"Psycho Killer" is a song by Talking Heads from their 1977 album Talking Heads: 77, written by David Byrne, Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth. The band's "signature debut hit"^[1] features lyrics which seem to represent the thoughts of a serial killer. Allmusic calls it a "deceptively funky New Wave/No Wave song ... [with] an insistent rhythm, and one of the most memorable, driving bass lines in rock & roll."^[2]

"Psycho Killer" was the only song from the album to appear on the Billboard charts, peaking at 92 among Billboard Pop Singles. It placed 32nd on the Triple J Hottest 100 in 1989.

Lyrics

According to the preliminary lyric sheets copied onto the 2006 remaster of Talking Heads: 77, the song started off as a semi-narrative of the killer actually committing murders. Byrne has said of the song:

The bridge lyrics are in French and include the prominent chorus line, "Qu'est-ce que c'est ?", which translates in English to "What is it?". The rest of the French lyrics are:

Ce que j'ai fait ce soir-là

Ce qu'elle a dit ce soir-là'

Réalisant mon espoir

Je me lance vers la gloire... OK

What I did, that evening

What she said, that evening

Fulfilling my hope

Headlong I go for glory... OK

An early demo version of the song, recorded at CBS Studios, and also performed at CBGB had different lyrics after the first chorus:

Listen to me, now I?ve passed the test

I think I?m cute, I think I?m the best

Skirt tight, don't like that style

Don?t criticize what I know is worthwhile

Later releases

A live version was released on The Name of This Band Is Talking Heads in 1982. Two years later, another live version was included on the soundtrack for Stop Making Sense, the band's 1984 concert movie. The film opens with Byrne alone onstage, announcing "Hi. I've got tape I want to play...[and] strumming maniacally like Richie Havens"^[2], playing an acoustic version of "Psycho Killer", backed only by a Roland TR-808 drum machine whose sound appears to be issuing from a boom box. The drum machine "fires" machine gun riffs that causes Byrne to stagger "like Jean Paul Belmondo in the final minutes of 'Breathless,' a hero succumbing, surprised, to violence that he'd thought he was prepared for." ^[3]

The song also appears on their 1992 compilation album Sand in the Vaseline: Popular Favorites and over a decade later on another compilation album, The Best of Talking Heads.

Influence

Rapper Ice-T says that "Psycho Killer" was a starting influence for Body Count's controversial hit "Cop Killer".^[4]

The song has been covered by bands such as The Bobs^[5], Brand New, Julie Christensen^[5], Velvet Revolver (in Melody and the Tyranny^[5]), Cage the Elephant, Local H, Barenaked Ladies (on Buck Naked), Phish^[5], Antiseen^[5], Richard Thompson^[5], Faker, Moxy Früvous^[5], Terrorvision^[5], The Flying Pickets (on Lost Boys^[5]), Rico^[5], The Faint, Bishop Allen, The Kransky Sisters, and Two Sheds^[5]. There is also an operatic version by Kate Miller-Heidke, and a version in Polish ("Psychobójca") by Mariusz Lubomski.

Massachusetts-based band The Fools released a cover version in 1979, with parody lyrics entitled "Psycho Chicken"; it was included as a bonus record with their major-label debut album Sold Out in 1980 and released in a live version on their 2003 live album The F In Beach Album.

"Psycho Killer" is used in the 1999 film Summer of Sam and during the closing credits of the 2006 film Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon. It is featured as a playable track in Rock Band 2, and a segment of it is heard during Treehouse of Horror XIX.

References