Tuesday's Musical Notes - "Burning Down The House" (Talking Heads)

Good Tuesday to ya friend!!!  Welcome to the third day of the week, the 27th day of the month, and the 147th day of the year!!!  This is the place you can cool off from the heat with tunes from every generation and hopefully a few thought provoking words that inspire, engage, and tantalize your mind's taste buds for the musically trivial.  It's Tuesday's Musical Notes!!!  Coming to you live only on Tuesdays!!!  Coming to you with Music!!!  And coming to you with Notes!!!. Now that we have been overly redundant, let's get down to today's tune from 1983, here's the Talking Heads with:

"Burning Down The House" - Talking Heads

 

Perhaps you've wondered about the Talking Heads...(not the ones on tv, the ones that recorded today's song)...perhaps you've never wondered about them at all.  If you were to see a live show or even watch some of the MTV videos (alas, no longer showing music videos...) that Talking Heads produced you really would begin to wonder what causes folks to act this way.  Some explanation may be found in the fact that the 3 founding members,  Tina Weymouth, Chris Frantz, and David Byrne were all graduates of the Rhode Island School of Design.  My apologies to my artistic friends but let's face it...most artists regardless of what discipline (music, design, painting, sculpture, etc) tend to be on the "different" side.  They see things from a unique perspective, thus giving the expression of their particular art, a "bend" towards the offbeat and peculiar at times.  Talking Heads was no different.  Again, referring to the videos of the 1980s.  

This differentiation set Talking Heads apart in the rock world of the 1980s.  While everything was a bit strange, they set themselves up as the quintessential "different" group.  In fact, today's song was brought about by David Byrne saying phrases that came to his mind that fit with the musical groove the other band members had laid down.  In this case, the instrumentals were complete before the lyrics.  Once Byrne found the lyrics that would be simpatico with the musical layout, he began the process of putting phrases together that sort of made sense...or stopped making sense....  Add a video featuring a house with a projector pointing at one side and Byrne's usual antics and you have a #9 hit from 1983.  The only top 10 hit for The Talking Heads.

The Talking Heads would surprisingly produce only 3 more studio albums before going on hiatus and eventually disbanding.  The impact they made on Rock and Roll with their 8 albums is astounding.  They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002 and continue to be named in honors lists by Billboard and Rolling Stone.  During the height of The Talking Heads success, each of the band members would work on other projects.  Byrne and the fourth member of the band Jerry Harrision would develop solo projects, while Weymouth and Frantz would form The Tom Tom Club.  

The Notes confesses that we don't get most things that are considered "artistic".  While we appreciate the endeavors and the vision that inspires, sometimes the finished product doesn't engender an emotional rush that we see in others as they gaze upon the canvas or look upon what was once granite or marble.  Today's "modern" artists seem even more on the fringe to us as they occasionally use what most would consider garbage as either their inspiration or their actual raw materials.  We don't think this is much of a departure from the way "the greats" in the art world were considered by their own generation.  Many were thought of as kooks, derelicts, or at best unstable.  This is the way the religious leaders of Jesus' time thought of Him as well.  Especially as He went about preparing for the ultimate sacrifice.

In the Old Testament we see many purification rites that the Israelites were to perform as they prepared for sacrifice.  Everything had to be done a certain way as prescribed in the later part of Exodus.  These rites represented a "burning down the house" of the past and preparing for the newness that would come with the acceptance of the sacrifice by God.  If you have some time, you can read about the elements of sacrifice as well as their purification here:  NASB The Message Parallel - Exodus 23-40   These passages describe very specifically how everything, even the place they were going to worship, the Tabernacle, had to be purified before the sacrifices could be given to God and received by God.    These standards had to be upheld each time a sacrifice was going to be performed.  This practice would continue through the use of the temporary Tabernacle, into the time of Solomon's temple, and even until the time of the temple that Jesus would frequent.

The Pharisees and the priests of Jesus time would go about the "ritual" of purification, but yet not be about the essence of purification as they performed the rabbinical tasks to allow sacrifice to occur.  They allowed trade to occur in the outer courts of the temple as pilgrims would come to Jerusalem to sacrifice.  Imagine vendors lined up with animals to sell for sacrifice.  The animals would no doubt be noisy and not very clean to say the least.  Jesus was about to offer Himself as the ultimate sacrifice as He comes to the temple and witnesses what He considers a desecration to the Temple.  John 2:12-22 NASB The Message Parallel  Jesus essentially launched into His own purification ritual as He cleared the temple of the moneychangers and animals.  In one way, He was purifying the temple to be ready for the sacrifice that He was about to make.  This is incredibly symbolic for what Jesus would do as God accepted Him as the once and only sacrifice that would allow us to be restored into fellowship with God as we have faith and believe in every aspect of who Jesus was and what Jesus did for our restoration.  His "burning down the house" at the temple was the first step in our opportunity for purification.  It was the first part of the process that Jesus used to remove our sin from us and take it upon Himself.  The cleansing of the temple was the beginning of the end of the ritual of sacrificing animals. As followers of Jesus we are free to present ourselves every day as pure in God's eyes without going through a priest or with animal blood on our hands because of what Jesus did for us.  He provided a way for us to be restored, for us to be purified as we give our lives daily as living sacrifices to God's work.  He might even be saying to you today...."Here's your ticket,  pack your bags, time for jumpin' overboard...transportation is here" or in other words  "I am The Way, The Truth, and The Life..."

'Til Tuesday

Serving HIM by serving you,

Randy