‘Psycho Killer’ is a song by American rock band Talking Heads, released on their debut studio album Talking Heads: 77 (1977). The group first performed it as the Artistics in 1974. The band's "signature debut hit" features lyrics which seem to represent the thoughts of a serial killer. Originally written and performed as a ballad, ‘Psycho Killer’ became what AllMusic calls a "deceptively funky new wave/no wave song" with "an insistent rhythm, and one of the most memorable, driving basslines in rock & roll."
‘Psycho Killer’ was the only song from the album to appear on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, peaking at number 92. It reached number 32 on Australia’s Triple J Hottest 100 in 1989, and peaked at number 11 on the Dutch singles chart in 1977. The song is included in The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.
The song was composed near the beginning of the band's career and prototype versions were performed onstage as early as December 1975. When it was finally completed and released as a single in December 1977, ‘Psycho Killer’ became instantly associated in popular culture with the contemporaneous Son of Sam serial killings. Although the band always insisted that the song had no inspiration from the notorious events, the single's release date was "eerily timely"[12] and marked by a "macabre synchronicity".
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. In the liner notes of Once in a Lifetime: The Best of Talking Heads, Byrne says: “When I started writing this (I got help later), I imagined Alice Cooper doing a Randy Newman-type ballad. Both the Joker and Hannibal Lecter were much more fascinating than the good guys. Everybody sort of roots for the bad guys in movies.”
Label – SireSongwriters – David Byrne, Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth
Producers – Tony Bongiovi, Lance Quinn
SONG LYRICS
[Verse 1]I can't seem to face up to the facts
I'm tense and nervous and I can't relax
I can't sleep 'cause my bed's on fire
Don't touch me, I'm a real live wire
[Chorus]
Psycho killer, qu'est-ce que c'est?
Fa-fa-fa-fa, fa-fa-fa-fa-fa, fa, better
Run, run, run, run, run, run, run away
Oh, oh
Psycho killer, qu'est-ce que c'est?
Fa-fa-fa-fa, fa-fa-fa-fa-fa, fa, better
Run, run, run, run, run, run, run away
Oh, oh, oh, oh, aye-ya-ya-ya-ya
[Verse 2]
You start a conversation, you can't even finish it
You're talking a lot, but you're not saying anything
When I have nothing to say, my lips are sealed
Say something once, why say it again?
[Chorus]
Psycho killer, qu'est-ce que c'est?
Fa-fa-fa-fa, fa-fa-fa-fa-fa, fa, better
Run, run, run, run, run, run, run away
Oh, oh
Psycho killer, qu'est-ce que c'est?
Fa-fa-fa-fa, fa-fa-fa-fa-fa, fa, better
Run, run, run, run, run, run, run away
Oh, oh, oh, oh, aye-ya-ya-ya-ya
[Bridge]
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, okay
Aye-ya-ya-ya-ya-ya-ya-ya-ya-ya-ya-yeah
We are vain and we are blind
I hate people when they're not polite
[Chorus]
Psycho killer, qu'est-ce que c'est?
Fa-fa-fa-fa, fa-fa-fa-fa-fa, fa, better
Run, run, run, run, run, run, run away
Oh, oh
Psycho killer, qu'est-ce que c'est?
Fa-fa-fa-fa, fa-fa-fa-fa-fa, fa, better
Run, run, run, run, run, run, run away
Oh, oh, oh, oh, aye-ya-ya-ya-ya
Ooh
[Guitar Solo]
[Outro]
Hey, hey, hey, hey