Talking Heads

best packaging trick, I have that one as well

that record blew my mind at age 13

Me too, that was the first Heads I heard. A friend at school lent it to me. At the time I thought they always sounded like that, having no idea till years later that they’d started as a minimalist pop group.

I knew "Take Me To The River" and "Psycho Killer" from the radio but FoM was my first exposure to their truly weird arty side

"Animals" and "Drugs" both kind of freaked me out

“Never listen…to electric guitars”

The new wave aesthetic does nothing for me but I have a soft spot for these weirdos thanks to my folks

that summer

(ie December-February, off the Wenders)

Animals think they're pretty smart

The Name Of This Band Is Talking Heads live album was my introduction and it's still my fave of theirs - especially the later expanded one.

I really really need to get that, I only know the original 2LP

I listened to it today. Tina and Chris really are an all-time great rhythm section tbrr

I wish there was more band+Belew live recordings, I think that’s my favourite cacophony

Also it’s strange, my memory of TH studio albums (esp Food and Fear) usually harkens back to Byrne’s vocals and their idiosyncrasies, it’s kinda nuts to listen again and be floored by the hard-panned ticky-tack guitar insanity and the rock-solid grooves, no band went harder

Byrne was a great rhythm guitarist and an often great lead guitarist.

His rhythm playing on “Found a Job” is some of my favorite ever.

No surprise that they were inspired (for at least one track) by Joy Division.

supposedly they had never actually heard them though?

Yeah, that was the gimmick in writing "The Overload."

I'm glad Weymouth in the SITV liner notes observed that she wished Byrne got as much attention for his guitar as for his singing and songwriting.

xp Supposedly lol

It just occurred to me that TH and JD both heavily impacted the development of what I guess is called "post-punk," and there are similarities in style and approach.

I got into TH in 1990 (just before the breakup news) and bought most of their albums on cassette, but my copy FoM was on vinyl. These were the waning days where major label back catalogue was still available on the format: big Super Saver sticker, clear plastic inner. Probably the mystique of the black monolith, ominous title, and potential for damage (I had a history with vinyl) made it the more thrilling purchase.

IIRC, the original sleeve had texture to it. I always thought it was supposed to look like textured, painted metal.

yeah it's a manhole cover

Pitchfork gave a 10 to both Fear of Music and Remain in Light.

While it's probably obvious that Eno and John Cale were big influences on David Byrne, I start to hear so much of him in their 80s & 90s vocals (and in so many others, like some of that Tom Verlaine solo stuff). I really wonder what that was like and how tempting/inescapable his style was.

My big sister lent me her Little Creatures tape in 1986

Huh. Now that I think of it, I should probably give it back to her.

I've never seen a copy of FoM on vinyl that didn't have the textured sleeve.

I am listening to the album right now. It's still a 10. IMHO their best album.

they are out there, but later pressings I think - at some point I upgraded

(xp)

'Lifetime Piling Up' is all-time IMO

“Lifetime Piling Up” has some of Byrne’s absolute best lyrics ever. Just a stunner

I think about that song a lot when life gets chaotic and overwhelming.

I can’t tell you how often I think “how did I get here?”

Different song, but yeah

Oh, yeah. I was talking about two different things but did not put in a transition.

Overwhelmed - Lifetime Piling Up

Baffled at where I have wound up - Once in a Lifetime

Sexy times - Popsicle of Love

I've probably blabbed on upthread about it, but I love the live versions of My Big Hands that they played through the years, kinda wish it had made it into Stop Making Sense instead of Big Business.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5ZbHHdiKUs

yeah that songs a gem, I was over the moon when he played it on the "songs of byrne & eno" tour. shame it never got the full TH studio treatment. (or maybe it did, per Andy Zax?)

Didn't the Heads play "Big Blue Plymouth" too?

oh yeah!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2XRkkCVNRk

“Big Business” is one of the highlights of the film.

have had the b-52s "mesopotamia" as my alarm clock lately (there's a fade in, and then a solid second or two before the groove kicks in and then you have to wake up)

but while I was looking up other Byrne production credits I found that he apparently co-produced/performed on Selena's final recording?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fz0vIVqZohY

which is... great? this absolutely should have been a full length record and a tour, and in the mid nineties, what a loss

^^Recorded for the Don Juan DeMarco soundtrack.

Oh wow

Good song, yeah.

He also produced the Fun Boy Three.

His collaboration with Celia Cruz is pretty good. Would love to know who plays on it, but I can't find credits on Discogs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqR2r6toaEg

It's on Rei Momo too -- a host of great Latin musicians.

Guests on Rei Momo look interesting: Willie Colon, Johnny Pacheco and even Herbert Vianna from Os Paralamas do Sucesso.

Seeing a bunch of other serious names there to make me smile, not going to type them all.

My intro to Byrne generally. The singing is hard for me to take these days.

Decided to write about the new deluxe reissue of Stop Making Sense (double LP, has all the songs from the movie) for the next BA newsletter, out on Wednesday.

My piece on Stop Making Sense (and subjecting my parents to same).

^well done!