About The Song
“And She Was” is a song by the American band Talking Heads, from their 1985 album Little Creatures. The song was written by David Byrne, who also provides the lead vocals. It reached No. 54 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and No. 17 on the British singles chart. The accompanying music video was directed by avant-garde filmmaker Jim Blashfield, who cites the style of Terry Gilliam as one of his major influences.
The song is musically notable for its unusual use of modulation. The overall key of the song is E major; however, the bridge to the chorus is in F major. The second bridge back to the verse is in the key of G major (Chords B minor to G major, “She was glad about it…”)
“I used to know a blissed-out hippie-chick in Baltimore,” recalled Byrne in the liner notes of Once in a Lifetime: The Best of Talking Heads. “She once told me that she used to do acid (the drug, not music) and lay down on the field by the Yoo-hoo chocolate soda factory. Flying out of her body, etc etc. It seemed like such a tacky kind of transcendence… but it was real! A new kind of religion being born out of heaps of rusted cars and fast food joints. And this girl was flying above it all, but in it too.”
Drummer Chris Frantz said of the song, “It’s a story about a woman who has the power to levitate above the ground and to check out all her neighbors from a kind of bird’s eye view. And the guy who’s writing the song is in love with her and he kinda wishes she would just be more normal and, like, come on back down to the ground [Laughs], but she doesn’t. She goes floating over the backyard and past the buildings and the schools and stuff and is absolutely [upside-down] to him in every way.”
Video
Lyrics
Hey!
And she was lying in the grass
And she could hear the highway breathing
And she could see a nearby factory
She’s making sure she is not dreaming
See the lights of a neighbor’s house
Now she’s starting to rise
Take a minute to concentrate
And she opens up her eyes
The world was moving she was right there with it and she was
The world was moving she was floating above it and she was
And she was
And she was drifting through the backyard
And she was taking off her dress
And she was moving very slowly
Rising up above the earth
Moving into the universe and she’s
Drifting this way and that
Not touching the ground at all and she’s
Up above the yard
The world was moving, she was right there with it and she was
(Hey, hey)
The world was moving, she was floating above it and she was
(Hey, hey, hey)
She was proud about it, no doubt about it
She isn’t sure about what she’s done
No time to think about what to tell him
No time to think about what she’s done and she was
(Hey hey, hey hey, hey)
And she was looking at herself
And things were looking like a movie
She had a pleasant elevation
She’s moving out in all directions oh, oh oh
Hey, hey, hey
Hey-hey, hey, hey
Hey, hey, hey-hey hey!
Hey, hey, hey
Hey-hey, hey, hey
Hey, hey, hey-hey hey!
The world was moving, she was right there with it and she was
(Hey, woo hoo)
The world was moving, she was floating above it and she was
(Hey, hey)
Joining the world of missing persons and she was
Missing enough to feel all right and she was
And she was
And she was
And she was
And she was
And she was
Hey!
And she was!
And she was
And she was!