In the "Self Interview" on the DVD of the concert film
Stop Making Sense (1984), Byrne states that it is a love song, a topic he tends to avoid because it is "kinda big." He also said of the song: According to the
Stop Making Sense commentary track, the title "Naive Melody" refers to the music. On the recording, the guitar and bass each repeat an
ostinato for the entire song. According to David Byrne, many professional musicians would not play a song written in that fashion, and that is what makes the melody naive. Byrne played the lead keyboard solo. Bassist
Tina Weymouth stated in the
liner notes of
Once in a Lifetime: The Best of Talking Heads (1992) that the song was created through "truly naive" experimentation with different instruments and
jamming. Weymouth played guitar, guitarist
Jerry Harrison played a
Prophet-5 synthesiser (including the bassline),
Wally Badarou used the same synthesizer to add the stabs, and Byrne switched between guitar and another Prophet-5 synthesizer, the latter of which he played using the
pitch modulation wheel and "campy" piano
glissandos.
Pitchfork later described the song as "an aberration for the Talking Heads. It was more of an exercise in understated musical hypnosis than polyrhythmic,
Kuti-quoting
funk, well-compressed instead of bursting at the seams, and (in its abashed way) it was a full-blown love song. [...] With 'This Must Be the Place', the band simplified their sound dramatically, condensing their sonic palette to the level of small
EKG blips (having switched instruments for a lark, this was nearly all they were able to reliably deliver chops-wise) and wringing out only a few chords." == Personnel ==