{"id":38041,"date":"2012-09-05T09:00:05","date_gmt":"2012-09-05T13:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=38041"},"modified":"2012-09-28T13:41:38","modified_gmt":"2012-09-28T17:41:38","slug":"television-man-david-byrne-on-the-couch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/09\/05\/television-man-david-byrne-on-the-couch\/","title":{"rendered":"Television Man: David Byrne on the Couch"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I was born in a house with the television always on<\/em>. The lyric comes from \u201cLove For Sale,\u201d a song penned by David Byrne and recorded on the Talking Heads album\u00a0True Stories<\/em>, but the same could be said for where I grew up, in suburban Philadelphia. My dad watched television even when cooking dinner, which seemed crazy to me, minding an open flame while keeping one eye on some \u201creality\u201d courtroom drama\u2014not sure you can rightfully call those staged scream-fests real. Judge Judy was such a constant presence, she feels like a family friend. I hear her gravelly voice chewing some idiot out and smell Dad’s stir-fry.<\/p>\n

Our house was small enough that, unless I played music, I couldn’t escape the tube’s empty murmuring, not even in my room, which abutted my parents’. As a teenager, then, it made sense that I’d fall in love with Talking Heads’ song \u201cFound A Job,\u201d from their 1978 album\u00a0More Songs About Buildings and Food<\/em>. David Byrne, the band’s vocalist, guitarist, and songwriter, doesn’t so much sing as sing-narrates the story of a couple, Bob and Judy, frustrated watching television because \u201cnothing’s on tonight.\u201d Byrne as narrator intrudes upon this domestic scene like one of those omniscient charlatans on infomercials\u2014But wait! There’s a solution to their problem!<\/em>\u2014suggesting they \u201cmight be better off… making up their own shows, which might be better than TV.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nBy the song’s end, Bob and Judy are collaborating, creating their own TV program, a show that \u201cgets real high ratings.\u201d They’ve saved their relationship and turned their whole lives around. \u201cBob never yells about the picture now, he’s having too much fun,\u201d the narrator tells us. He wraps it up like a fable, inviting the listener to \u201cthink about this little scene; apply it to your life. If your work isn’t what you love, then something isn’t right.\u201d While Byrne tells the story, his guitar noodles on the edges of a funky, bass-driven rhythm, until, at the end, a six note melody emerges like an epiphany over the groove. Bob and Judy have learned to sing a new tune.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cFound a Job\u201d encapsulated what I loved about Talking Heads music: the sophisticated, literary lyrics that used dialogue and meta-aware narration, the stance that admits television isn’t all bad\u2014because hey, I like watching TV too\u2014but that passivity, and griping without taking action, is. The song’s moral, of doing what you love, of not just watching but getting involved, has been with me my whole life, for better (I’ve always been happy), and for worse (I’ve never been rich).<\/p>\n

\u201cFound a Job\u201d marks the first time in Talking Heads oeuvre that television would make an appearance. The band, comprised of Byrne, Chris Frantz on drums, Jerry Harrison on keyboards and guitar, and Tina Weymouth on bass, released their first album in September of 1977. In their nascent years, the band played at the legendary New York venue CBGB with punk bands like the Ramones, a pairing which used to strike me as an incongruity. Talking Heads’ clanky and precise sound, heavy on funk and rhythm, never distorted and certainly not out of control, seemed very different from punk’s angry, dirty sloppiness. In attitude, though, Talking Heads proved themselves super-punk. They looked at the conventions of society: falling in love, having a relationship, feeling compassion for others, watching television, having transcendent experiences with drugs, even making art, and cried \u201cbullshit!\u201d By holding these things up to the light, they showed them to be uncomfortable activities, appealing but also troubling. They made social criticism you could dance to.<\/p>\n

Until, they didn’t quite. By their sixth album, 1985’s\u00a0Little Creatures<\/em>, Talking Heads, operating less democratically and more strictly under the direction of Byrne, began embracing the things they decried in their youth, or at least approaching them with less skepticism. This wasn’t always bad. Byrne had already penned a fabulous, heartfelt love song in \u201cThis Must Be the Place (Naive Melody),\u201d on\u00a0Speaking in Tongues<\/em>. Now, on \u201cStay Up Late,\u201d he poked fun at parenting, talking about keeping a baby up all night with, of course, \u201cthe television on,\u201d while on \u201cRoad to Nowhere,\u201d he brushed aside the meaning of life with a \u201cWhat, me worry?\u201d flippancy. <\/p>\n

But while \u201cRoad to Nowhere\u201d\u00a0 captures the contrariness of Talking Heads’ early works (and stands out as the strongest track on the album), elsewhere anger gives way to sweetness, even corniness. In \u201cCreatures of Love,\u201d the singer who once asked \u201cDo people really fall in love?\u201d says that \u201che’s seen sex\u201d and \u201cthinks it’s ok.\u201d Not a ringing endorsement, as pop songs go, but an endorsement none-the-less.<\/p>\n

The boob tube comes in for a make-over as well, in the song \u201cTelevision Man.\u201d\u00a0Perhaps talking about his earlier self, he sings \u201cPeople like to put the television down, but we are still good friends, I’m a Television Man. \u2026 I watch it everyday.\u201d Some dark notes seep in from the keyboards and lyric choices\u2014the world \u201ccrashes<\/em> into his living room\u201d through the TV, the narrator meets a girl who turns out to be a man, but \u201cit’s alright, I wasn’t\u00a0fooled<\/em> for long.\u201d A mid-song vision of being swept away by the television to a beautiful garden leads me to think this Television Man is, at best, adversely pacified by his good friend, and at worst, perhaps mad. The final percussive breakdown, a chant of sorts, \u201cI’m a Television Man,\u201d comes across with a harsh, unhinged edge to Byrne’s voice. He still sounds somewhat critical of television, wary of repeat exposure and locating reality in its images, but his criticism is implied, as opposed to the directness of \u201cFound A Job.\u201d<\/p>\n

My uncle, who introduced me to Talking Heads’ work when he gave me their first four albums, didn’t have any of their later stuff. I kind of understood why as I tracked their catalog down in high school, though at the time I identified so absolutely as a Talking Heads fan I refused to take any shots at the band. I didn’t just want to love the whole endeavor, from beginning to end, without reserve, I had to\u2014my love of these lovably-pretentious art pop geniuses was what set me apart from the television-watching, grocery-shopping, God-fearing suburban\u00a0hoi polloi. <\/em>\u201cGive David Byrne a break!\u201d my dad used to yell, tired of me listening to the same set of songs again and again.<\/p>\n

\nNow that my ardor’s cooled, I recognize that though the pop confections on the band’s last three releases were sweet and easy to sing along with, they largely lacked, both lyrically and sonically, the harder, sometimes bitter sharpness at the center of the band’s early work. A flavor that I loved, and continue to love, about Talking Heads’ take on American life.<\/p>\n

In the late nineteen-eighties, Talking Heads broke up, rancorously. Since then, David Byrne has continued to record. Some albums\u2014like his 2008 collaboration with Brian Eno,\u00a0Everything That Happens Will Happen Today<\/em>\u2014flirt with greatness, and reward repeat listens. Others could be heavily edited, even reduced by half. Throughout, television returns as a subject, either in passing (\u201cI never watch TV except when I’m stoned\u201d on \u201cLike Humans Do\u201d from 2001’s\u00a0Look Into the Eyeball<\/em>) or in entire songs (\u201cMake Believe Mambo\u201d off 1989’s\u00a0Rei Momo<\/em> tells of a boy with personality cobbled together from TV shows). It comes up again on his latest album,\u00a0Love This Giant<\/em>, a collaboration with St. Vincent, the recording name of Annie Clark, in a song called \u201cI Should Watch TV.\u201d The nature of this project \u2013 both Byrne and Clark contributed music and lyric writing, with song ideas evolving through drafts over email \u2013 means it’s impossible to know who penned what line, but seeing as Byrne’s the one singing, let’s assume he endorses the views exposed there.<\/p>\n

\nThe narrator of \u201cI Should Watch TV,\u201d\u00a0like that of \u201cFound A Job,\u201d\u00a0maintains an anthropologist’s distance, at first. He thinks he should watch TV because he \u201cwanted to know what folks were thinkin’, to understand the land I live in.\u201d Yet he finds the more he loses himself to the medium, the more it \u201csets him free.\u201d He loves this giant\u2014television (hence the album’s title). While Byrne sings, horns ricochet around the track like a bird struggling to free itself from a trap, becoming frenetic at the moments he sings of freedom, down-right exultant. The tune wouldn’t sound unfamiliar in a church.<\/p>\n

\nThe only dark note comes toward the end, when the narrator asks \u201cHow am I not your brother? How are you not like me?\u201d as if this difference troubles him. Without any irony, he celebrates the weirdness we see on TV as a reflection of the weirdness inside of every human being. Television is the great unifier, humanity coming together to channel surf as one in weirdness and joy\u2014a far cry from the sentiment of \u201cFound A Job.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nFor this guy who fell in love with Talking Heads precisely because they said it was ok to be different and be a creator rather than a passive recipient of culture, I can’t help but feel disappointed. I should watch TV\u2014really? Perhaps Byrne’s mellowness is a natural result of age, or of his cultural position. Instead of an angry young artist, he’s a successful elder statements of artsy rock, a photographer and visual artist, even an author. Maybe watching television, stoned or not, offers a welcome relief from his busy schedule. Certainly the idea that television provides a glimpse into the collective gestalt of humanity bears some merit, but it lacks teeth compared with his old view, which, with equal parts humor and honesty, cool remove and intense emotion, shot a healthy dose of discomfort at the whole medium.<\/p>\n

\nThis discomfort, be it from fear, anger, arrogance, or rebelliousness, is largely lacking from the songs on\u00a0Love This Giant<\/em>, and much of Byrne’s recent work in general. Nor does he play early Talking Heads songs like \u201cFound A Job,\u201d \u201cArtists Only,\u201d and \u201cI’m Not in Love\u201d in concert. I wish he’d regain a bit of that old antagonistic spirit. There’s room, I believe, for an angry old intellectual in pop music. The guy who, at sixty, rigorously wonders about love, children, TV, and the meaning of life in all its nasty complexity and beauty. The sixty year old who says he really likes sitting in front of the tube? That sounds a lot like my dad.<\/p>\n

Brian Gresko is a stay-at-home dad and writer based in Brooklyn. He has contributed to The Huffington Post, The Atlantic.com, Salon, The Daily Beast, and Glimmer Train Stories. Find him online at briangresko.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

[tweetbutton]<\/p>\n

[facebook_ilike]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was born in a house with the television always on. The lyric comes from \u201cLove For Sale,\u201d a song penned by David Byrne and recorded on the Talking Heads album\u00a0True Stories, but the same could be said for where I grew up, in suburban Philadelphia. My dad watched television even when cooking dinner, which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":218,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1187],"tags":[8571,1415,8572,8570,46,8575,54,8574,8568,8573,8569,7592],"class_list":["post-38041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-on-music","tag-chris-frantz","tag-david-byrne","tag-jerry-harrison","tag-judge-judy","tag-music","tag-st-vincent","tag-television","tag-the-ramones","tag-the-talking-heads","tag-tina-weymouth","tag-true-stories","tag-tv"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nTelevision Man: David Byrne on the Couch by Brian Gresko<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"September 5, 2012 \u2013 I was born in a house with the television always on. The lyric comes from \u201cLove For Sale,\u201d a song penned by David Byrne and recorded on the Talking Heads\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/09\/05\/television-man-david-byrne-on-the-couch\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Television Man: David Byrne on the Couch by Brian Gresko\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"September 5, 2012 \u2013 I was born in a house with the television always on. The lyric comes from \u201cLove For Sale,\u201d a song penned by David Byrne and recorded on the Talking Heads\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/09\/05\/television-man-david-byrne-on-the-couch\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Paris Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-09-05T13:00:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-09-28T17:41:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/TV-95647-David-Byrne-mayespr.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"658\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"489\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Brian Gresko\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Brian Gresko\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"9 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/09\/05\/television-man-david-byrne-on-the-couch\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/09\/05\/television-man-david-byrne-on-the-couch\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Brian Gresko\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/47cb342f61c6e89f71d6a53083f769c9\"},\"headline\":\"Television Man: David Byrne on the Couch\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-09-05T13:00:05+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-09-28T17:41:38+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/09\/05\/television-man-david-byrne-on-the-couch\/\"},\"wordCount\":1788,\"commentCount\":9,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/09\/05\/television-man-david-byrne-on-the-couch\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/TV-95647-David-Byrne-mayespr-300x222.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Chris Frantz\",\"David Byrne\",\"Jerry Harrison\",\"Judge Judy\",\"music\",\"St. Vincent\",\"television\",\"The Ramones\",\"The Talking Heads\",\"Tina Weymouth\",\"True Stories\",\"TV\"],\"articleSection\":[\"On Music\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/09\/05\/television-man-david-byrne-on-the-couch\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/09\/05\/television-man-david-byrne-on-the-couch\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/09\/05\/television-man-david-byrne-on-the-couch\/\",\"name\":\"Television Man: David Byrne on the Couch by Brian Gresko\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/09\/05\/television-man-david-byrne-on-the-couch\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/09\/05\/television-man-david-byrne-on-the-couch\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/TV-95647-David-Byrne-mayespr-300x222.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-09-05T13:00:05+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-09-28T17:41:38+00:00\",\"description\":\"September 5, 2012 \u2013 I was born in a house with the television always on. The lyric comes from \u201cLove For Sale,\u201d a song penned by David Byrne and recorded on the Talking Heads\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/09\/05\/television-man-david-byrne-on-the-couch\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/09\/05\/television-man-david-byrne-on-the-couch\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/09\/05\/television-man-david-byrne-on-the-couch\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/TV-95647-David-Byrne-mayespr.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/TV-95647-David-Byrne-mayespr.jpg\",\"width\":\"658\",\"height\":\"489\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/09\/05\/television-man-david-byrne-on-the-couch\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Television Man: David Byrne on the Couch\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"description\":\"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"width\":696,\"height\":696,\"caption\":\"The Paris Review\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/47cb342f61c6e89f71d6a53083f769c9\",\"name\":\"Brian Gresko\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/225a6b2b207020cbeed6f42d05da7ba95f4f11f2b77f9fb19b10ff17898b3176?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/225a6b2b207020cbeed6f42d05da7ba95f4f11f2b77f9fb19b10ff17898b3176?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Brian Gresko\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/briangresko\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Television Man: David Byrne on the Couch by Brian Gresko","description":"September 5, 2012 \u2013 I was born in a house with the television always on. The lyric comes from \u201cLove For Sale,\u201d a song penned by David Byrne and recorded on the Talking Heads","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/09\/05\/television-man-david-byrne-on-the-couch\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Television Man: David Byrne on the Couch by Brian Gresko","og_description":"September 5, 2012 \u2013 I was born in a house with the television always on. The lyric comes from \u201cLove For Sale,\u201d a song penned by David Byrne and recorded on the Talking Heads","og_url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/09\/05\/television-man-david-byrne-on-the-couch\/","og_site_name":"The Paris Review","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","article_published_time":"2012-09-05T13:00:05+00:00","article_modified_time":"2012-09-28T17:41:38+00:00","og_image":[{"width":658,"height":489,"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/TV-95647-David-Byrne-mayespr.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Brian Gresko","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@parisreview","twitter_site":"@parisreview","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Brian Gresko","Est. reading time":"9 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/09\/05\/television-man-david-byrne-on-the-couch\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/09\/05\/television-man-david-byrne-on-the-couch\/"},"author":{"name":"Brian Gresko","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/47cb342f61c6e89f71d6a53083f769c9"},"headline":"Television Man: David Byrne on the Couch","datePublished":"2012-09-05T13:00:05+00:00","dateModified":"2012-09-28T17:41:38+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/09\/05\/television-man-david-byrne-on-the-couch\/"},"wordCount":1788,"commentCount":9,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/09\/05\/television-man-david-byrne-on-the-couch\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/TV-95647-David-Byrne-mayespr-300x222.jpg","keywords":["Chris Frantz","David Byrne","Jerry Harrison","Judge Judy","music","St. Vincent","television","The Ramones","The Talking Heads","Tina Weymouth","True Stories","TV"],"articleSection":["On Music"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/09\/05\/television-man-david-byrne-on-the-couch\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/09\/05\/television-man-david-byrne-on-the-couch\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/09\/05\/television-man-david-byrne-on-the-couch\/","name":"Television Man: David Byrne on the Couch by Brian Gresko","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/09\/05\/television-man-david-byrne-on-the-couch\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/09\/05\/television-man-david-byrne-on-the-couch\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/TV-95647-David-Byrne-mayespr-300x222.jpg","datePublished":"2012-09-05T13:00:05+00:00","dateModified":"2012-09-28T17:41:38+00:00","description":"September 5, 2012 \u2013 I was born in a house with the television always on. The lyric comes from \u201cLove For Sale,\u201d a song penned by David Byrne and recorded on the Talking Heads","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/09\/05\/television-man-david-byrne-on-the-couch\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/09\/05\/television-man-david-byrne-on-the-couch\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/09\/05\/television-man-david-byrne-on-the-couch\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/TV-95647-David-Byrne-mayespr.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/TV-95647-David-Byrne-mayespr.jpg","width":"658","height":"489"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/09\/05\/television-man-david-byrne-on-the-couch\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Television Man: David Byrne on the Couch"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","name":"The Paris Review","description":"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization","name":"The Paris Review","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","width":696,"height":696,"caption":"The Paris Review"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/47cb342f61c6e89f71d6a53083f769c9","name":"Brian Gresko","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/225a6b2b207020cbeed6f42d05da7ba95f4f11f2b77f9fb19b10ff17898b3176?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/225a6b2b207020cbeed6f42d05da7ba95f4f11f2b77f9fb19b10ff17898b3176?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Brian Gresko"},"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/briangresko\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/218"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38041"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38041\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39256,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38041\/revisions\/39256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}