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

Canada (albums): #6 [certified gold in 1981]
New Zealand (albums): #8
UK (albums): #21 [certified gold in 2016]
USA (albums): #19 [certified gold in 1981]
Spotify: 7,000,000 +
YouTube Music: 4,400,000 +
Melody Maker Best Albums of 1980: #1
Pitchforks Top 100 Albums of the 80's: #2
Rolling Stone Best Albums of the 80's: #4
Sounds Magazine Best Albums of 1980: #1

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 hostage. One year later, while the hostages still in captivity, the Talking Heads released a song called 'Listening Wind,' which is about a terrorist bombing American forces abroad. The song takes on the terrorists point of view in the chorus and tells of a mysterious wind that guides him "he calls on the wind to guide him". The wind could be a terrorist calling on Allah. Iran had gone through an Islamic revolution in 1979 when the hardline religious elements replaced the Iranian royal family. The 'wind' could also refer to a primitive deity of the natural world as is worshipped by tribes people in Africa and other third world countries.
  
  It was popular among the 1980s counter culture to demonise their own country while applauding tyrannical regimes. Anti-American sentiment was present even at home as images of atrocity in Vietnam were still fresh in the public consciousness. The war had only ended five years earlier. However, women in 1970's Iran had the freedom to go to school and wear clothing of their choice, many of them choosing mini-skirts, just as their counterparts in the west had done. In the decades since the revolution the education of women and girls is extremely limited and many have been beaten to death for daring not to keep their hair covered in public.
  
  I feel that 'Listening Wind' is an attempt to look through the eyes of the enemy in an attempt to understand him. People in big cities can become cosmopolitan and see themselves as citizens of the world while forgetting it's the nation that provides the security necessary for them to entertain such ideas in the first place. David Bryne, was absorbing a lot of world music and foreign influences throughout the recoring of 'Remain in Light' with a particular focus on African music and the name of the terrorist 'Mojique' does have an north African ring. He had also said that he believes Americans fail to understand why the rest of the world doesn't unverally love them when it seems obvious to him. Regardless, the song was still 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.
  
  Conversely, while the tacit support of terrorists would be abhorrent to a modern standard the public sentiment was far less concrete in the USA of 1980. Many Americans supported the IRA and their campaign of terror bombing as a necessary evil carried out by the underdog in an asymmetrical war. Even today the vast majority would support the actions of the occupied French during the second world war. Did they not bomb? Did the Germans not call them terrorist? To my mind the support of terrorism, the indiscriminate targeting of non-combatants, is unacceptable but any serious consideration of the 'Listening Wind' must take into account the context in which it was made.
  
  
• The loops on the album are played live meaning that instead of recording a piece of music and looping it over and over an actual musician is playing the same thing repeatedly. This human approach makes the music interesting to the ear because, as it's performed live, each 'loop' will be slightly different whereas a machine would produce the exact same sound each time.
  
  
• The album was revolutionary as it combined the polyrythmic structure of African music with electric guitars. It was a mix of basic, tribal sounds with the music of electricity. This meeting of first and third worlds is also reflected in where the band chose to record the album: The Bahamas and New York City. The Bahamas for it's sun soaked good time vibes and New York for it's cosmopolitan sophistication. Before recording, the bands drummer, Chris Frantz, had holidayed in the Caribbean and became inspired by the way people drummed there. At first glance, the parts shouldn't fit together, but somehow the band made it work which is why the album sounded ahead of time even decades later.
  
  
• Brian Eno was a highly sought after producer who was also a part of Roxy Music. His production technique were so distinctive that they earned their own name: Enossification. He was inspired by world music and would brighten instruments by adding effects to them that other producers wouldn't think to use.
  
  
• 'Remain in Light' was a major influence on Radiohead's 'Kid A'.
• The band rarely played the song live due to its contentious nature.
  
  
• There is a cover version by The Specials.
• There is a cover version by Peter Gabriel.
  
  
  

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