Lyrics to
The Big Country

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Here's more interesting things in songs and lyrics tied to Talking Heads or about the 1970s in general.

I see the shapes,
I remember from maps.
I see the shoreline.
I see the whitecaps.
A baseball diamond, nice weather down there.
I see the school and the houses where the kids are.
Places to park by the fac’tries and buildings.
Restaunts and bar for later in the evening.
Then we come to the farmlands, and the undeveloped areas.
And I have learned how these things work together.
I see the parkway that passes through them all.
And I have learned how to look at these things and I say,

I wouldn’t live there if you paid me.
I couldn’t live like that, no siree!
I couldn’t do the things the way those people do.
I couldn’t live there if you paid me to.

I guess it’s healthy, I guess the air is clean.
I guess those people have fun with their neighbors and friends.
Look at that kitchen and all of that food.
Look at them eat it’ guess it tastes real good.

They grow it in the farmlands
And they take it to the stores
They put it in the car trunk
And they bring it back home
And I say …

I say, I wouldn’t live there if you paid me.
I couldn’t live like that, no siree!
I couldn’t do the things the way those people do.
I wouldn’t live there if you paid me to.

I’m tired of looking out the windows of the airplane
I’m tired of travelling, I want to be somewhere.
It’s not even worth talking
About those people down there.

Goo Goo Ga Ga Ga
Goo Goo Ga Ga Ga

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Talking Heads has released many songs over the years besides The Big Country. Talking Heads released songs from 1977 to 1988 spanning across albums like Talking Heads 77, More Songs About Buildings & Food, Fear Of Music, Remain In Light, Speaking In Tongues, Little Creatures, True Stories, and Naked. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by Talking Heads.

About Lyrics and The Big Country by Talking Heads

The lyrics for The Big Country are defined as the words making up the song released by Talking Heads in 1978. It also includes the verses and words used by the background chorus in the song. Like many hit songs, the lyrics to The Big Country have different meanings to different people. While it is clear in some of the lyrics what the artist is trying to really say, only Talking Heads and those working with them know all of the meanings behind all of the lyrics to their songs.

Some folks are interested in word and phrase etymology. It is easy to understand the lyrics to The Big Country by Talking Heads if you think through it. The word "lyric" itself derives from the Latin word lyricus, with the actual English word lyrics applied to the definition "words set to music" listed in Stainer and Barrett's 1876 Dictionary of Musical Terms. Continuing the chain, the Latin word lyricus derives from the Greek word λυρικός or lyrikós. This somewhat means "poetry accompanied by the lyre" or "words set to music." You can easily see that by looking at the background of the word lyric, that the "lyrics to The Big Country" means the words set to the music of The Big Country, or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by Talking Heads. The singular form "lyric" is still used to mean the complete words to a song. However, the singular form lyric is also commonly used to refer to a specific line (or phrase) within a song's lyrics. Hence, by this analysis of word structure, you could say that the lyric to The Big Country and the lyrics to The Big Country are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of Talking Heads who came here looking just for the lyrics to The Big Country, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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