“Crosseyed And Painless” by Talking Heads

"Crosseyed and Painless" comes off Remain in Light, Talking Heads' fourth album, out in October 1980, and it's a dance groove with a nervous breakdown riding on top. The track clatters with cowbell loops, congas, bells, clipped staccato guitar and electronic blips, a rhythm with a strong African pull, while David Byrne plays a paranoid, alienated city dweller buckling under his surroundings. The rhythmic rant he slips into owes a debt to old-school rap, Kurtis Blow's "The Breaks" in particular, a record Chris Frantz had handed him.

Brian Eno produced and sang backing vocals, and the music is credited to all five, Jerry Harrison and Tina Weymouth included. Issued in the US as a promo single and in Germany as a proper one the next year, it missed the main US chart but reached 20 on the dance chart, the band's best showing there, and became their second video.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.