“Found a Job,’’ Talking Heads
In what will be an occasional series in this column, I’m looking at some of the best rock ’n’ roll songs written about TV, from Frank Zappa’s “I’m the Slime’’ to Blur’s “Coffee & TV.’’ I’ve got a long list, but do e-mail or tweet me with suggestions. I’d love to hear them.
In music, TV is generally portrayed as a warped lover, a wasteland, a means of propaganda, and a soul and/or blood sucker. Hey, I forgive those songwriters. Few people understand — and dislike — the downsides of TV more than a TV critic.
One song I constantly marvel at is “Found a Job’’ by Talking Heads, whose eight albums between 1977 and 1988 continue to dazzle.
From the 1978 album “More Songs About Buildings and Food,’’ it’s about an unhappy couple named Bob and Judy who are sad because there’s nothing on TV. And this is long before there were “57 Channels (And Nothin’ On),’’ as Bruce Springsteen sang in 1992. To solve the problem, Bob and Judy begin to make their own TV shows. Now they are “happy as can be / Inventing situations, putting them on TV.’’
The song is about a lot of things — finding a job you love, overcoming victimhood and passivity, and the banality of TV. And now it can also be read as anticipating reality shows. Bob and Judy have gone from watching TV to making TV with their friends and family, which “helped save their relationship / And made it work again.’’ These days, Bob and Judy could easily be Tori Spelling and Dean McDermott or Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt or any of the couples featured on the “Real Housewives’’ shows.
Of course the song is biting, underneath its credulousness. The narrator of the “Found a Job’’ story, like so many of David Byrne’s narrators, is childlike and innocent on the surface. Just get a better job and you’ll be happy! It’s that easy! TV is fun! But his is an ironic voice bespeaking alienation and social criticism. We all know it’s not that easy. That’s the great duality of the Heads, the way so many of their songs swing both ways.
Making TV may be less boring than watching TV in “Found a Job,’’ but it has no moral advantage. By the way, Talking Heads get extra credit for 1985’s “Television Man.’’
Matthew Gilbert can be reached at gilbert@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @MatthewGilbert.
