyrics are of common theme for Talking Heads and categorize lead singer David Byrne's writing style. The "rhythmical rant" in "Crosseyed and Painless"—"Facts are simple and facts are straight. Facts are lazy and facts are late."—is influenced by old school rap, specifically Kurtis Blow's "The Breaks" given to Byrne by Talking Heads drummer Chris Frantz.

Others have suggested the song is about being under the influence of opiates like heroin. Not likely. On songmeanings.com there are many varied interpretations. One compelling argument I quote below.

I think this is an argument about the nature of human beings. Humans tend to shape things in order to fill holes. They label, the examine, they change. We have removed ourselves from evolution in this way.

Byrne, I think, is arguing that our need and obsession with doing this is actually doing the opposite. Its making us lose ourselves, and making our understanding less complete. The whole album I think is about this to a degree.

Ironically, the fact is that Byrne was matching lyrics to accompany sound. He had to change the way he sang in order to create a vocal track the fit well as an accompaniment to the grooved tracks. His lyrics are less about meaning  and more about how the words delivered sound with the track. In essence the words are simply another instrument layered upon all the others.

Having said that, Byrne did use words which are like snapshots of ideas. John Lennon did this in I Am The Walrus. Bob Dylan did it in Subterranean Homesick Blues. So when analyzing lyrics, we a have to realize we are looking at an abstract piece of art. Abstract draws out of us what we see. While we try to make sense of the senseless, we label, categorize and fill in the holes. Our interpretation is our attempt to give meaning to the meaningless.

Give this song a listen. Don't read the lyrics, yet. Just let the sounds do their thing.
http://youtu.be/cY3tHQJegOM

Crosseyed and Painless 

Songwriters: BYRNE, DAVID/FRANTZ, CHRISTOPHER/WEYMOUTH, TINA/HARRISON, JERRY/ENO, BRIAN PETER GEORGE

Lost my shape-Trying to act casual!
Can't stop-I might end up in the hospital
I'm changing my shape-I feel like an accident
They're back!-To explain their experience

Isn't it weird/Looks too obscure to me
Wasting away/And that was their policy

I'm ready to leave-I push the fact in front of me
Facts lost-Facts are never what they seem to be
Nothing there!-No information left of any kind
Lifting my head-Looking for danger signs

There was a line/There was a formula
Sharp as a knife/Facts cut a hole in us
There was a line/There was a formula
Sharp as a knife/Facts cut a hole in us

I'm still waiting...I'm still waiting...I'm still waiting...
I'm still waiting...I'm still waiting...I'm still waiting...
I'm still waiting...I'm still waiting...

The feeling returns/Whenever we close our eyes
Lifting my head/looking around inside

The island of doubt-It's like the taste of medicine
Working by hindsight-Got the message from the oxygen
Making a list-Find the cost of opportunity
Doing it right-Facts are useless in emergencies

The feeling returns/Whenever we close our eyes
Lifting my head/Looking around inside.

Facts are simple and facts are straight
Facts are lazy and facts are late
Facts all come with points of view
Facts don't do what I want them to
Facts just twist the truth around
Facts are living turned inside out
Facts are getting the best of them
Facts are nothing on the face of things
Facts don't stain the furniture
Facts go out and slam the door
Facts are written all over your face
Facts continue to change their shape

I'm still waiting...I'm still waiting...I'm still waiting...
I'm still waiting...I'm still waiting...I'm still waiting...
I'm still waiting...I'm still waiting...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I'll make an attempt to reflect upon the lyrics, even though I know Byrne isn't saying anything. The ambivalence toward facts might be how I feel listening to the talking heads on the news channels. they fill the airways with thought, opinion and the latest trends and studies. I have grown completely disinterested in news agencies. It is my opinion that they spin stories for one of two objectives. The first is to drive sales of the advertisers on the station. The second is to shape public opinion around a political ideal driven by the moneybags behind the news station. 

Have you noticed how often we are approached with "a recent study shows...?" They give us facts that somebody wants to use to shape our opinion in accordance with the marketing objectives of either consumer products or political ideals. Who's behind the studies? Who funded the studies? Who's behind giving us the so-called facts?

My favorite revision to the world as we know it is the formerly known as planet Pluto. Pluto was taught to be one of the nine planets of our solar system. But now scientists have reclassified Pluto as an ice orb, not the same as a planet. They simply didn't have enough data to know what Pluto actually is. Now they have more facts and realize that Pluto does not hold the same characteristics as what is classified as a planet. Sorry, Pluto.

The reclassification of Pluto makes a point about facts. We don't know them all. And of the facts that we think we know, these are only there to help us create theories and hypotheses. They are only representations of the actual reality. Facts are used to create interpretations about the observable data in the universe. Whenever we think we have it all figured out, new data or differing interpretations come along. What I find interesting in the post-modern world is how revisionists seem to make a living contradicting everything we thought we knew. As a result new interpretation emerge. 

We live life according to how we interpret. The story we tell ourselves affects how we live. Not simply so. We have behaviors that are contrary to what we say we believe. A perfect example is our health habits. We have all the facts we need to know that overeating, eating junk and not exercising leads to bad health potentially an early grave. Some might argue, that these have no bearing. Ultimately it is genetics that decide. But in general, the facts point to healthy choices leading to heath. Most of us are not choosing health. It takes too much time. We know the facts, but there's something else, some other story driving us.

The businessman tells himself, "I know I should, but I have too much work to do. I don't have time. Work is more important." The mother says, "My family comes first. I don't have the energy after attending to the children all day." The preacher says, "I am in the business of saving souls, I can't afford the time to workout." "It's too inconvenient to eat right with all the lunch meetings and pitch-ins. I wouldn't want to make others fell uncomfortable by not eating what everyone else is eating. it wouldn't be polite."

You see what I mean? The story that is really driving our decisions is a belief that there is something more important that our health. I might just say, "I work hard and I deserve to relax and enjoy myself." Another might say, "I'm going to die anyway, I might as well enjoy myself while I can." These ideas or attitudes speak louder than the facts. The fact is I'm lazy and self-indulgent. 

How do we change our shapes? More to the point how do we change our behaviors that shape our lives. Some would argue you must change your head, your way of thinking. The modern view was that with the right information guiding us, we will live accordingly into a better future. It didn't work out that way. The post-modern model of education draws more on experience and relationships. If we experience the behavior we are wanting to adopt routinely, our minds and our attitudes will change.

When deciding how you will live your life, you have to sift through all the facts being presented to you, far much more than we can possibly digest, and create our own relationship with them. Facts are lazy. They don't do anything. It's just data. We are the ones who develop a relationship with facts or data to create an interpretation, a picture in our mind that we live with.

The overarching picture that drives our lives is what we call a worldview. Religion, philosophy and political idealism, all present an interpretation of life on earth or the best life. I am a Christian. The big picture that drives me is hope in the creator to bring a world of justice, peace, health and joyful living. I labor to this end by preaching hope in the goodness of God and the ability of the creator to do as He has promised.

The facts are that all human civilizations from the very beginning of history have created interpretations of life. In an pluralistic society we each have to sift through the varied interpretation to see which one fits us. This seems reasonable. But what if there is such a thing as truth. All facts point to a reality that cannot be fully described, codified, categorized or even controlled. All facts do is paint an approximation of the actual reality. What if the truth is what God has chosen to reveal about Himself in the holy scriptures of the church of Jesus Christ? What if Jesus is the truth, just as he is recorded to have said?

I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. (Jn 14:6)

If Jesus is the truth, then He is real. He is a reality that defies being completely known by facts, just as you are beyond being completely known by what others say about you...or even what you say about yourself. We are always discovering.

I invite you to discover more fully the truth, Jesus Christ. For to know Him is to know God and to know God is to know life that has no end.

Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. (Jn 17:3)

Have fun exploring and discovering. I recommend going to an ALPHA course at a local church as a start. www.alphausa.org

He (God) is the Maker of heaven and earth,
the sea, and everything in them— (Psa 46:6a)

God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him will not perish, but have everlasting life. (Jn 3:16)

Sin is lurking at the door; its wants to own you, but you must master it.” (Gen 4:7b)

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom 6:23)

So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! (2Co 5:17)

Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Let anyone with ears listen! (Mat 13:43)

And those are just the facts. You have to put them together into a worldview.

Lord, give us ears to listen and minds to comprehend the truth that we might know enough of You to be saved. Amen