Don't Worry About The Government I see the wind that moves the clouds away 'Till there ain't a cloud in sight, it's stopped raining ... a perfect day to visit a building The intro is so simple, yet it works. Another upbeat song with good bass, clever rhythm guitar and keyboards and the drum fills are predictable but effective ... ratatata splash ! Byrne paints the no worry landscape without a problem (actually he does struggle to sing I will relax ... ) Strong different sections make this another great album track, about a building, highway, government and certainly not meeeeeee : 5/5
Don't Worry This is one of my favorite songs of all time. An almost entirely unique perspective that has genuinely changed the way I think about the world. David Byrne takes the Modern Lovers song Government Center and turns it into an entire treatise on the pleasures of organization, safety, and the modern life. Dispute small little peeps at potential paranoia and the overall tenor of the local performance at the only tells that this might not be 100% earnest, but even if it's only 95% earnest, it has done its job in communicating a perspective that has barely ever been articulated in popular culture. Throw in a catchy melody and wonderful musical articulation and you end up with a true pop masterpiece. 5/5
Don't Worry About The Government. 5/5 Just great and uniquely artful. Of course I prefer the live "Name of This Band" version over the album. There's something really genuinely touching about the "I'll put down what I'm doing, my friends are important" line - and there's almost no artist around that could come up with and deliver that line the way Byrne does.
Don't Worry Great song- one of the best on this album. Really showcases what made them such a great and unique band. 5/5
Another lyrically dense song, Don't Worry About the Government wanders all over the place (another song about buildings). Chris and Tina are so perfectly synchronized in this song, sounding simple but very inventive. David’s lyric is relentless and drives the melody, and Chris’s guitars (plus a keyboard) provide a ton of texture. This is a winner and one of my favorites in the band’s whole catalog. 5/5.
"Don't Worry About the Government" The first song that won me over the first couple of times I listened to the debut album. I still love it. 5/5
Well said. Other vocalists do things that sound like they're trying to emulate Byrne's singing style, but no one else ever makes it seem so organic and natural, so much like it's an indispensable part of the song. (Adrian Belew comes to mind: to me his vocals are like, "Hey! I'm being weird! I'm so totally weird! Can you stand how WEIRD I am??? HUH??????")
Don’t Worry About The Government - 5/5 Everything about this track hits the nail. The up-beat sing-song melody, the odd perspective perfectly conveyed by Byrne’s singing, great complementary twin guitar parts, the bouncing bass, the drumming, transitions between different sections with the lyrics spilling from one into the next. The live WCOZ rendition is similarly fantastic. Really like this song.
Don’t Worry About The Government Probably my favorite TH lyric of the entire era. The song itself is great, but it’s those words that penetrate my brain every time. Highlight of the album. 5/5
"Don't Worry About the Government" - I think this song is about 5-20% ironic, particularly coming three years after Nixon resigned as a result of the Watergate scandal, but the desire to live in a well-ordered world, where things just work, and people look out for each other, is a sincere one. The live version is superior, but either way this is a compelling, upbeat song. 4/5
Don't Worry About The Government The first time I heard this I thought it was kind of dumb, but after many years of listening to it over and over, it's impossible not to be completely charmed by this song. It fits the vibe of the album like a glove, and it comes across as so sincere and delightfully weird that it puts me in a positive mood regardless of how things are going in my day. I think several other songs on the album are better, but I have to give this the highest score, even if, subjectively, it resides in a lower section of the range. 5/5
Don’t you worry ‘bout meeeeeeeee Isn’t that just a brilliant way to end what is a neatly brilliant song? Byrne revels in the mundane, the ordinary, the little people going about their lives, without fuss. But somehow he makes the whole scenario so touching, imbuing the song with emotion and love. “I’ll put down what I’m doing, my friends are important”. What a gorgeous line that is! As with every song on this quietly marvellous album, the band are totally onboard with Byrne’s vision. Such great musicians, playing for the song, playing through the song. Yes the live versions may have a touch more oomph and Byrne gets a tad more enervated, but the studio cut brings a lump to my throat as it’s so innocent and pure. Love it. 5/5
"Don't Worry About the Government" Truly classic in every way. Byrne's eclectic worldview is utterly transcendent here, to the point where I wonder what inspired him to write about his building, legislation and civil servants... No matter. 5/5 and I would support legislation to bump it to 6/5. Who will support my petition?
Revisiting this album thanks to this thread I'd sort of half-forgotten how incredibly strong it is. What's remarkable is that there are even better albums to come, at least 4 or 5 I'd rate above 77. This is of course a classic, no other band would have a song called that, a song like this, a song sung and played like this. 4/5 - because there's better to come.
Don't Worry About The Government - David comes across like a chatty little bird on this song and it's just so dang... cute. Charming, sincere as others have noted. I heard/read one of the full band reunion interviews this past year... can't remember where now, but Frantz referenced this song as an example of their unique identity and perspective early on. David chimed in that the part about the building having every convenience came from a genuine desire to better their current NYC digs which were basically squalor and crime ridden. This was another track that really stood out for how ambitious it was underneath its breezy delivery. Most bands would have taken that "Don't you worry about me" hook for a chorus, add a verse part and call it a day. Instead we get like 4 or 5 hooks and each one catchier than the next as they cycle through, though each one wouldn't necessarily stand on its own... most of these songs are greater than the sum of their parts, though the parts are pretty neat. One thing that struck me on this most recent listen was Frantz's drumming. I love the extra juice he gives it on the "every convenience" bits, and his slinky high-hat groove along with the Fender Rhodes to end the tune is really tasteful, intricate and rock solid all at once. He really makes all the different moving parts lock together seamlessly the whole song.
Just something magical about the way "Don't Worry About the Government" comes together, a joyful romp that playfully avoids too much bureacracy... prime Talking Heads!
Don't Worry About the Government I guess I'll try taking a stab at the rating game. It makes more sense than saying I like a particular song slightly less than another. In which case I'll give this song a 4/5 on an album full of fours and fives for me. I have no idea how much this song is sincere and how much is sarcasm, but I always lean on more sincerity than sarcasm, which would certainly be a more unique response for someone growing up at the tail end of the sixties. The song having such a happy and optimistic sound leads me to that conclusion as well. I hear one of the lines in this song often. I have a long time friend, whose response, whenever I call him and ask if he was in the middle of anything, says "I always put down what I'm doing, my friends are important to me." And I'm sure he's always sincere.
