Making Flippy Floppy

Somebody suggested that I transcribe all the Talking Heads songs. I won’t do that, but I do seem to be in the process of analyzing all of my favorites. There are a bunch! Here’s one. I assume that the title is a sexual euphemism? If so, it’s a weird one.

In addition to the four band members, the track features guitar by Alex Weir and double violin by Lakshminarayana Shankar. According to the album credits, David Byrne is playing percussion. My guess is that he played over a slowed-down track and then they sped it back up. Either that, or he has secretly been a virtuoso drummer this whole time.

There’s a pretty good extended dance remix by Jellybean Benitez, but for a more exciting alternative version, try the one from Stop Making Sense. It’s at a way faster tempo than the original:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qa98AhEVAZQ

I love Bernie Worrell’s quote of the Star-Spangled Banner during his synth solo.

Here’s a techno-influenced David Byrne solo version from Sessions at West 54th Street in 1998. Dig the muppet-fur suit! The band features vocals by Christina Wheeler, bass and guitar by Desmond Foster, drums by Rea Mochiach, and keyboards by Bruce Kaphan.

This broadcast also includes a performance of “Psycho Killer” with Byrne wearing an absolutely terrifying costume.

“Making Flippy Floppy” has become kind of a jam-band standard. You can go to Google to hear people like Umphrey’s McGee play it sloppily if you want. Here’s a tighter and groovier cover by Living Colour frontman Corey Glover. It takes a Middle Eastern direction at the end, and also quotes “Third Stone From The Sun” by Jimi Hendrix!

Here’s my transcription of the Talking Heads’ studio version. I did my best to approximate David Byrne’s spoken and yelped notes.

Talking Heads fans complain that the tracks on Speaking In Tongues are not as densely layered as the ones on Remain In Light. I guess that’s true; Remain In Light is as claustrophobic as groove-based music gets. I appreciate that there’s some more open space in “Making Flippy Floppy.” Besides, there is plenty going on, between the percussive vocals, percussive guitars, percussive synths and percussive percussion. Earlier and later Talking Heads songs have lots of chord changes and melodic variety, but I like the middle period groove-based ones the best. When the chords are “uninteresting”, it forces you to be more creative on the rhythmic, timbre and arrangement side of things, and for my tastes, that is where Talking Heads really show their quality.

The tune is mostly a straightforward funk groove in G Mixolydian mode. This is the same key and mode as “Burning Down The House“, which immediately precedes “Making Flippy Floppy” on the album. (This mattered more back in the olden days when we listened to albums in their intended sequence.) Of course, no Talking Heads funk groove is ever completely straightforward. Tina Weymouth’s basslines are usually surprising in some way. This tune is a case in point: she plays A-flat in every alternating bar throughout the verses. That is the wrongest note you can play in G Mixolydian! It feels kind of Middle Eastern, but aside from Lakshminarayana Shankar’s violin solos, no one else is playing anything Middle-Eastern-sounding.  Things go back to “normal”, harmonically speaking, during the choruses, but the feeling of instability persists in your memory.

The vocal melody centers around the seventh, F. The first word of each line falls on a downbeat, but everything is highly syncopated after that. David Byrne sounds terrified as usual, and he is noticeably hoarse in the first verse, but his lyrics are unusually confident-sounding. His singing voice is divisive; you other love it or you hate it. I fully understand why a person would find it annoying! It raises the question of why I like it, or why anyone does. I teach a lot of classical voice majors, and they are often annoyed that some of the most popular singers in the world are not “good”. Maybe the definition of “good” singing is broader than formally trained singers believe, or maybe there’s something inspiring about an unschooled and uncontrolled voice.

David Byrne has a distinctive singing style, but then, so (potentially) does everyone. it’s just that few people explore the contours of their own voice to find out what they might be capable of. You might never be able to sing “well” by some conventional standard of “well”, but you can certainly learn to sing like you. The main thing you need is confidence, and apparently you don’t even need much of that, because Byrne himself is clearly a shy and socially awkward person. The question is, how do we structure a musical society that gives more people the emotional permission they need to try themselves out?