goo goo, ga ga ga

Pitchfork on the Talking Heads reissue:

At times, Byrne gets a little punchy as well. . .adding a bitter tone to "The Big Country", transforming it from the hazy thoughts of an airplane traveler to a more combative rumination on the urban/rural divide. It would be a candidate for the official anthem of the mythical Blue States if the so-called culture wars and other right-wing chicanery continue to drive their regrettable wedge into the country.

The writer seems to me to have the wrong end of the stick, but still, it's hard to avoid thinking something like the above, isn't it? Even more: listening to the song brings back a moment when a reasonably well-known band could ride the path to success while writing a song that impugned the life of anyone who lived outside of Manhattan. For things like going to the supermarket. And then concluded it all with a chant mocking the infantilism of the objects of their contempt. Good times, good times. How many of those who, back in the day, righteously sang along with "I wouldn't live there if you paid me / I couldn't live like that, no sirree!" now live there, and like that? How many still do join in, driving along in the minivan with the stereo turned up?