Talking Heads

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-_PC6TlIhs&list=PLhnmhDNF1JJgdRw46c-l-CY8dtfUU5PF8

wonderful, thanks!

What do people here think of Byrne's musical/oddball comedy TRUE STORIES (1986)? I think it's
immensely funny and heartfelt simultaneously. It could've become a disastrous vanity project, but I
believe it's an amazing achievement. Shame that he's never directed another fictional feature.

After a decade of writing off this band as overrated and trading in all of their albums, I've decided to give them a second try and dive back in headfirst.

My main takeaways at this point are:

—Remain in Light is so dark! I don't remember it being so slow and, well, dreary. I love it!
—More Songs About Buildings and Food is roughly fifty times better than I remember it being. Every song is catchy as heck.
—Little Creatures is probably my most listened to album of theirs and it's held up really well.
—The biggest rediscovery has been 'This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody).' That song is so good, jeez.
—True Stories and Naked are really a lot better than their reputations.

It's funny what a little passing of time can do for one's attitude toward music. I don't think the Talking Heads are destined to become my favorite anything, but this reassessment has at least got me truly enjoying their music for the first time ever.

my next poll, i expect it to break records.

about a year away. i think.

—True Stories and Naked are really a lot better than their reputations.

Did Naked have a bad rep? I remember it being praised in a "daring return to form!" kind of way.

Well, I wasn't there at the time, so all I've heard through the years was that it was not up to previous standards.

live recordings are so so so crucial

Good discussion: Talking Heads: Naked poll

to summarize: one of those return-to-form albums labeled as such after critics had liked-not-loved the last but forgotten by the end of the year

—True Stories and Naked are really a lot better than their reputations.

haha -- no they're not

Austin, what about 77?

to summarize: one of those return-to-form albums labeled as such after critics had liked-not-loved the last but forgotten by the end of the year

Yeah, I think the fact that WXRT in Chicago played the shit out of Naked's 2-3 standout tracks for years is why I thought it's reputation was better than it is. I haven't listened to it in years, not do I particularly feel compelled to.

And True Stories, ugh, what an uncomfortably forced pile of garbage. It was one of those records I listened to more than it deserved, trying in vain to convince myself that there had to be more to it than one-dimensional self-parody.

Little Creatures is still wonderful, though. I remember hearing "And She Was" in a record store on its release day and thinking, "man, I hope the new Talking Heads record I'm about to buy is as good as whatever this is."

I played the shit out of naked when it came out and still have a lot of fondness for it

I could never get into Little Creatures and True Stories, although I gave the former another spin the other day and I didn't hate it.

Naked is great though. Very little I don't like on that album.

live recordings are so so so crucial

otm - the expanded edition of the name of this band is talking heads is amazing

I like Little Creatures and True Stories, the production on the latter is a little ugly though.

whatever happened to Eric 'ET' Thorngren? he seemed to specialise in this sort of boxy, thudding mid-80s R&B tinged rock music and was everywhere for a few years and then disappeared (he also seems to have worked as an engineer on a lot of Sugar Hill Records stuff)

he also engineered Robert Palmer's records from the period

Records that invented the box

otm - the expanded edition of the name of this band is talking heads is amazing

This is ultimate truth btw

for the 1st or 2nd half? I'm not so sure about the later performances on there, but the earlier ones are superb.

the later ones are great too. a rare case of a band for whom the live versions are often better than the studio ones.

I love the earlier stuff on the name of this band is talking heads and the later stuff on stop making sense

Hmm, in my reassessment, I've not delved into the live stuff at all.

for the 1st or 2nd half?

They're totally different but I think it's the conjunction that makes it. Your jaw drops when you realize one band could do both these things.

xp you can only get 'clean break' live, and it is all time. stop making sense 'this must be the place' is also amazing (and annoyingly not on the vinyl)

There's also that funny period around '82 when they were adding into the set solo Byrne and Harrison songs like Slink, Big Blue Plymouth and the fantastic My Big Hands.

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

what i love most about Buildings & Food is how concise it is. There's no fat on that record - just short sharp bursts of punky pop music

first disc of material on the name of this band... is uniformly better than 77 imo, maybe equal to more songs, the songs have a lot more bite to them and i love how up-front and clean everything is. for the later stuff / 2nd disc i prefer the studio versions to live... i know it gets said a lot but eno's input on those records is just >>> whereas the songs live are huge and fun and really cool but a little too messy for my taste.

I listened to Little Creatures a while back and was like wow, they really did get boring all at once, huh?

You Heads heads have heard the CBS demos, yes?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18OWqrF1KMA&list=PL678A752E5B0F458C

Wow, their sound was fully formed so early on. That's fun stuff!

Little Creatures is the one that was considered a return to form, but I never liked it much, singles aside. (Where Radiohead got its name!). I remain a fan of Naked, but its highs are much higher than its lows.

I remember reading that Bob Babbitt (Motown session bassist) claimed he overdubbed all of Tina's parts on 77. I thought, what's the point? All live evidence from that time shows Tina's playing as being absolutely perfect and essential to what made TH great...why have someone re-do it in such a way that no one can tell the difference?

In looking it up, I found this thread, in which engineer Ed Stasium chimes in:

Tina played bass on the ENTIRE LP, Bob Babbitt did come in and overdub on one or maybe two songs but at the mixing stage I did not put Babbitt's bass up in the mix and the "producers" knew none the better! I seem to recall that I may have "Ghosted" Bob on the chorus (for effect) of "Love Has Come To Town" under Tina's bass for alas, I was WAY on the band's side.

Little Creatures is the one that was considered a return to form, but I never liked it much, singles aside. (Where Radiohead got its name!). I remain a fan of Naked, but its highs are much higher than its lows.

― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, April 2, 2016 3:47 PM (35 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Are you thinking of True Stories? That's the record "Radio Head" is on.

Ha, was thinking of Television Man!

That Stasium quote is funny.

is there an ilm thread for albums where one or more of the band had their parts played by an uncredited session musician (or some other kind of ringer)?

Kiss would probably dominate that thread.

There could also be a thread on session musicians who claim to have played on records they didn't actually play and/or appear on (Babbitt with TH, Purdie on Beatles records, Carol Kaye with Motown, etc.).

Never understood what Purdie was up to with all that, has there ever been a consensus?

I've always thought the Bernard Purdie story was hilarious.

tbf, Purdie's drumming was in fact overdubbed on a Beatles' record, a quickie cash-in on Atco where he doubled Pete Best's parts from Hamburg-era recordings:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ain't_She_Sweet_%28album%29

But Purdie claimed that he played on "twenty one" Beatles tracks, and that "Ringo never played on anything."

I could never warm up entirely to Remain in Light. I was 7 when that was released and I guess it goes into my "I guess you had to be there" group of unrecognised (by me) masterpieces. it sounds cold and calculated to these ears which, for all I know, might be the actual pull of it. I love all the African references more than what they're doing with them.

conversely, I adore Naked and that's their masterpiece for me. differently from RIL, the African music there sounds lived-in (well, it's played by Parisian African musicians to begin with) and the songs are real songs, and are uniformly great.

I'm also one that loves Byrne solo more than the Heads. I like how he's progressed, both as songwriter and singer. I still listen to Rei Momo, the self-titled one, and Feelings, more than I do the Heads' albums combined, Naked notwithstanding.

Remain In Light, first side at least, is truly marvellous. The classic-era one I have most trouble with is Fear of Music for some reason.

I really only "got into" the Talking Heads this last year (yeah, I know), and for a long time it was because I couldn't hear what others raved about in Fear of Music. now I get it, but it's really "Cities" through "Animals" that's my favorite stretch by this band. "Electric Guitar" and "Drugs" are kinda annoying, though I think that's the point in both cases.

focus on the keyboards in "Drugs", that's what won me over.

"Electric Guitar" is such a clunker, though, indefensible imo

ok thanks I'll listen for that! that stretch I mentioned is good that I just leave it on to the end, but "Electric Guitar" loses my attention and so maybe I've never really focused on "Drugs" before.

Off the album I love Cities, Animals, Life During Wartime and especially Air, although generally I prefer the live versions of all those songs. Mind and Paper do very little for me. I just don't think they're very good songs and they sound like offcuts from previous albums that didn't make it. Drugs and Electric Guitar (and the Overload off RIL) all seem to be trying for a sort of gothy thing that I'm not fond of. SO yeah it's a patchy one for me.