Talking Heads - Listening Wind

Mojique thinks of days before the Americans came. He serves the foreigners in growing numbers. He sees the foreigners in fancy houses.

Album: Remain in Light (4th album)
Recorded: Nassau, The Bahamas & New York City, New York
Genre: New Wave, Post Punk
Album Release: October 8th 1980
Length: 4:43
Producer: Brian Eno (age 32)
Vocalist: David Byrne (age 28)
Label: Sire Records (subsidiary of Warner)

Official Audio


Live in Chicago from 1997

Charts, Streams & Sales

Spotify: Over 7 million
YouTube Music: Over 4 million

Credits & Gear

Bass, drums, guitar, keyboards [x3], percussion [x2]

Details

• In 1979, a group of armed Iranian militants stormed the US embassy in Tehran and took 53 Americans hostages. One year later, with the hostages still in captivity, the Talking Heads released 'Listening Wind' to controversy. The song is about a terrorist bombing American forces abroad. 
  
  I feel that 'Listening Wind' is a misguided attempt to understand the terrorist. People in large metropolitan centres often see themselves as citizens of the world, forgetting that it's the nation that provides the security necessary to entertain such ideas in the first place. Vocalist David Bryne was influenced by World Music throughout the recording of Remain in Light, with a particular focus on African sounds. The name of the terrorist, 'Mojique', has a North African ring.
  
  Regardless, the song was in incredibly poor taste considering 53 of his fellow citizens were held captive, while he enjoyed the freedom to pontificate about the motivations of their captors, or at the very least people like them.
  
  
• Rarely played live because of its contentious subject matter.
  
  
• There is a cover version by The Specials.
• There is a cover version by Peter Gabriel.
  
  
  

Artwork