Talking Heads

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!

Your mom liked Blah Blah Blah? Cool!

Stop Making Sense may have been one of the few videocassettes carried by every Blockbuster in America.

I'm watching/listening to parts of Stop Making Sense while I work, and toward the end of "Take Me To The River" Byrne dons a red golf cap. Coupled with his overstuffed fat-suit pants he looks disarmingly like you-know-who.

great piece unperson. my parents weren't fans but pleasantly tolerated my constant playing of Sand in the Vaseline and Stop Making Sense in the early 90s. Later I took my buttoned-up dad to an outdoor screening of SMS in Toronto that was part of the 1999 rerelease and he had the time of his life, both the movie itself and the whole outdoor party vibe of the audience dancing & treating it like a real concert, a really nice memory.

Screening of the 4K restoration followed by a live Q&A with David Byrne, Tina Weymouth, Chris Frantz, and Jerry Harrison, moderated by NBC News and MSNBC journalist John Heilemann.

At the moment, only members can purchase tickets, but it's possible it's already sold out. Still, ticket prices are $55, $45 and $35 - I saw Byrne present a pristine print of the same film at a better movie theater (the Walter Reade at Lincoln Center) for like $15. I'd love to see them all reunited too, but it's just a Q&A for crying out loud.

(should clarify, the above is a screening in Brooklyn at the BAM Harvey Theater)

I first heard Talking Heads thru my parents; Little Creatures got a lot of rotation in our house at the time.

I also bonded with my dad over Stop Making Sense and Little Creatures was quite popular in our house as well. Stay Up Late came out when my brother was a baby and I was 10, so it was very relatable. Pretty sure my mom and I went to see True Stories in the theater multiple times, possibly Stop Making Sense as well.

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

His rhythm guitar performance on the Fun Boy Three's version of "Our Lips Are Sealed" is next level. I had admired it for years before discovering that it was Byrne's handiwork.

isn't he on "Kiss Me Again" as well?!? (Dinosaur)

yep!! so good

https://www.discogs.com/release/95382-Dinosaur-Kiss-Me-Again

Inspired by Alfred's social media post, I listened to (part 1) of the Bandsplain Talking Heads episode and enjoyed it very much. It was mostly history and context and quips and comments, and in fact, what little song-by-song rock crit commentary they offered I thought was entertaining but pretty boilerplate and/or sometimes just kind of half-assed. But the rest was overwhelmingly a fun, occasionally perceptive time.

As I listened, it got me thinking a lot about some similarities between ('70s) Talking Heads and the Pixies. You've got four kind of random people getting together in New England, ostensibly of a scene but pretty much unlike the other bands in the scene. You've got a remote and somewhat prickly but utterly original songwriter tackling unusual, often surreal subject matter in an unusual manner. You've got a feud between the singer and the (female) bassist, with the bassist eventually launching a concurrently, even competitively successful spin-off career. You've got an almost immediate cult impact and long-tail influence that continues to grow. You've got a singer that embarks on a prolific but still weirdly inconsequential solo career, with the rest of the band kind of going journeyman.

"Dig For Fire" is totally a late Talking Heads song too.

Good observation!

TIL Byrne plays guitar on “our lips are sealed” and “kiss me again”

I used to associate THs w/the Modern Lovers (and not just for the obvious reason) and early Unrest, for very specific reasons relating mainly to lyrical concerns; I saw these three bands as kind of a triptych across three different scenes/eras. But this notion probably doesn't hold up to much scrutiny.

Oof

According to Pixies frontman Black Francis, the song was "a bad Talking Heads imitation."

Sheesh, probably my favourite Pixies song. Be bad more often then, Frank

Dig For Fire verses are essentially Once In A Lifetime

Didn't realize this happened, but back in 2010, Crowded House did a show at the Bowery Ballroom, and after they launched into a note-perfect cover of "Once in a Lifetime," the crowd got a massive surprise when they heard David Byrne's voice singing the words:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0oOyqibGPY

Alternate view that isn't so jittery:

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

https://consequence.net/2023/08/jerry-harrison-talking-heads-healing-experience/

don't get my hopes up like this jerry!