Two current indie/alt greats, Angel Olsen and Lorde, have both shared covers of legendary NYC bands from the punk / proto-punk era today. Lorde takes on Talking Heads‘ “Take Me to the River” (originally an Al Green song that Talking Heads covered on 1978’s More Songs about Buildings and Food) for A24’s Stop Making Sense tribute album, and Angel teams up with Maxim Ludwig to cover The Velvet Underground / Lou Reed‘s “I Can’t Stand It” from the upcoming Lou Reed tribute album The Power of the Heart.
Speaking about the cover, Angel Olsen says, “Lou Reed is my earliest influence, my introduction to punk rock. This song was a great opportunity to creatively work with Maxim.” Maxim adds, “Lou Reed is why I write songs, why I read books, and why I stand up for myself.”
Lorde wrote about her cover on Instagram. Her note reads:
Hey you, it’s me
Today my version of “take Me To The River” from the Stop Making Sense compilation comes out.
Do you remember the first time you ever heard Talking Heads?
I’ll tell you my story.Ok, it’s 2008. I’m twelve years old, eyes painted black, jaw blasted with acne. My bedroom is a nest of posters, broken toys, street signs. I’ve kissed with tongue.
Something’s happening to me: i am beginning ot ooze out in every direction. I feel a constant burning urge to express myself, to draw a map that leads to who I am. I can’t get it right: there’s deep discomfort in this, and I have no choice but to keep trying.
At the same time, I’m realising that if I look at a picture of listen to a song sometimes a surge of feeling will take over my whole body. In this way, I can remove my strange-feeling insides and replace them with whatever I want. I can’t predict what exactly will do this to me, so I have to try everything. things are either corny, or they’re cool. Occasionally, the thing that replaces my insides is a total mystery to me, not corny or cool but somehow both, and through this feeling I have my first experiences with the divine.My mother, an artist herself, sees the ooze. She brings her laptop into my room one night and puts on a Youtube video. It’s grainy, 240p at best.
In the video I see a band from another time performing on a TV show. The lead singer wears a suit, has high cheekbones and slicked-back dark hair. They stand in pools of light. The dark haired man is singing a song about wanting someone, not being sure why. He is a preacher, a controlled fire, a wild animal. He’s moving like i’ve never seen anyone move, and his eyes are rolling back in his head. He knows how it feels to kiss with tongue. The wifi signal drops in and out from downstairs.I feel a portal open between me and the screen. Humour, lust, rhythm and ritual course through me. I don’t understand what I’m feeling, but I do understand that the band in the grainy video live with the same strangeness that I do. My palms tingle. My insides are replaced.
This version of the first Talking Heads song I ever heard was done in a few days in Echo Park, L.A. with my friend Jimmy. It’s my interpretation of that pixellated spiritual experience. We did it fast, I didn’t let myself tidy it up too much, it had to feel young and imperfect, the peeling posters, the jaw of acne.
It’s beyond a great honour to be part of this compilation. In doing so, I am reaching back through time and pinning something to that kid’s wall.Hope you like it.
PS* Immediately after that Top of the Pops clip finished, I had my first of many, many viewings of Stop Making Sense. I am truly changed as I know you were too by that group of people on the Pantages stage moving together with warmth, strangeness and pure cool. It was so great to go to the theatre and feel that again on a big screen. Love to DB, Tina, Jerry and Chris, and to Lynn, Edna, Alex, Steve, and Bernie Worrell.
Check out both covers: