Lyric discussion by WeeKnighT 

the wikipedia on this ... In David Bowman's book This Must Be the Place: The Adventures of Talking Heads in the Twentieth Century, Byrne is quoted as describing the genesis of the song: "I wrote this in my loft on Seventh and Avenue A." And later, "I was thinking about Baader-Meinhof. Patty Hearst. Tompkins Square. This a song about living in Alphabet City." But I still agree with malachiconstant , Byrne is way too self-centered to sing about something like

"The song's lyrics tell of a civil insurrection in the USA (the cities Houston, Detroit and Pittsburgh are mentioned by name)" .....as mentioned earlier in the article.

The only line that I trip over is "We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, I know that ain't allowed" Where would he do that on tour?

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