The band name Talking Heads was adopted from a euphemism for a tight close-up shot of a news anchor’s face, and the New York quartet’s lyrics often reflected frontman David Byrne’s interest in broadcast media, with frequent references to television and radio. And “Found a Job,” from the band’s second album More Songs About Buildings and Food, put forward a vision of what television could be that was prescient in 1978.

“Found a Job” opens with Byrne shouting on the very first beat of the song: “Damn that television! What a bad picture!” The song’s protagonists Bob and Judy realize that they’d be better off “making up their own shows,” and soon they’ve gotten their friends and family involved, and they’ve got a hit.

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In 1978, there weren’t many TV options outside of the big three networks. Going DIY in television seemed more far-fetched than in the music world, and at the time even insurgent punk bands like Talking Heads and their friends the Ramones recorded for a major label, the Warner Bros. subsidiary Sire Records. “Found a Job,” which features one of Tina Weymouth’s finest basslines, presented a whimsical premise that was, at least on a small scale, already happening on public access television. But listening to the song now, you can’t help but think about all the regular people entertaining each other on modern video platforms like YouTube and TikTok today.

Jonathan Demme’s classic 1984 concert film Stop Making Sense opens with Byrne performing solo and gradually being joined by each bandmate over the course of the set’s first four songs. The last member to join the quartet, guitarist and keyboardist Jerry Harrison, comes out for the performance of “Found a Job.” As the band plays the song, stagehands quietly continue to bring out equipment in preparation for the expanded lineup of auxiliary musicians that will arrive soon after.

Three more essential Talking Heads deep cuts:

“Sugar on My Tongue”

“Sugar on My Tongue” was an early Talking Heads demo that remained unreleased until it opened the career-spanning retrospective Popular Favorites 1976-1992: Sand in the Vaseline. Its chorus was interpolated on “Sugar (Gimme Some),” a Trick Daddy song that became a Top 40 hit in 2005.

“Memories Can’t Wait”

“Memories Can’t Wait” is the turbulent, almost nightmarish song that closes the first side of 1979’s Fear of Music, and it features one of the best bridges in the Talking Heads catalog.

“Radio Head”

In 2019, David Byrne inducted Radiohead into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and reflected on the band taking inspiration from a track on 1986’s True Stories. “I was surprised and very flattered when Radiohead stated that they had named themselves after a song that I’d written,” he said. “But I had to ask myself, ‘Why that song?’ I still haven’t been able to figure it out. In a certain way I don’t wanna know. This was a kind of goofy Tex-Mex song.”

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