Song · Talking Heads
“Swamp” by Talking Heads
From the album Speaking in Tongues (1983)
“Swamp” by Talking Heads appears on 13 radio countdowns from 3 stations between 1989 and 2026. It was first released in 1983 on the album Speaking in Tongues. Its best result is #224 on the WOXY Modern Rock 500 (1991). In the combined RockLists rankings it is #1,397 alternative song of all time.
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"Swamp" lurks on Speaking in Tongues, the 1983 album Talking Heads produced themselves, with Alex Sadkin engineering and mixing. All four members share the music credit and David Byrne wrote the words, and the instruments swap hands freely: Byrne on bass, guitar, keyboards and percussion, Tina Weymouth on bass, guitar and synthesizer, Chris Frantz on drums and synthesizer, Jerry Harrison on guitar and keyboards, plus guests Wally Badarou on synthesizer and Alex Weir on guitar.
It lives up to its name: a low, muddy funk crawl with Byrne leering and yelping over the top like a preacher gone bad, the band coiled around him in a groove that never lets go.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz.
RockLists rankings
Alternative & Modern Rock
Indie & Adult Alternative
All Rock Formats
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1989 | 245 | WOXY 97X | WOXY Modern Rock 500 (1989) | 500 |
| 1991 | 224 | WOXY 97X | WOXY Modern Rock 500 (1991) | 500 |
| 1999 | 556 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2000 Songs of All-Time (December 1999) | 2000 |
| 2000 | 556 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2001 Songs of All-Time (December 2000) | 2001 |
| 2001 | 556 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2002 Songs of All-Time (December 2001) | 2002 |
| 2002 | 556 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2003 Songs of All-Time (December 2002) | 2003 |
| 2003 | 556 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2004 Songs of All-Time (December 2003) | 2004 |
| 2004 | 556 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2005 Songs of All-Time (December 2004) | 2005 |
| 2005 | 558 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2006 Songs of All-Time (December 2005) | 1994 |
| 2007 | 1427 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2008 Songs of All-Time (December 2007) | 2008 |
| 2008 | 1386 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2009 Songs of All-Time (December 2008) | 2009 |
| 2023 | 695 | The Colorado Sound | The Colorado Sound Top 850 Songs of the 1980s | 850 |
| 2026 | 867 | The Colorado Sound | The Colorado Sound Top 1055 Songs You Discovered on The Colorado Sound | 1055 |
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