The Name of This POLL Is...- ILM artist poll #82 - TALKING HEADS - (voting is open until Sunday March 26, 2017)

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/chd1mxBD0HZfFmxvBNmL7OqwsbiqWMguLff1SKT_r5-zL_GmEadDdv58sUWpznmX9IGwuIgyFGi1GXti3AE7150_qRSMBmc_bt_aTpy0tcWG-fZiyqEMhpRPPGdEjYzY10IE4YsXvx9t4JeyGIBWya9ejorOG0k0IWDGiiiPEYP0AqF9v87AXQziocFB2X34HFLhBYAfdoqBiMIe_tTMvdSMgH_3DP-PXr-Kod7l3xE72aoo3WHIkfI31QT1C1wIhY_yw8rOsvdEZGIPTicDVOpUHJvmfxpR1NIc9YaLvNUFS28NMoFUESe55HAOO-dZqU816lRDx18b-QALAlO_-ItYBX1ubxgHfKZsn32nuk-X779aC8VqYPcS-0b5OvMBQGeY9_6FIcAnuSpp-mJmFd_Aq5ygpAEfUSnifL5TnyJAUiL-fUIPArMzEKurpj3n5krPrPaS2196fB6r3q8XR_-n50hbXDNybihjRiRx3EQQaCwbfyIBLm4GUD5qMgVIbDAGIv_L3Ecm8F6nNWS3miBAmGCzheK4A9nelc0xcEHdfC8gMz59UbS1Enxf6LCt9OI74qkO-amFt_RA9QP6P8l7h9AYIivoXK_SnUStXx6IsNJhX56UENAEyIGfF6l51vHfgsavdDG3g_o7FhN99dYXFGNDg7iEbWJHIJqu=w960-h540-no

Ballot Part One (mandatory): Your Top 25 Talking Heads tracks (or less: min. 5). Please order your list with #1 at the top and #25 at the bottom, no need to number them. I will take unranked lists, just clearly state that yours is unranked.

Ballot Part Two (optional): Your Top 10 Solo or other group tracks (or less: min. 3). This list includes but not limited to: Tom Tom Club, Casual Gods plus The Heads. This part just needs to have one of the original group members connected to it or David Byrne, Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth, and/or Jerry Harrison. David Byrne and St. Vincent or Brian Eno, of course, counts.

[b]Ballot Part Three (optional): Your Top 8 Albums or less (min. 3). You can rank anything and in any order. For instance you might think that Tom Tom Club is better than Naked. This part is going to be really fun as we will see how how the other stuff stacks up against the cannon. I will accept compilations here so it will be interesting to see how something like [/i]Stop Making Sense[/i] stacks up against the studio.

Send ballots to: talkingheadspoll AT gmail dot com. Please include your user name.

Voting is open until Sunday, March 26, 2017 Midnight Los Angeles time zone (Pacific time).

damn, a few formatting hiccups.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talking_Heads_discography

recap real fast (as the code is hard to read):

1) Top 25 Songs
2) Top 10 Solo
3) Top 8 Albums

!!! I may have chosen exactly the right instant to reacquaint myself with ILX.

Just saw "Stop Making Sense" again over the weekend, I'm ready.

Already halfway through an A to Z relisten.

this is going to be fun...

Yes!

Have been waiting for this poll a long time. I guess now is the time to finally listen to True Stories, Life in the Bush of Ghosts, and the Tom Tom Club albums

whoa, even though there is a thread dedicated to the timing and order of ilm ballots, i didn't know this was coming! i can't wait!

Way more excited about "Drugs" on Name Of This Band than on FOM

I cannot believe that talking heads haven't already been polled

might submit a ballot just for "Everybody Hates Ned Flanders"

modern lovers gonna sweep this

woooooooooooooooo

OH MY GOD!!
Haven't taken part in a poll in ages but this is THE POLL OF POLLS

only 25 choices? I'm stumped at the first album as to what to leave out.. and it's not even my favourite album

Lol I can put "Roadrunner" in my top 10 Other Group tracks, can't I. Seems weird

"Lightning Crashes" in shocking #1

classic poll title, i am looking forward to relisten to their catalogue. only 12 days left, no time to waste.

Can't wait 'til 'Once In a Lifetime' tops this poll!

oh yeh
we are just rolling out first place right?

Can never do these things, but don't sleep on The Catherine Wheel.

I once played a Casual Gods tape at home and my dad asked what the racket was.

I have a lot of relistening to do.

Can never do these things, but don't sleep on The Catherine Wheel.

― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, March 14, 2017 7:45 AM

I got both doors open!

I slipped and I got POLLED, POLLED up

this is gonna be agonizing

I can probably do a ballot from memory, but I'm gonna do some relistening anyway. I was totally immersed in this band during late high school/early college.

shoutout to "A Clean Break" as an early peak

Can't wait 'til 'Once In a Lifetime' tops this poll!

― Coolio Iglesias (Turrican), Tuesday, March 14, 2017 11:24 AM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I'd place a friendly bet on you being wrong.

"Totally Nude" will hit #1 imo

That's actually a cool song that has only just dropped off the end of my ballot.

I don't feel like I can vote for the Modern Lovers, it feels wrong

ok i'm gonna participate in this if only just to (spoiler) v v prominently vote for "what a day that was"

Modern Lovers seems too much its own thing to be part of Talking Heads' orbit.

I need to relisten to decide where this band sits with me now. There's a lot of good songs that I'm not so interested in hearing anymore, like "Psycho Killer" and "Found a Job", and I doubt that I'll be voting for those.

suggested: "sugar on my tongue"

yeah that's another great early one

I suggest voting for any TH song with the word 'Pull' or 'Pulled' in the title

for pete's sake let's not forget about "the good thing", which everyone always forgets about. that's right, everyone - every single person on earth, and always - without exception, every single person on earth has forgotten about "the good thing".

suggested: "sugar on my tongue"

― Not raving but drooling (con tenderizer)

Raise your hands if Sand in the Vaseline meant a lot to you!

my first talking heads album! and yes yes yes

The Catherine Wheel is great, it's the missing link between Remain in Light and Speaking in Tongues

are the songs from it that Talking Heads performed on the Stop Making Sense tour eligible for both they solo & band track polls then?

For those that don't know about them, the 5.1 mixes are absolutely worth checking out

Raise your hands if Sand in the Vaseline meant a lot to you!

― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, March 14, 2017 10:56 AM (twelve minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

my first talking heads album! and yes yes yes

― Karl Malone, Tuesday, March 14, 2017 10:59 AM (nine minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^^^

*revisits debut*

*finds it difficult to not vote for every song on the debut already*

haha i think 3 of my top 5 are from 77
subject to change of course :)

are the songs from it that Talking Heads performed on the Stop Making Sense tour eligible for both they solo & band track polls then?

― ufo,

The Catherine Wheel is essential if you're a Heads fan imo

i'm trying to put together a list of side projects/solo albums to listen through. somehow i missed "bonzo goes to washington" all these years. lyrics by the Gipper!

Lifetime Piling up is a great outtake. So is Sax and Violins.

How will the poll differentiate between studio and live versions? Cause the Name of This Band version of "Houses in Motion" stomps all over the studio version.

Do these polls ever differentiate between studio and live versions?

"Sugar in my Tongue," "Sax and Violins," "Lifetime Piling Up," "I Want to Live" would make any list I'd write of essential outtakes.

looking forward to this one.

was going to say re live versions. the SMS versions of the Speaking In Tongues songs being a different league to their studio mixes etc. but i guess it can't be done.

For those that don't know about them, the 5.1 mixes are absolutely worth checking out

― Isi

yes, and if someone would be so kind as to PM me with the 5.1 Downmix version of "Life During Wartime", it was corrupted in my DL and my OCD brain craves it

Way more excited about "Drugs" on Name Of This Band than on FOM

― that's not my post, Tuesday, March 14, 2017 1:18 AM (ten hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^^^

I overlooked the debut when I first got into TH cos I was more interested int he mid-period stuff but yeah it's all-killer no-filler that one. As far as songs are concerned, Speaking In Tongues is a fantastic album overshadowed by the fact the live versions are better, but I like the reggae-tinged moments on that one a lot.

A little disappointed that the solo/side project stuff is a side poll because I really need to know where "Genius of Love" would end up if that stuff was allowed in the main poll.

Anyone else think the first two albums are 100% ruled by their second sides, even if you take the hits out of the mix?

New Feeling and especially No Compassion are faves off the first one. And shit, 'Warning Sign' and 'Found A Job' both amazing. So no.

yeah not at all. the second side of 77 is really killer though

New Feeling and especially No Compassion are faves off the first one. And shit, 'Warning Sign' and 'Found A Job' both amazing. So no.

wd agree, but even so

No Compassion - I mean, for a 'punk' band's first album, there's an incredible amount going on in that song if you sit down and pay attention to it.

A little disappointed that the solo/side project stuff is a side poll because I really need to know where "Genius of Love" would end up if that stuff was allowed in the main poll.

― cwkiii, Tuesday, March 14, 2017 10:28 AM (seventeen minutes ago)

Agreed, I'd like to be able to place solo stuff in the main poll (on a ballot expanded to 30 spots, say).

I don't have to prove... that I am creative. I DON'T HAVE-to proooove that I am creative

nearly 35 years down the road, speaking in tongues is still far & away my favorite talking heads album. that it was my entry point undoubtedly has everything to do with that. i recognize that they were taking much bigger artistic risks on fear of music and remain in light, developing their own musical language, but song-for-song, i just can't deny the tongues.

Controversial opinion: I don't like "Genius of Love," I think it is one of the most annoying songs ever made. And even if you disagree with me, and most of you probably do, there is no question it absolutely kills the momentum when integrated into "Stop Making Sense."

I've had almost every one of the TH albums be my favorite at one time or another, but not the first one and not "True Stories."

i like genius of love but the chris frantz interlude is just too much for me. it's just so fucking stupid that it ruins the rest of the song, which is brilliant.

i can imagine byrne listening to it at the time it was released, getting a little nervous that his bandmates might have outshined him, but then when it gets to the "james brown! james brown! james brown!" part he realizes that he can never have a serious conversation about music with chris frantz ever again and he immediately feels better

otm

I think More Songs was my first TH album. The Tina and the Typing Pool bits in "The Good Thing" are my earliest memory of loving this band.

i can imagine byrne listening to it at the time it was released, getting a little nervous that his bandmates might have outshined him, but then when it gets to the "james brown! james brown! james brown!" part he realizes that he can never have a serious conversation about music with chris frantz ever again and he immediately feels better

― Karl Malone, Tuesday, March 14, 2017 12:32 PM

then he opened up Billboard and read that Tina and Chris were getting a gold record before he was.

it's a fantastic song! and at least on the radio there's the option of fading it out before frantz completely ruins it.

it also ruins SMS

specifically, the chris frantz interlude. god damn that is a terrible interlude

Wait so just so this is clear: we are not voting for "Name of this Band is version of..." or "Stop Making Sense version of..." or "album version of..." tracks separately, or even specifying which version of the song we're voting for, just voting for the song full stop? Where the ranking is implicitly understood to mean "ranking of my personal favorite recording of this track?"

I believe that would be consistent with past polling practice

aww i love the james brown part of genius of love

Just vote for the songs. Why complicate things?

aww i love the james brown part of genius of love

― neva missa lost, wednesday nights on abc (voodoo chili), T

he is the Godfather of Soul, y'all!

voodoo, i want to understand, i want to love, i do

I don't feel particularly strongly about the Frantz parts. They're just part of the song. They're worse on the live version though.

I am intimately familiar with the first four or so albums and love them dearly--I need to dig a little deeper into the '80s for this poll, but I could prob make a 25-track ballot with just those songs.

aww i love the james brown part of genius of love

me too. same way i love the "knight in shining armor" part of emotional rescue.

Bohannon! Bohannon! Bohannon!

The Naked thread I started years ago has whatI thought was a fascinating discussion about the quickness with which the Heads' rep crashed after 1986 when they were, before R.E.M., the biggest college band in America.

as someone who was following them at the time, True Stories was considered a huge letdown among nearly everyone I knew

people were mostly still on board for Little Creatures

Coming of age in the 90s, I never heard anything about Talking Heads at all. It's like they'd been wiped from the collective memory. It wasn't until X-Press 2 and the whole DFA thing that I guess they came back into favour. Naked is a decent album. It's the ones before that that kind of suck a bit.

LC is their biggest-selling studio album iirc. My AOR station was all in on "And She Was" and "Road to Nowhere."

for a while it looked like "Road To Nowhere" was gonna eclipse "Naive Melody" as their best-known iconic tune, but I think that moment has passed

Coming of age in the 90s, I never heard anything about Talking Heads at all. It's like they'd been wiped from the collective memory. It wasn't until X-Press 2 and the whole DFA thing that I guess they came back into favour. Naked is a decent album. It's the ones before that that kind of suck a bit.

^^^ my experience too. When I dug into the catalog after nearly wearing out Sand in the Vaseline in late '92/early'93, they were verboten.

I made a Spotify playlist of all of the non-album material I could find, minus live versions and demos of songs that otherwise appear in album versions. Am I missing anything crucial?

yes!! this should be fun

also raising my hand for sand in the Vaseline being my first TH record, featured selection of the month/week whatever at columbia house

Ha, I got that one through Columbia House too.

My parents were in college in the late 70s and the Talking Heads were THE BAND of their college experience.

For some reason, I feel like the Heads are underdiscussed/underappreciated by people of my generation, despite the massive respect for David Byrne as a public intellectual.

My experience as a trying-to-be-cool high school student in 1987-88 was not exactly that Talking Heads reputation crashed -- Naked was indeed seen as a letdown, but non-stop listening to Stop Making Sense was absolutely de rigueur (along with Document obv.) Considered VERY cool to be all "this ain't no disco" as general dismissal of popular culture despite none of us really being old enough to remember disco

And btw for the mid-40s people SMS definitely plays the Sand in the Vaseline role of "this is how we encountered and largely how we stayed engaged with this band," I don't think I heard the 77 version of "Psycho Killer" until I got to college

what is Sand In The Vaseline??

https://www.discogs.com/Talkingheads-Sand-In-The-Vaseline-Popular-Favourites-1976-1992/master/39425

a two-disc comp with excellent heterodox selections and liner notes

and more generally, it's a dangerous sex move

Considered VERY cool to be all "this ain't no disco" as general dismissal of popular culture despite none of us really being old enough to remember disco

and despite the Heads recording many dance tunes!

"The Big Country" could've been commissioned by the Democratic National Committee last summer.

True Stories was considered a huge letdown among nearly everyone I knew

― sleeve, Tuesday, March 14, 2017 9:50 AM (fifteen minutes ago)

Naked was indeed seen as a letdown

― Guayaquil (eephus!), Tuesday, March 14, 2017 10:01 AM (five minutes ago)

These two did quite a bit to deflate their rep, but breaking up at low ebb buried them - for a while, anyway

I'm 45 and came to TH via Stop Making Sense. Backtracked to Speaking in Tongues and then leapt all the way back to the debut; never heard the intermediate albums until years later. Didn't like Little Creatures, but liked True Stories (the album) - in fact, "Puzzlin' Evidence" will almost certainly make my ballot.

I'm too young for Stop Making Sense but its spending two years on the Billboard chart suggests that it became a favorite of mid '80s college students.

yeah, it's their bon jovi or w/e

Always interesting to see when/at what age people got on board with certain artists. (Spin Alternative thread is great for this too.) I'm lolold, so I first heard the Heads on this promo sampler (with Dead Boys, Saints and Richard Hell.) Drove my Pure Prairie League-loving roommate up the wall.

http://assets.rootsvinylguide.com/pictures/1977-sire-2-x-7-comp-new-wave-rock-n-roll-get-behind-it-before-it-gets-past-you_9501388

I used to have that!

braggin/

I saw the SMS tour in high school, my younger stepsister left "after they played the hit" ("Burning Down The House") and we teased her about it for years

/braggin

From the second album through SMS, Talking Heads was the consensus soundtrack for my high school and college crowd. I remember people starting to get off the bus when Little Creatures videos were in constant rotation on MTV (the "Burning Down the House" video had started that process). By that point maybe they seemed a little too popular to be cool. SMS was such a powerful summation of the earlier material that it was really hard to match.

I made a Spotify playlist of all of the non-album material I could find, minus live versions and demos of songs that otherwise appear in album versions. Am I missing anything crucial?

"A Clean Break" from The Name of This Band should probably be on there, since there is no studio version
"In Asking Land" from the Once in a Lifetime box set

Both are on Spotify

By that point maybe they seemed a little too popular to be cool.

little creatures also a very comfortable album. cheery vibe, familiar song-forms, pastoral imagery, songs about having babies, and quite a bit of mainstream radio play. heads felt safely middle-aged at that point (which they were, or getting there). no longer the alarmingly thin weirdo twitching in the corner, smoking like a chimney.

as someone who was following them at the time, True Stories was considered a huge letdown among nearly everyone I knew

― sleeve, Tuesday, March 14, 2017 12:50 PM (forty-seven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

people were mostly still on board for Little Creatures

― sleeve, Tuesday, March 14, 2017 12:50 PM (forty-seven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Little Creatures was hotly/highly anticipated -- their first studio album after Speaking In Tongues! Their first record after the triumph of Stop Making Sense! I remember walking into a mall record store in Omaha on release day and hearing this great song playing in the store and thinking, "wow, wouldn't it be something if that was the new Talking Heads record?" And it was/ "And She Was." Most of it holds up for me.

True Stories was one of those records that I listened to a bunch of times trying to figure out why I didn't like it. I gave up and started listening to XTC instead.

I don't mind "Wild Wild Life," which sounds like the band writing a hit to order.

I've long wanted "Creatures of Love" to surpass "This Must Be the Place" as their Beloved Love Song.

Love For Sale is also a good song, but the rest of True Stories is pretty weak. Naked was a nice rebound, even though it seems people hate it here.

lot of great song ideas on true stories, but they're all pretty lifeless in execution (weird, as liveliness was clearly the goal)

to me Little Creatures and True Stories sound so radically different to the rest of their catalogue, I can barely reconcile them as the same band

the key is the engineer: E.T. Thorngren, who also worked with Robert Palmer and Peter Wolf.

http://i.imgur.com/qiYFumP.jpg

GET YOUR FINGERS OFF THAT VINYL

"A Clean Break" from The Name of This Band should probably be on there, since there is no studio version
"In Asking Land" from the Once in a Lifetime box set

Added, thanks!

this will ruin my cred but i didn't know "Love → Building on Fire" wasn't on original release of 77, it's inseparable from that album for me

Road to Nowhere was the first Talking Heads song I ever heard. It was on a compilation of cycling/road-related tracks I got after Bjarne Riis won Tour de France in 96. Bicycle Race, King of the Road, River Deep Mountain High. Life before spotify was good times.

Anyways, Road to Nowhere is probably somewhere in top five for nostalgic reasons for me.

had the Sire Two on One cassette of 77 and MSABF from like 83? Fliptop box style, no plastic.

One of my favourite New York memories is picking up Little Creatures from a random crate of free records on the sidewalk near Times Square.

And I just finished my annual chronological Talking Heads discography re-listen the other week, perfect.

I'll stick up for the much maligned True Stories. If you take it for what it is (conventional songwriting with kinda crappy 80s production) there's actually some really good songs on there, side 2 especially. The beautiful 'Dream Operator' will be ranking high on my ballot. I'd personally rank it above the more celebrated Little Creatures which to me is a bunch of mediocre songs sandwiched between two great ones.

television man is pretty good. road to nowhere is kinda sweet but there's too much oompah-pah on those albums for me to really love them

I don't hate True Stories, but I just never much warmed to it. Listening to the downmix for the first time as I type, I wasn't aware of the Pops Staples version of "Papa Legba." That's kinda interesting.

The Pops Staples version outdoes the Heads version.

Listening to the "Bonus Rarities & Outtakes" MP3 album on Spotify right now. A few repeats from other comps, but a bunch of interesting alternate takes and mixes including:

First Week/Last Week - minus the marimba & horns
Electricity - pre-"Drugs" arrangement, instrumental studio version
Crosseyed & Painless - Longer, fewer overdubs, more facts about facts (Facts go out and slam the door...)
The Lady Don't Mind - from Speaking in Tongues sessions
Warning Sign/Artists Only/Drugs - Alternate takes

also worth noting here that the 7" version of "Houses In Motion" is a different mix that has a longer fadeout with additional verses as well.

wrt True Story pretty much all the film versions of the songs with the characters singing are better than the versions on the album. didn't Byrne say that he was reluctant to record them as a Talking Heads album, but was convinced to do it to promote the film?

And it was recorded at the same time as LC.

*revisits debut*

*finds it difficult to not vote for every song on the debut already*

― the raindrops and drop tops of lived, earned experience (BradNelson)

Same. Now listening to the 1975 CBS Demos (crispy demos!), which are totally amazing. Pre-Jerry. Most songs played are significantly faster than their definite versions.

i know this isn't comprehensive, but are there any other solo/collabs that i should be reviewing before voting?

Byrne - Catherine Wheel (1981)
Byrne - Rei Momo (1989)
Byrne - The Forest (1991)
Byrne - Uh-Oh (1992)
Byrne - David Byrne (1994)
Byrne - Feelings (1997)
Byrne - Look into the Eyeball (2001)
Byrne - Grown Backwards (2004)

Byrne/Eno - My Life in the Bush of Ghosts (1981)
Byrne/Eno - Everything That Happens Will Happen Today (2008)

Byrne/St. Vincent - Love This Giant (2012)

Weymouth/Frantz/Harrison - Tom Tom Club (1981)
Weymouth/Frantz/Harrison - Close to the Bone (1983)

Harrison - The Red and the Black (1981)
Harrison - Casual Gods (1988)
Harrison - Walk on Water (1990)

Harrison/Modern Lovers - Modern Lovers (1972/76)

The Heads (Weymouth/Frantz/Harrison) - No Talking Just Head - 1996

Byrnen's eponymous 1994 album (for which he grew long singer-songwriter hair) is his best solo work after TCW.

Rei Momo remains a product of its time. My college station played "Make Believe Mambo" often; it got me to check out the Heads stuff, so it worked.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dSMCIB8pfQ

I liked this, essentially more "Naked:"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ls18cKIL3o

I want to say there was a lot of Uh Oh I liked. But it's been yeeeeeeeears.

what about byrne's side of The Last Emperor? i'm not sure i can get through all this before the poll but i aim to try. i've listened to a fair amount of byrne's solo and collab work, but zero jerry harrison solo. i skimmed a few tracks in a record store once (i think from the Red and the Black?) and was completely appalled

I liked Uh Oh a lot in 1992! I saw his tour on its Miami stop (he always stopped in Miami) -- one of the most thrilling shows I've seen, although I'll admit that I'd seen SMS for the first time only two months earlier and was thus ready to be blown away. The horn section worked. He danced like a fiend and opened and closed the show with acoustic cuts ("Nothing But Flowers," "And She Was," "Psycho Killer").

television man is pretty good. road to nowhere is kinda sweet but there's too much oompah-pah on those albums for me to really love them

― Lennon, Elvis, Hendrix etc (dog latin)

always loved zydeco, so squeezebox oompa-pa sits okay w/ me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YDFTq4h0a8

please don't post that

yeah I like "Television Man" -- the way the band breaks down its constituent instrumental parts, climaxing with Byrne's ugly guitar solo. It's on my ballot. My AOR station actually played it a few times in the early '90s.

do u know about the 12" extended version?

https://www.discogs.com/Talking-Heads-And-She-Was-Television-Man/release/148842'

That's one of my favorite Little Creatures tracks and contrary to dog latin's opinion above I believe it could have fit right in on MSABAF, along with some other Little Creatures songs.

For Your Consideration:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDARzui4zPg

it's hard for me to post during the day from work.

Lol I can put "Roadrunner" in my top 10 Other Group tracks, can't I. Seems weird

yeap, i leave this to every person but personally i'm not going to include any Modern Lovers tracks in my solo submission. though they technically do count.

are the songs from it that Talking Heads performed on the Stop Making Sense tour eligible for both they solo & band track polls then?

i think Stop Making Sense stuff should go on the Talking Heads side but if you feel inclined to vote for it on the solo side i won't stop that.

How will the poll differentiate between studio and live versions? Cause the Name of This Band version of "Houses in Motion" stomps all over the studio version.

i will add the two together for the numbering of the poll but going to try and break down which version was voted for in the tally. something like Stop Making Sense version 20 votes...

Wait so just so this is clear: we are not voting for "Name of this Band is version of..." or "Stop Making Sense version of..." or "album version of..." tracks separately, or even specifying which version of the song we're voting for, just voting for the song full stop? Where the ranking is implicitly understood to mean "ranking of my personal favorite recording of this track?"

just vote for each song once and specify which version you are voting for. i will try and break down which version got how many votes.

i do say try but if i get something like 80 ballots i might not be able to do this.

I grew up with TH - I can remember my dad playing the true stories tape - but now I just think they try too hard to be fun and try too hard to be funky and end up being neither. And DB seems like a real annoying cat who's into dada and making art for art's sake, neither of which I have time for

waht

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewY34GqbRkA

I don't think Modern Lovers should count for anything in this poll, since Modern Lovers and Harrison's involvement preceded the Talking Heads. I also don't think Robert Palmer's "Clues" would count just because Chris Franz plays drums on it.

i'm in the middle of watching Stop Making Sense and see the confusion with "What A Day That Was." i think where the song originally comes from is where you should place it. so in this instance it should be under the solo stuff.

i also see that SMS was filmed in Los Angeles, i could have conceivable gone to that show, but was really too young.

Should be top 5 solo:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzBS7bGJaDA

This is rather lovely: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DQyusKTAh4

My Talking Heads journey is all arse-about-face. Which is to say, 'Nothing But Flowers' was my entry point, and I can't shake it as being my favourite track, despite not liking the rest of the album all that much at all.

Will add my tiny hands to the Catherine Wheel Mexican wave. Brilliant.

I don't think Modern Lovers should count for anything in this poll, since Modern Lovers and Harrison's involvement preceded the Talking Heads. I also don't think Robert Palmer's "Clues" would count just because Chris Franz plays drums on it.

Yes but let me ask the question everyone's been dancing around: can we vote for the Jerry Harrison-produced Rusted Root album

hahaha

How about the Chris and Tina produced Ziggy Marley album? It's ok.

I like "Tomorrow People."

Not eligible because it's a sample, but wanted to post anyway

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCBYPwT912M

Any excuse to post this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryAQEK4IyG8

I kind of like the C&T produced Happy Mondays record.

Definitely going to aim to get a ballot in for this one, even though I'm a bit patchy on the post-Speaking In Tongues output (good opportunity to rectify that obv.)

the full Stop Making Sense movie is on-line: https://youtu.be/ewJ04OOrNA8

Look over there. A dry ice factory.

Look over there. A dry ice factory.

all the Speaking in Tongues material sounds much better on Stop Making Sense

agree tho speaking in tongues has grown on me a lot over the last couple years

they did pull up the roots as a first encore, before crosseyed & painless, for awhile on the 83 tour, wish that had made the movie

Pull Up The Roots is so good. I'd have loved a SMS version. Aztec Camera's 'Somewhere In My Heart' has a similar chorus and I wonder if they inadvertently ripped it off.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbnQJmtFKHg this bootleg of it is great

I liked /Uh Oh/ a lot in 1992! I saw his tour on its Miami stop (he always stopped in Miami) -- one of the most thrilling shows I've seen, although I'll admit that I'd seen SMS for the first time only two months earlier and was thus ready to be blown away.

I'm still a fan of "She's Mad" and "Monkey Man," but I'm not sure whether this was ahead of its time, embarrassingly dated or both:

He is a boy
You are a girl
And you will always stay that way
But there are people
In this world
Who'd like to change what nature made

And if you take that decision
They they will made that incision ? down below

The birds and the bees
Are singin' for me
And this is the song I heard them singin'
Tweedle dee dee
Tweedle dee dee
But I never heard a word they're tellin' me

Oh little girl
Please understand
And listen to the words I say
I was your dad
Now I'm your mom
I hope you'll comprehend someday

I didn't mean to confuse you
And now I know that it's hard to understand

The birds and the bees
Are singin' for me
But I never heard a word they're sayin'
Tweedle dee dee
Tweedle dee dee
Freedom of choice is what they're bringin'

And when Columbus sailed
Upon that mighty sea
Well, we are just like him
Yes, we are pioneers

Into the great unknown
The wild unchartered lands
There ain't no turnin' back
Ain't gonna be no chains on me

Who would ever believe
Caterpillars like me
Turning into a butterfly
Well, I was suddenly free

The birds and the bees
Are singin' for me
And this is the song I heard them singin'
Tweedle dee dee
Tweedle dee dee
Freedom of choice is what they're bringin'

You know I'm man enough
Ain't gonna run and hide
My love is mighty tough
My love is mighty wild

I got a pair a wings
And I'm gonna fly away
Too late to turn back now
Tomorrow came today ? for me

It wasn't until some time around 2000 that I realized Talking Heads was the band behind "Swamp".

Always thought it was Webb Wilder or someone.

For a band I love as much as Talking Heads, I really don't like a lot of their music. I don't know why, but 77 and Fear of Music just does nothing. More Songs About Buildings and Food, though, I like the whole way through. Wonder why that is.

Fear of Music might be my favorite TH album.

after a preliminary ballot (I got up to 21 just from memory) I can see that More Songs is by far my least favorite of the first four.

I think the production on that is just more to my taste. Remain in Light my favorite by a long shot.

nearly 35 years down the road, speaking in tongues is still far & away my favorite talking heads album. that it was my entry point undoubtedly has everything to do with that. i recognize that they were taking much bigger artistic risks on fear of music and remain in light, developing their own musical language, but song-for-song, i just can't deny the tongues.

― Not raving but drooling (contenderizer)

i used to be one of those "eno or nothing" snobs but the recent reissue where all the songs are between five and six minutes long is just fabulous, they're all just monster jams.

"fear of music" i love because of the process. there are really interesting and different alternate versions of most of the songs, whereas with remain in light the results are great but the process was less freewheeling.

talking heads obscurities i want to rep for:

i zimbra - 12" eno mix - mostly similar but gets very weird in the last minute

dancing for money - i kind of think of this as talking heads' version of "aguas de marco", same kind of goofy vocal interplay between byrne and eno

questions for lovers - unissued th original played live early in '77

1, 2, 3, red light - great 1910 fruitgum company cover they did in '77

More Songs largely does feel like more songs from 77 that aren't quite as good on average, though I'm Not In Love is one of their very best

gah, never heard that I Zimbra remix, is it on the MP3 Spotify collection mentioned earlier? I can't check rn.

3 For Sale from $50.00

i don't spotify, but here it is on youtube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgiHT8SVnXg

ah cool, thx

More Songs largely does feel like more songs from 77 that aren't quite as good on average, though I'm Not In Love is one of their very best

Psycho Killer
Sugar On My Tongue
Thank You For Sending Me An Angel
I Want To Live
I Wish You Wouldn't Say That
The Girls Want To Be With The Girls
Who Is It
With Our Love
Stay Hungry
Tentative Decisions
Warning Sign
I'm Not In Love
The Book I Read
Love --> Building On Fire
No Compassion

I'm listening to the downmix of '77 this morning and it sounds soooo good. I can't hear the beginning of "Who Is It" and not want to dance.

In the year or two previous my favorite band was Sparks, and '77 seemed to me to carry the torch for unusual vocals and literate lyrics in a de/reconstructed pop format. My gateway to new wave.

What's a good book on Talking Heads?

Love I Zimbra, though it always makes me think of this guy:

http://i.imgur.com/rDdEnUZ.png

ugh, thought i had my 25 and then i listened to speaking in tongues again. gotta make room for "i get wild/wild gravity." so good, can't believe i forgot about it.

xxpost - It's not strictly about Talking Heads, but David Byrne's How Music Works is great about explaining his philosophy and uses a lot of examples from the Heads' past.

xxp the sounds and arrangements on More Songs stand out way more to me than those on '77, which I've always credited to Eno (though that's probably unfair to the band). I could listen to the intro drumloop on Warning Sign all day. Would have loved to see what Eno would have done with '77

Fear of Music is the one I find the most difficult. I love some of the songs, but not keen on the dirginess of a lot of it.

Agree abt More Songs. It's fine but my least favorite prior to True Stories. "I'm Not in Love" and "The Big Country" stand out, and "Thank You for Sending Me an Angel" is a nice two-minute capsule of the sound they'd spend the next few years digging into.

Fear of Music is great, though.

i have listened the crap out of the first four, so my poll goal is to dedicate much more time to the run from speaking in tongues > naked

The Good Thing is the standout on More Buildings... pretty sure there was an ilm thread or at least a thread digression where this was widely agreed upon

nah, that one's a drag

ridiculous, "the good thing" rules

i kinda agree that more songs is the least of the first four though

xp - whatever the hook's supposed to be, it escapes my ears

I don't understand the appeal of "Remain in Light" at all. There is not one song I can get into. I would destroy it completely. "Fear of Music" on the other hand does not floor me but has some interesting songs like "I Zimbra", "Heaven" and "Mind".

The best book about Talking Heads, a culmination of years of expert Musician reporting, was published in 1985 or 1986. My library's got it; it's probably out of print.

David Bowman's book should be set on fire.

More Songs is the same album as the debut except the production is thicker and does away with the cute arrangements like the marimba in "Uh Oh Love Has Come to Town." That's not to slight the debut.

xxp lol of course you would think that

I feel like Paper is an underrated first four track.

"I'm Not in Love" has that beautiful synth outro, for which I've traditionally credited Eno but it slights Harrison. One of the things about that 1985 book I cited is how Harrison was always discounted: Eno got the credits for his keyboards and Byrne the credit for the guitars.

Maybe it's because More Songs was the first Talking Heads album I owned, but I think it's great all the way through, better sounding than the debut and more consistent than Fear of Music. As a full album I prefer it to Remain in Light (but I burned out on RIL long ago).

Not having heard them in ages, I was surprised how much I enjoyed Little Creatures and even True Stories. I've never knowingly heard Naked, so I intend to give that extra attention.

Just submitted. I got MTV in 1988, so so many of my favorite TH songs are on Little Creatures, True Stories and Naked

look at these guys

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imWnuirIL8o

I won't hear anyone slight LC. It's got a song mentioning a baby's peepee, a song that says "I've seen sex and I think it's OK," a song with a zydeco arrangement that could be an 1984 GOP convention anthem, and some ridiculous outfits on the sleeve. To me it's like Elvis C's Blood and Chocolate: a return to "simplicity" enlivened and reinforced by years of experiments.

They should have stopped in 1985, but then we wouldn't ahve gotten "(Nothing But) Flowers."

"Blind" is dope too

Also, if they stopped in 1985, Radiohead would be called "Tomviolence"

The Good Thing is the standout on More Buildings... pretty sure there was an ilm thread or at least a thread digression where this was widely agreed upon

― sciatica, Thursday, March 16, 2017 1:51 PM (twenty-four minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

nah, that one's a drag

― contenderizer, Thursday, March 16, 2017 1:55 PM (nineteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

ridiculous, "the good thing" rules

― the raindrops and drop tops of lived, earned experience (BradNelson), Thursday, March 16, 2017 1:57 PM (eighteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i kinda agree that more songs is the least of the first four though

― the raindrops and drop tops of lived, earned experience (BradNelson), Thursday, March 16, 2017 1:57 PM (seventeen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

whatever the hook's supposed to be, it escapes my ears

xp - whatever the hook's supposed to be, it escapes my ears

― contenderizer, Thursday, March 16, 2017 1:59 PM (sixteen minutes ago)

if there is a thread i would love to see it. i think i've barged in to proclaim my love for that song several times over the years.

i realize the song could be interpreted many ways, but it really spoke to me in grad school (public policy) and working in the govt. it seemed to be about the internal struggle between a technocratic mindset and an intuition-based artistic process. technocratic is a bit of a loaded term, but i just mean the belief that most things can be measured and quantified, that models can be built that incorporate those variables and which can be iterated according to new data, and that this kind of analysis can and should be the basis for public policy and making decisions. when i was in school i was especially attracted to this line of thinking, and of course as i hit real life within the govt i began to understood where it falls short, the caveats and impossibilities of trying to measure some aspects of human nature. i didn't end up getting to work on anything related to climate change, but it's a perfect example. on one side you have the data and modeling which helps us to understand how it's occurring and how it will unfold in the future, and on the other you have the struggle to make changes in the real world, to change the behavior of knuckle-dragging climate change denying fuckfaces, or at least persuade them not to stand in the way of change.

so a struggle emerges that's probably common to a lot of people - trying to figure out how to balance heart and mind, intuition and logic.

A straight line exists between me and the good thing
I have found the line and its direction is known to me
Absolute trust keeps me going in the right direction
Any intrusion is met with a heart full of the good thing

for me the essence of the song is in the incredible catharsis of the ending when the entire band shifts. this is peak talking heads for me:
So I say:
I have adopted this and made it my own
Cut back the weakness
Reinforce what is strong

Watch me work

it's a triumphant acknowledgment of compromise, a tribute to the iterative possibilities of data-driven thinking (or to extend that, a logic-based approach to life) that still has room for intuition. and it's goddamn catchy as fuck as well.

i didn't express that very well (shocker) but hopefully some of you know what i mean. "The Good Thing" is more than a song to me, it is a song-shaped encapsulation of the essential struggle in modern life

as an expression of my own compromise between quantification and the gut, i rate it 11 out of 10

^^ everybody. get. in. line.

I definitely prefer More Songs to the debut, which is fine and has some great moments but feels kind of monochromatic by comparison.

deja vu-- karl i'm pretty sure it was you interpreting those lyrics that made the discussion of the good thing i'm thinking of so memorable! i think there was some maoism in there too, re the straight line verse. and the maniacal WATCH ME WORK to send us into the coda...

I won't hear anyone slight LC. It's got a song mentioning a baby's peepee, a song that says "I've seen sex and I think it's OK," a song with a zydeco arrangement that could be an 1984 GOP convention anthem, and some ridiculous outfits on the sleeve. To me it's like Elvis C's Blood and Chocolate: a return to "simplicity" enlivened and reinforced by years of experiments.

They should have stopped in 1985, but then we wouldn't ahve gotten "(Nothing But) Flowers."

― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, March 16, 2017 2:40 PM (sixteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Xgau concurs in his Blood and Chocolate review:

Like Little Creatures, it's a return to basics with a decade of growth in it

Anyone know why they didn't tour after Little Creatures? I get why they didn't tour after True Stories (Byrne didn't really want to make the album in the first place) and Naked (they broke up), but were there reasons given at the time for not touring in '85?

Byrne's movie.

Oh, yeah. Makes sense.

More Songs might be my fave. "Stay Hungry" is my jam, it could go on forever as far as I am concerned.

On board with this, though

Fear of Music is the one I find the most difficult. I love some of the songs, but not keen on the dirginess of a lot of it.

Revising a previous claim, '77, True Stories and Little Creatures have never been faves. I mean, I think '77 is great, and love it. But the other two I literally never put on and have never liked. Blood and Chocolate >>>>> Little Creatures. It's almost everything interesting they did made less interesting, whereas B&C is super weird and edgy and cool, imo. Side one, at least.

this is where I decided David Byrne's whole solo artist schtick was just not for me (1986, but I saw this in the mid-90's and was horrified)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Km5WT83j-lE

If he felt Talking Heads were holding him back, it's evident he needed holding back. That video comes off as a half-assed parody of '80s downtown performance art.

yup

and it's goddamn catchy as fuck as well.

― Karl Malone, Thursday, March 16, 2017 11:44 AM (one hour ago)

loved reading your mini-essay, but this is where the nope sets in

oh, the catchy part i'm talking about is the ending ("i have adopted this...")

i agree that the rest (aka 9/10th of the song) isn't quite as musically outstanding. if it was, i would rate it 12 out of 10! which is one of the top beyond-the-range scores iirc

yeah, the ending's rad

I won't hear anyone slight LC. It's got a song mentioning a baby's peepee, a song that says "I've seen sex and I think it's OK," a song with a zydeco arrangement that could be an 1984 GOP convention anthem, and some ridiculous outfits on the sleeve.

― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, March 16, 2017 11:40 AM (one hour ago)

yeah, but that's exactly the problem. there's this point c. true stories/little creatures where byrne seems to decide that being cute is his main thing. a certain wackiness had always been there, obscured by detached opacity, but in the mid 80s he full-on dove into the "brainy-zany art guy" aspect of his persona.

the big suit from speaking in tongues wasn't the turning point (look back to stuff like "in the future" for that?), but it was so critically celebrated and commercially successful in its moment that I suppose it's no surprise he never recovered.

More Songs is the same album as the debut except the production is thicker and does away with the cute arrangements like the marimba in "Uh Oh Love Has Come to Town." That's not to slight the debut.

More Songs is indeed a more "professional" version of the debut, but for my money that has always made it a lot duller. I have several tracks from '77 on my temporary ballot right now, but I can't think of a single thing from More Songs that I want to include. Even "Take Me To The River" is played out for me at this point.

yeah, but that's exactly the problem. there's this point c. true stories/little creatures where byrne seems to decide that being cute is his main thing. a certain wackiness had always been there, obscured by detached opacity, but in the mid 80s he full-on dove into the "brainy-zany art guy" aspect of his persona.

I spare LC from this fate.

More Songs is indeed a more "professional" version of the debut, but for my money that has always made it a lot duller. I

I disagree with "professional" as applied to More Songs. If anything, the marimba on "Uh Oh" and the horns on "Psycho Killer" are exactly the kind of touches I expect from Tony Bongiovi and a new band tentative in the studio.

Ballot submitted.

David Bowman's book should be set on fire.

― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn)

Why? I just speed-read through it to get some background info for this poll (I don't know anything about Talking Heads), and I thought it was pretty decent. Sometimes critical towards Byrne and especially Weymouth, but I thought that was refreshing.

The reporting is terrible. He mixes free indirect style with speculation. And he obv has it in for Weymouth.

OK, thanks. I'll keep that in mind when I revisit certain parts.

My ballot will be the most boring one of all. Most of the Best Of + extra tracks from Remain in Light. Though as I listen to it, MSABAF becomes better and better. The Good Thing, Stay Hungry and Girls Want To Be With Other Girls especially.

pull up the roots is relentlessly good. i love that quick 16th-note pattern on the keyboard, all the same note, that goes on and off duty

"Found a Job" won the More Songs poll, didn't it? People not into that one anymore? I love it for similar reasons to Karl loving "The Good Thing": those weird self-help philosophy as-explained-by-robots lyrics. On both songs, it's impossible for me to tell if Byrne is singing ironically or seriously, which I think really makes it - I mean, that's a big part of his appeal as a singer and lyricist in general

"Found a Job" may well get extra support in this poll, because of the blistering SMS performance.

Tina's "what a nut" look at Adrian Belew around 1:33:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCfC5yVlvj4

I wonder how long it takes, when Adrian Belew is in your band, to get tired of his schtick? I mean, I love him, but if he was in my band doing his thing every night? I dunno.

lol

"Found A Job" is awesome, my favorite on that album, the jam at the end prefigures a lot of the Remain In Light grooves

I'm enjoying digging back through the catalog for this poll, and I actually like a lot of True Stories more than I remembered, but it also reminds me that Radiohead weren't just named after a Talking Heads song, they were named after a cod-ska oompah Talking Heads song. Otoh, I remain a total sucker for "Dream Operator."

I really can't understand the appeal of Found A Job, it's lacking in hooks & the ending jam is really grating and doesn't go anywhere interesting

dl and Alfred, thanks for the book recommendations.
dl, I bought the Byrne book a couple of years ago to read on a holiday trip, could not get into it at all. Not the author's fault I think, fiction rather than non-fiction was what I needed back then. I'll try again. Some time.
Alfred, I'll look out for the book, a quick search indicates it should not be that hard to find a copy online.

There's also Jonathan Lethem's 33⅓ entry on Fear of Music, but after a quick scan it looks like it's more about the author than about the album or the band.

Yeah I checked, considered then dismissed that

willem - I didn't make it all the way through the book. I wasn't interested in certain chapters about music distribution etc, but the first half is excellent in a 'waxing philosophical about music and the process of making it' way.

Can't believe people are dismissing More Songs About BAF upthread. It's just such a good, punchy selection of songs. Just track after track after track of punky fun.

And yeah The Good Thing is fantastic. The weird spider-scramble guitar in the verse alone...

oh no I'm thinking of 'With Our Love'

But yeah, The Good Thing is definitely a good thing. They're all good things, it's just they pass in such a quick succession with no let-up in between it's hard to really pull that album apart. I mean 'Warning Sign'. Each track is upbeat but also has this uneasy ominous feeling.

As you've probably worked out, I'm listening to MSABAF.

Do people like Found A Job?

Artists Only is another amazing one that I'm placing high on my ballot.

wish i were less indifferent to little creatures, sorry alfred

i also think on that one side two >>> side one

On the topic of More Songs vs 77, I think that although nothing on More Songs quite reaches the heights of the debut, the album is more consistently great and just kinda flows better. I love little things on it like how at the end of 'Thank You For Sending..' when Byrne sings 'Show me what you can do!' the album immediately breaks into the frenetic jam at the start of 'With Our Love'.

In comparison, I consider 77 to be very backloaded, which can make the first half drag a little. Plus, the production isn't as good.

I consider 77 to be very backloaded, which can make the first half drag a little.

agree, was saying so upthread, but i think they both are.

agree, was saying so upthread, but i think they both are

Ah, see I like 'The Good Thing', 'With Our Love' and 'The Girls Want...' too much to say the same about More Songs.

Ballot sent! Didn't vote for anything from the last 3 albums. 'Cool Water' from Naked was a contender but didn't make the cut.

voted!

I'm just gonna chew on my ballot for another week and obsessively tweak the order of the songs

Interesting thing I just recalled re: Belew. I saw that Byrne tour behind the "Everything That Happens ... " album, where the entire setlist was more or less stuff from that album or stuff from the TH/Eno albums. Byrne was the only guitarist, but on, say, the "Remain in Light" stuff, he pulled off all the Belew-isms pretty well!

Along those lines, relistening to More Songs and yeah, might still be my favorite. Totally don't get this as a mere continuation of the first album.

Who Is It? is such a jam.

I like the debut more with each re-listen--I might vote for five of its songs.

David Byrne is a very good and underrated guitarist. I was watching the Chronology DVD and even on those early shows he's fucking killing it. Always thought it was down to Harrison or Belew because he doesn't play all that much guitar on SMS, but yeah he's nailing it while singing and that's not terribly easy.

I just love Byrne's delivery throughout Artists Only. 'You can't see it till it's FIN-ISHED'

dog latin otm. I never realized what a monster guitarist he was until I saw the Rome '80 (I think) video. And his playing never gets talked about/he never gets asked about it.

I'd easily rank him as one of my top 50 rhythm and lead guitarists. Check out his lead playing in the SMS "Crossyed and Painless" or well he does the rhythm chink-chink thing.

Another really funny bit on that DVD is this excruciating US TV performance/interview where the host (probably someone famous but who I don't know) asks a load of closed questions like 'Would you describe yourself as a shy person?'(To which David simply says 'Yes I guess so') and keeps referring to TH as 'You people'

the name of this band is talking heads is really as good as everyone says it is, huh

yeah, esp disc 2

I really need the expanded version of that, only have the 2LP

I'd easily rank him as one of my top 50 rhythm and lead guitarists. Check out his lead playing in the SMS "Crossyed and Painless" or well he does the rhythm chink-chink thing.

The main reason Uh Oh enthused me at the time was a return to a more freewheeling eh-fuck-it Byrne guitar mode, after years of restraint.

Another really funny bit on that DVD is this excruciating US TV performance/interview where the host (probably someone famous but who I don't know) asks a load of closed questions like 'Would you describe yourself as a shy person?'(To which David simply says 'Yes I guess so') and keeps referring to TH as 'You people'

Wait, you're not thinking of the bit where he interviews himself?

No no it's a sparkly Letterman-style show from the late-70s/early-80s. The interviewer is wearing a smart spangly suit. I couldn't tell you who he is because I don't know my US TV hosts very well but my god he's a terrible interviewer. All closed questions. Tina treats him very icily and the rest of the band are just baffled and awkward as anything.

Here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2PblNCo1Ok

it's just ugh.. like how do you mess this up worse?

lmao that interview is great. "organically shy" is a great fake talking heads song title

'Organically shy' sounds like a description of Aspergers I guess.

In other news 'Blind' off of Naked came on the radio while I as driving the other day and it sounded FANTASTIC

Finally listened to True Stories - dang, not bad! I think it's on a level with Little Creatures, with less high highs. "Dream Operator" is really pretty. Hilarious to hear that "Radiohead" isn't one of their weird moody songs a la "Warning Sign", but more like something They Might Be Giants would have cooked up

xxp - From Bowman's book:

In March, the band appeared on that old warhorse American Bandstand to play “Take Me to the River.” They didn’t exactly play it. David sang the song, but Talking Heads pantomimed at their instruments.
(...)
When Talking Heads finished “playing” “Take Me to the River,” Dick Clark padded over to chat with David, but the singer went somewhere else inside his head. He froze up.
The show was live. Now Dick Clark could do a back flip and land on his feet. He didn’t let David’s freeze-up freeze him. Dick Clark passed the microphone over to Tina.
She was shocked. No one ever talked to her. Dick Clark asked, “Tina, is David always this way?” Tina answered immediately. She remembered something Yann’s girlfriend, Julie, had said about David—David was “organically shy.” So that’s what Tina said, “David is organically shy.”
That broke the ice.

That Bowman book is sadly horrible. I couldn't make it much further than the first couple of chapters. The whole book is written just like that passage. It almost reads in Dick Clark's delivery.

The show was live.

American Bandstand hadn't been broadcast live since the early '60s.

I was thinking the same thing. It certainly wasn't live when I watched it at 11:30 on Saturday mornings.

I won't be doing the poll as it seems complicated with sending ballots etc but I feel my picks would be different to most anyway.

Briefly:
best TH album - Naked
celebrated TH album I don't care much for (in fact half of it irritates me very much esp. lyrically) - Remain in Light
Byrne better solo than in Talking Heads? - indeed, as I hear it he grew considerably better both as songwriter and singer in the '90s, but no one ever talks about any of those solo records, or songs.
best DB albums for me - Feelings and davidbyrne, plus Rei Momo. Both accompanying tours outstanding as well.
I stopped following his career around 2004, would like to resume checking out his output one day.

Damn.

you should vote, max!

If you can send an email, you can vote. Nothing complicated about it.

whoa that sure is an opinion max

If your first TH-associated album was Rei Momo and your third was Naked, which was my case, you'd be forgiven for being shocked with the first five albums.

I stuck Naked in the car yesterday -- woof. "The Facts of Life" sounds like a boomer experimenting with technology (think John Fogerty or Graham Nash). The second side is unforgivable except for "Cool Water" (maybe).

^^^ otm. I'm old enough that T Heads were one of those bands where I was on board from album one. I'm sure appreciation or irritation with certain parts of the chronology depends in large part on where you started. xp

Huh, I like a lot of "Naked." But it definitely has more in common with "Rei Momo" than anything that came before. I wonder what the rest of the band really had to do with it? Anyway, "(Nothing But) Flowers" is all-time, as is the anecdote in Sand in the Vaseline that they went to pick up some hot shot African guitarist to play on the record but accidentally picked up some other random African guitarist, who turned out to be great.

the live "born under punches" is a brain melter

hi, Brad

"Born Under Punches" - Yeah, I rarely make footnotes on my lists, but Bee's gonna see a big asterisk and "THE LIVE VERSION, NOT THE OTHER ONE" on my ballot.

both are irreducible knots but the live one's a little looser gets this kind of "how are they holding this together" aura

"crosseyed" is probably where i'm gonna insist on live versions

and i know it's not allowed but i feel like voting for "new feeling" and "a clean break" together

I won't slag too much on the post-hiatus material, but I will say I liked the band better when it was a contemporary of Television rather than They Might Be Giants.

"New Feeling" ended up surprisingly high on my first run-through

what post-hiatus material?

Heads album?

I reviewed it for my college paper, after which I poured gasoline on the promo copy.

sand on the gasoline

"post-hiatus" = Speaking in Tongues onward? Three years between records was a long time for a band that had been putting out a record a year.

"Lifetime Piling Up" is as good as any Heads single and is on my ballot.

The Name of This Band Is Talking Heads needs to win the albums poll.

alfred is correct about "lifetime piling up"

I stuck Naked in the car yesterday -- woof.

I loved this record when it came out. Going back and relistening, side 1 still sounds great. Side 2, uh, not as much.

Listening to SIT. I never realized how much "Swamp" reminds me of ZZ Top

i liked "swamp" at the time, but it hasn't aged well. the band's first smirky pastiche of a familiar pop style, harbinger of decline.

XP I read an interview once with Billy Gibbons wherein he heaped praise on the 'Heads and said the shot in the "Burning Down The House" vid of Byrne's face projected on a road (with the white lines conveniently running up his nose) summed up the 80s in one go.

speaking in tongues has risen up my talking heads power rankings. it's tough to beat that closing trio

I remember at the time feeling let down by Speaking in Tongues overall after the brilliance of the first 4 albums

....will have to listen to it and the later albums again

I listened to all albums and the result is: they did not have 25 good songs. With a lot of stretching of my personal quality criteria I can scramble together 22 tracks. And I am quite generous there. They made a lot of awful music.

fped ;)

i liked "swamp" at the time, but it hasn't aged well. the band's first smirky pastiche of a familiar pop style, harbinger of decline.

― The sandwiches looked quite dank. (contenderizer), 17. marts 2017 22:21 (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I don't know, there's a bunch of segments on MSABAF that sounds like muzak/commercial music to me. They just leave the style quickly, while Swamp is bluesy snooze all the way through. I kinda like it, but probably not enough to vote for it.

actually i've been listening to little creatures a lot bc of this poll and i'd like to amend my "indifference" to it upthread. i like it more and more. i'm probably gonna vote for "perfect world" bc under different circumstances of production it'd be a highlight on 77

i didn't care about this album beyond the singles for YEARS. no idea what happened

Love swamp. Still trying to figure out if the line about Risky Business predates the movie or was inspired by same. Both from 1983. I first heard the song in that reprehensible but great film, where it's perfectly used.

Weird poll for me, as I like a lot of this band's songs, but kind of hate the band, if that makes any sense. Like I immediately distrust anyone who declares themselves a big fan, but at the same time recognize that they have a ton of great tracks.

"Swamp" was also on the King of Comedy soundtrack, released (I think) just before Risky Business

But I'm guessing that filming schedules being what they are, it's hard to sort out what influenced what. I've always wondered, and it's weird that nobody on the internet seems to know decisively whether the movie inspired the song, song inspired the movie, or coincidence...

on my way to Teenage Fanclub in Hollywood.

anyways, just wanted to say we are in double digits. keep them coming.

what, is it the 26th already?

lol, you have plenty of time. i need it too.

Relistened to Naked... it's sad how much the quality dips from side 1 to side 2. Take some of the songs from side 1 of Naked and some off Rei Momo, and I think you'd have an album better than any single Heads album

And while I'm on Rei Momo, let me shill for: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21CO3_KVsmQ This is up there with the most beautiful songs Byrne made. Having Kirsty MacColl on it helps I suppose

Take some of the songs from side 1 of Naked and some off Rei Momo, and I think you'd have an album better than any single Heads album

ew no

yeah no. byrne the smoothed-out singer songwriter is much less interesting to me than talking heads the band.

TH are one of those bands where the sum really is more than the parts. There's a lotta good stuff about them and specifically the Eno period in Rip It Up And Start Again iirc

like, they were at their best (imo) when their identities were most fully merged/subsumed

I love this wide-ranging, witty interview:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhUq52YmeLA

I FEEL LIKE SITTINNNG DOOOWWWWNNNN

walk it down
talk it down
ohhhh

sympathy
luxury
somebody will take you there!

always liked this from 1990's Red Hot And Blue album of Cole Porter covers

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

Me too.

i love "sax and violins" and "cool water" so much ok bye

is "sax and violins" entirely responsible for vampire weekend

just added popsicle to my ballot, who's with me

o god, i'd completely forgotten about "popsicle". "sugar on my tongue" redux, right? certainly the most libidinal byrne ever got on the mic.

Ballot sent!

Ballot sent!

aawww i was all excited cos i thought the roll out was happening today

no way man, I have six days to tweak my ballot order!

the order is really what's killing me. seems to shift every day

would the true stories movie open up the album to me in any way? i don't really get it as a record

i hated it but..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_vze4K-x5g

would the true stories movie open up the album to me in any way? i don't really get it as a record

― the raindrops and drop tops of lived, earned experience (BradNelson),

it will make you loathe humanity and force you to vote for Trump in 2020

I wonder what the Talking Heads Sway will be. IE relatively obscure album track beloved by fans that ends up placing surprisingly high in the ILM poll. The Big Country perhaps?

would the true stories movie open up the album to me in any way? i don't really get it as a record

― the raindrops and drop tops of lived, earned experience (BradNelson),

it will make you loathe humanity and force you to vote for Trump in 2020

― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, March 20, 2017 7:27 AM (five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

oh excellent

It doesn't work as a record b/c the Heads weren't even supposed to play these songs.

...relatively obscure album track beloved by fans that ends up placing surprisingly high in the ILM poll. The Big Country perhaps?

would only be surprised if it came in low

I definitely enjoyed the album more after seeing the movie and feel like the songs "make sense" in the context of the movie in a way that wasn't obvious to me from just hearing the album. I think all movie versions of the songs are on youtube.

*reconsiders placement of "The Big Country" on ballot*

xp but also the movie versions of the songs are all better, so it kind of made the album feel even more redundant at the same time

yeah i just listened to the movie version of "dream operator" which is the first time i recognized it as a really lovely song

oh also the john goodman "people like us"!!!

oh huh "puzzlin' evidence" is like reading about pizzagate

ha, I was just re-watching the Puzzlin'Evidence clip the other day due to this poll, and was thinking how it seemed apropos to Trump-era political discourse

i was kinda down on More Songs earlier but i've finally managed to connect with it properly in the last few days, i love all the weird little muzak-y interludes now, and the second half of Stay Hungry is fantastic. Found a Job is still probably the worst song on the first four albums though

i don't really know what would even be a surprising placing for anything from the first four albums, apart from a few obvious favourites everything seems up in the air

I'm listening to True Stories for the first time right now. I've never seen the movie, but this very much sounds like the soundtrack to a crappy 80s musical.

The band soudns like it's holding its nose.

might find room on my ballot for "city of dreams," "dream operator," or "people like us" idk

"wild wild life" sounds like someone's lazy idea of what a "talking heads single" sounds like

HOT POTATO

The band soudns like it's holding its nose.

lol, yeah. i like the album version of "puzzlin' evidence" tho.

Oh right, "City of Dreams" is good. It had been long enough since I listened to Sand in the Vaseline that I'd forgotten about that one.

this poll has made me realize that one of my favorite heads modes is when they get real doomy, i.e. "cool water," "the overload," "memories can't wait" to a degree, etc.

the drumming is so damn stiff

xp somewhere I read that "The Overload" was their attempt to imitate Joy Division based on what they had read about them, without actually having heard the band

lmao that's awesome

This playlist sounds particularly fine when played back through the free Pyro beat-mixing iOS app, using the Mix Up function. https://seratopyro.com/

AAARGH WRONG THREAD.... oh well

xpost I read that too sleeve! Maybe someone on ILX posted about it. I don't even care if it's true, it's too good of a story, it must be embraced.

Also I thought the ballots were due yesterday so I rushed mine out before heading out of town. Whoops!

making flippy floppy has one of the best choruses ever - hope i'm not the only one to put it at #1

i know "what a day that was" is just a byrne solo joint exported to the talking heads for the stop making sense shows but honestly the heads arrangement enhances the song so, so much: the enormous scribbly groove they placed in it, the call-and-response stuff with the synth and guitar toward the end. also my favorite staging in the entire movie, with the gigantic shadows

it was going to be my no. 1 but "cool water" is fighting it

well I'm dressed up so nice
and I'm doin my best

stunning how great the pops staples version of "papa legba" is and how lifeless and empty it sounds as a talking heads song

repeat this for most of the other true stories songs. really their worst record

can i vote for this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYFqdrOMqk4

I see no one else has repped for it, so allow me to give a shout out to "Mr. Jones" - my fave post-SMS Heads.

other awesome catherine wheel tracks transformed by the heads:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HOvElJtxfA

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

i am def voting for "big blue plymouth" and no one can stop me

stunning how great the pops staples version of "papa legba" is and how lifeless and empty it sounds as a talking heads song

repeat this for most of the other /true stories/ songs. really their worst record

no way is True Stories worse than Naked. I mean it's not good, but it has 'Wild Wild Life' and the movie rules.

and naked has "blind," "mr. jones," "nothing but flowers," and "cool water"

>>>>>

The only Naked song I could do without is Bill, and in fact it's just on the cd. Everything else on that record is the bee's knees. Truly a wonderful, if unintended(?), send-off.

What on earth is the most un-byrne-y looking Byrne holding in his hands to the general hilarity of the band on the inner sleeve, I've never figured that out. An animal's penis preserved in amber inside a lightbox?

I'd never tire of watching this hilariously awesome/awesomely hilarious video for Mr. Jones:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rGEAsfhoeY

blind is good, but idk the whole record has this totally lifeless sound, reminds me of Steely Dan's Two Against Nature. was listening to that record in the car once and i literally forgot it was playing for ~30 minutes. whereas Gaucho has that same sterile sound but the songs bang.

good analogy

the horns on "Blind" rule.

max florian's opinion is wild but "bill" really is the nadir of naked (i agree with the consensus on this thread that it dips considerably on its second side until "cool water")

truly different strokes - I love it for its very sound which I hear totally warm'n'vital, the Franco-African musicians, the Afro-Brazilian percussion.. I'd listen to those multiple guitars for days. Naked has been an invaluable gateway to '70s Congolese rumba/Nigerian juju. for me it's their only "let's get physical" record - it's Remain in Light that sounds lifeless/intellectual to me in comparison (please don't flame), with Naked they got nearer to the source IMO.

and of course the remaster adds to all that their crowning jewel - Sax and Violins. I don't want to beat a dead horse, but it's a record that has never stopped making me happy ever since I first bought it.

not my consensus - Democratic Circus, Facts of Life, Cool Water are all chill-inducing. here as well, bettering The Overload for me in that regard, as the fear feels more real. a very good balance/the other side to the ecstatic first side of the record.

I don't care much for early Byrne's detached persona - it strikes me as something of an immature (as in: not fully formed) personality. that's why for me Byrne gets better on all accounts by the time of Naked and onwards, into his solo '90s records.

Not to make this all Byrne-centric, let me just add that Chris & Tina as well are firing on all cylinders on that final record, playing in styles I don't remember them tackling before - Chris on brushes, Tina's parts and runs.. yay all around. Plus of course Johnny Marr, Kristy's harmonies.. Whoah. Have to put it on right now.

man that's a lot of words for a bad record

Max in the picture on the inner sleeve; Byrne is supposedly holding a giant prize winning pickle!

it's funny how under-documented they are. i mean there's only a few books, no really decent ones, but even on the net it's pretty thin info-wise. the version of Houses In Motion that came out as a single is supposedly a 'remix' (uncredited, by Eno) according to the sleeve, but under the link on YouTube there is some hot debate about whether this is a remix, or a complete re-recording. no-one knows for sure. if this was a track off say one of the Velvets best loved albums, the skinny on this stuff would be written about chapter and verse all over the place, but for these guys everything is sketchy.

anyway here is that 'remix' complete with its extra verse!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKUg5Lgs3YQ

not my consensus - Democratic Circus, Facts of Life, Cool Water are all chill-inducing

i appreciate the growing darkness in the second half of naked but beyond "cool water" the tunes really don't support it

can't ever consider it a bad record bc the first side is all jams imo. i disagree with the characterization of early byrne heads songs as "detached," they're only detached inasmuch as they're able to access from an angle an emotional core in bureaucracy and modernity, which i feel is best expressed by byrne singing "this must be the place" to a lamp. the only time his detachment bothers me is when it becomes indistinguishable from pastiche, e.g. on true stories the album. i enjoyed the youtube review of true stories embedded upthread bc neither reviewer is able to successfully apply the term "satire" to the film even though it has characteristics of it. feel like this is also true of talking heads records

Wow, thanks! Didn't know this existed - I love Houses in Motion (and Hassell on it)!

xxpost -
A mega pickle! 30-year mystery finally solved. Thank you!

also, can we drop the idea that "detached" by implication suggests immaturity?

plus, detachment as practiced by Byrne means not eschewing relationships with men and women but able to look at their motives wrly.

do agree that the extra guitars on "(Nothing But) Flowers" are beautiful.

xxxxp - About 'The Overload', from the David Bowman book:

The album would end with a glorious tune that didn’t really belong on Remain in Light. It was more a throwback to Fear of Music. But the song was too good to leave out. Jerry had been the chief architect of the piece. It was called “The Overload.”
David’s contributions to this song were said to be influenced by things he had read about a British group called Joy Division. He had never actually heard their albums, but he had read about them. The band played sublime dirges with a tribal-cum-industrial beat. Joy Division made schizophrenic trance drones. Soundtracks for nonexistent sci-fi movies. Ceremonial music for deep-tech fascist gatherings. The band’s singer was Jim Morrison without the fire. Iggy Pop eating glass instead of cutting up his chest. David worked on the mock–Joy Division song without listening to any of their albums. When he finally heard Joy Division, he was disappointed. They sounded closer to a conventional rock group than he’d thought. David had been fooled by the music critics. As for “The Overload,” it ended up sounding more like post-Animals Pink Floyd.

also, can we drop the idea that "detached" by implication suggests immaturity?

― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, March 20, 2017 2:35 PM (three minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

plus, detachment as practiced by Byrne means not eschewing relationships with men and women but able to look at their motives wrly.

― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, March 20, 2017 2:36 PM (two minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm x2

When he finally heard Joy Division, he was disappointed. They sounded closer to a conventional rock group than he’d thought. David had been fooled by the music critics.

I'm sorry David Bowman is projecting his own disappointment -- this is what I disliked about the book.

jesus christ i can't imagine reading a whole book of that

The band played sublime dirges with a tribal-cum-industrial beat. Nope

Joy Division made schizophrenic trance drones. What

Soundtracks for nonexistent sci-fi movies. Nope

Ceremonial music for deep-tech fascist gatherings. wtf stop that.

The band’s singer was Jim Morrison without the fire. omg no

Iggy Pop eating glass instead of cutting up his chest. ...

I'm with Max to an extent. Struggling to decide which of Democratic Circus, Facts of Life, Cool Water* and Sax and Violins to remove from ballot. Otherwise dominated by MSABAF and FOM!

*well, no, CW is very safe.

I love this wide-ranging, witty interview:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhUq52YmeLA

― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 18 March 2017 03:10 (two days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Enjoyed this a lot, thanks. It may well be a carefully-honed public image, but they come across as very "people who have figured out how to live".

And thanks to you & Brad for deftly handling the 'detached' dig, which had me slapping my forehead.

Re-listening to Naked now. It's good! Not "re-work/re-submit my ballot" good, but good. Byrne is the weak link; a singer in a language I don't speak would improve it a lot. But I'm into it. The dub sound of "Mommy Daddy You and I" is great.

Chris & Tina as well are firing on all cylinders on that final record

think you might be missing some of who does what on that record

oh nm I coulda sworn they had other bassists at some point but I must be misremembering all the extra personnel from SMS on...

also, can we drop the idea that "detached" by implication suggests immaturity?
― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, March 20, 2017 2:35 PM (three minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I never intended that to be a "dig" at anyone. That's why I defined what I meant by 'immature' in my explanation further above. What I meant is: I feel early Byrne is skimming the surface of things in faux-detachment, underneath he's shitting his pants to have to get really involved, both as songwriter and singer. You know - like, yamming too much about style (styles of living; styles of acting), until he starts singing for real, and writing real, heartfelt songs about SOMETHING (which he would prove excellent, while unheralded, at) - all a plus in my book (not ideologically: purely on the evidence of the material).

Many of his later solo songs are angry, or utterly sad in their conclusions - 'A Self-Made Man'; 'They Are in Love' - but they are NOT detached any more. He's pissed off if need be, he cuts deeper for it, comes across stronger for it. To my ears/taste, of course.

For full disclosure (bear with me one last minute), I should postscript all of this by admitting I was a couple years too young to be able to experience the 'idiot glee' early 80s style period first hand - early Heads, but also Gang of Four, Wire before them, Eno's vocal albums, and the like. It's one of the rare music eras I (to my chagrin) find, if not "dated" (a word I hate with a passion), then a time capsule - what I'm hearing is young people with guts, but also "im-mature" i.e. too young yet to write something of real substance (some among them would then go on to do so, but with dimmer wattage on them as youth - especially if angry - is the be-all and end-all in R'n'R).

By the same token I have never fallen for post-punk white disco in purely musical terms - conversely, black disco a couple of years earlier was the first music I remember hearing, and enjoying on a pure, body level. That might explain a few things about my predilections/idiosincracies in all this. I am very aware that may be the reason the whole angst ingredient of early Byrne/TH goes over my head without me being able to enjoy it. It's like it's a time capsule I can't quite get (back) into.

they ought to be more careful
they're setting a bad example

oh nm I coulda sworn they had other bassists at some point but I must be misremembering all the extra personnel from SMS on...

― Οὖτις, Monday, March 20, 2017 6:50 PM (forty-five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Bob Babbitt said:

Another situation that happened to me was the first Talking Heads album.

I overdubbed the Bass parts, played with a pick. The sound was exactly like the parts on the record. They need the same notes but with a better feel and better execution. Yeah, no credits. The producers did not even tell the group.

http://bobbabbitt.com/Bob_Babbitts_Site/Whos_Playing_Bass.html

Ah, but Ed Stasium sez:

This will be brief...I want to set the record straight about Tina playing on TH77. At the sessions Bongiovi would show up once in a while and when he did he would proceed to the lounge and read airplane magazines. Lance was there most of the time, I was the only person involved in the recording of the project who was there for every minute of the process. 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.

http://www.electricalaudio.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=46055

yeah everything I hear on later records leads me to believe that Tina is playing on 77

she kicks ass on live recordings from that era imo

oh good another man saying a woman can't play an instrument

I feel early Byrne is skimming the surface of things in faux-detachment, underneath he's shitting his pants to have to get really involved, both as songwriter and singer. You know - like, yamming too much about style (styles of living; styles of acting), until he starts singing for real, and writing real, heartfelt songs about SOMETHING...

...I was a couple years too young to be able to experience the 'idiot glee' early 80s style period first hand - early Heads, but also Gang of Four, Wire before them, Eno's vocal albums, and the like. ...what I'm hearing is young people with guts, but also "im-mature" i.e. too young yet to write something of real substance

― Max Florian, Monday, March 20, 2017 4:06 PM (thirty-one minutes ago)

i get that you're only describing what you hear and feel, a reflection of your personal tastes. on that level, you aren't (and really can't be) wrong. i agree that overtly cerebral music produced by angry/snarky young people all but inevitably lacks a certain emotional complexity and perspective on life. for that kind of thing, we typically turn to more "mature" artists. compounding this, the post-punk & new wave music of the late 70s & early 80s is often deeply cynical about the value of emotion and even humanity itself.

but none of that really applies to talking heads, at least not in a negative sense. early on, byrne, like most of his peers, does seem to place himself in subversive opposition the pop romanticism of the 60s counterculture. and yeah, his lyrics often come armored in layers of baffling, pokerfaced irony. but he's not a nihilist. even at his most seemingly detached, he's making an earnest attempt to describe the texture of modern urban experience. what's it like to be one among many, to work, reside, think and couple not as some promethean/dionysian lone wolf art-hero, but rather as a module: citizen, friend, lover, peer.

nor does his perspective seem to have changed all that much by the time we get to naked. while byrne's lyrics may be a bit warmer and more politically direct, he's still wryly observing styles of living & acting ("mr. jones"), still framing the human condition as an exercise in systems theory ("the facts of life").

yeah everything I hear on later records leads me to believe that Tina is playing on 77

Better yet, listen to the 1975 CBS Demos and you can't deny how great Tina is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3HVf0-BIRE

btw i really liked true stories (the movie)!!!!

yeah me too, although i've never made it all the way through

xposts - Tina Weymouth is p much the single reason I decided to buy and learn how to play bass guitar

“We’re not the same as we used to be,” David Byrne tells the crowd at Ontario, Canada’s Heatwave Festival in the summer of 1980. He sounds nervous—but then again, he pretty much always sounds nervous.

http://pitchfork.com/thepitch/1309-talking-heads-road-to-remain-in-light/

voted

Been listening to a bootleg of that Heatwave show a lot lately. First Remain in Light show right? They sound great, Belew on fire, Tina screams WOO! into the mic every 10 seconds, extremely flat backup vox during Once in a Lifetime. they sound coked up - i remember reading one of their backing musicians (maybe it was Belew) saying that they walked into the dressing room and saw all the Talking Heads doing lines of coke off the backs of the necks of their guitars.

FWIW, I've always thought of Tina the same way I think of Paul Simonon, a guy of modest talents but ample enthusiasm who really grew into his role. It's Chris Franz who I don't rate much, though of course he is the right drummer for the TH (the same way, say, Harrison's Modern Lovers co-hort David Robinson was right for the Cars).

Relistened to the whole discography plus Tom Tom Club for the poll and enjoyed all of it, but it mostly confirmed my existing preferences. Remain in Light is my favorite thing they ever did by a substantial margin, even though there are songs I love from every album. I wish there had been at least one more album in that vein before they moved on, but maybe it's the kind of thing you can only really do once. My album ranking is more or less a bell curve, with only '77 and Naked excluded from my top 8 (top 7 + Tom Tom Club).

And I think Chris and Tina are an ace rhythm section, but it's also true that a lot of the band's funk comes from Byrne's rhythm guitar.

no idea how someone could put True Stories above 77!

the closest thing they did to Remain in Light afterwards is definitely the fantastic live Catherine Wheel tracks, but I wish they had explored that sound a bit more, especially the Seen And Not Seen/Listening Wind vibe. It took me a long time to really get into anything else after starting with Remain in Light because of how different it is really.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ct-Ne0a1zCk

just stumbled across Mind live from 1982, some nice jamming & advert samples, never knew they performed it with the expanded line-up

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmrAsIefl58

another curiosity from that era - the band playing Jerry Harrison's Slink

aw hell yeah, "mind" is one of my fav songs

anyway i think my ballot is done. sending it in shortly

live versions of "drugs" make me think man i should've voted for "drugs"

aw hell yeah, "mind" is one of my fav songs

otm

for those about to otm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOiDdXwdLH8

sent my ballot!

"Drugs" is sweet. Kind of forgot about how cool it is until after I submitted my ballot. so it goes

I voted for 'Drugs', it was one of the last additions to my ballot. My regret is forgetting 'Pull Up the Roots' so I'm hoping that doesn't get shut out.

Good to see the love for 'Mind', when I first heard Fear of Music that was my instant favourite, love the way all the instrumental parts answer each other.

Man, the more I think about TH these days, the more I think Remain In Light is massively front-loaded, FOM is patchy, and the first two albums are unimpeachable. This is quite a turn around from my opinions at the height of my fandom.

Also, I listened to Naked all the way through last night and I liked everything on there. I don't understand the hate. It's easily better than True Stories and Little Creatures.

maybe agree about Remain in Light but I don't think Fear of Music is patchy at all! I love every single track on that album, it seems like the most focused of all the TH albums

I think Cities and Life During Wartime are as an effective one-two punch as Once In A Lifetime and Houses in Motion (and they occupy the exact same slots on the respective albums!). Those four tracks are the quintessential TH to me

the lyrics of Cities are so perfectly unhinged

Indeed, i started a thread about them once and was soundly scoffed at for my troubles, but they still baffle me

Has David Byrne even *been* to London?

lol I completely forgot to consider "Life During Wartime" for my ballot, good thing I have a few days

RIL frontloaded? no
FoM patchy? yes

^^ funny I think the opposite of both opinions

I mean RiL is front-loaded in the sense that the first 5 are the best tracks, not because the last three are poor or anything

I've never been able to really get into RiL beyond the two big songs (I am assuming, for whatever reason, that "Crosseyed and Painless" has a rep outside of the album), whereas I think that there are only like one or two songs on FoM that are anything less than awesome.

if only there was a way to sort out all these differences we have between ranking talking heads tracks :)

what's the other "big" song on RiL? once in a lifetime and...?

well "Houses" was released as a single, that and Crosseyed are the other high-profile ones from my pov

oh, now I see that "Born Under Punches" was also released as a single, there is a promo 12" of "Crosseyed" also

Crosseyed had a video too, their first proper one!

wasn't there a thread about albums you love that you really didn't get when you first heard them? that was remain in light for me

now ofc i realize that nothing sounds like it and every song is its own world

well the first three tracks on RiL sure sound like an epic Moby Dick of a side giving a distinct identity to the whole album, so I can see how it can sound frontloaded. one must work harder with the rest, I think (OiaL excepted, being the hit).

xxxxxposts -

i get that you're only describing what you hear and feel, a reflection of your personal tastes. on that level, you aren't (and really can't be) wrong. i agree that overtly cerebral music produced by angry/snarky young people all but inevitably lacks a certain emotional complexity and perspective on life. for that kind of thing, we typically turn to more "mature" artists. compounding this, the post-punk & new wave music of the late 70s & early 80s is often deeply cynical about the value of emotion and even humanity itself.

but none of that really applies to talking heads, at least not in a negative sense. early on, byrne, like most of his peers, does seem to place himself in subversive opposition the pop romanticism of the 60s counterculture. and yeah, his lyrics often come armored in layers of baffling, pokerfaced irony. but he's not a nihilist. even at his most seemingly detached, he's making an earnest attempt to describe the texture of modern urban experience. what's it like to be one among many, to work, reside, think and couple not as some promethean/dionysian lone wolf art-hero, but rather as a module: citizen, friend, lover, peer.

nor does his perspective seem to have changed all that much by the time we get to naked. while byrne's lyrics may be a bit warmer and more politically direct, he's still wryly observing styles of living & acting ("mr. jones"), still framing the human condition as an exercise in systems theory ("the facts of life").

― The sandwiches looked quite dank. (contenderizer), Tuesday, 21 March 2017 01:58

terrific post, all true and said so well. duly noted.

This poll is impossible. I've only determined that Heaven-Animals-Electric Guitar is my least favorite run of songs on a good TH album.

what's the other "big" song on RiL? once in a lifetime and...?

Yeah, I meant "Crosseyed and Painless."

that's a fact

Animals is great, I love how angry he is on that song

"Drugs" is OK.

you're ok

I'm so-so
if one can grasp it

Drugs has such great background stuff - the respirator/hisses, treated vocals, and those weird bird sounds

aka their Pere Ubu song?

Drugs and Air might have fallen into that least favorite batch if not for cool sounds

I love Air, Animals, and the rest of FoM. Probably my favorite Heads album.

"air" is SO good

the first half of FOM is mind-blowing

yeah, first half is maybe the best. I love air except for the part where they sing "air". That part annoys me for some reason.

"aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiir" = harbinger of next three tracks

it always reminded me of windowlicker

yeah, first half is maybe the best. I love air except for the part where they sing "air". That part annoys me for some reason.

― Sufjan Grafton, Tuesday, March 21, 2017 11:21 AM (twenty-four minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

"air" can hurt you too

no idea how someone could put True Stories above 77!

Just barely, but yeah. I could give a long answer but the short one is, more tunes I like.

I never used to like 'Electric Guitar' much but I've realised over the last couple of days how great the drumming is.

Frantz-Weymouth skeptics are directed to their work on FOM.

Drugs has such great background stuff - the respirator/hisses, treated vocals, and those weird bird sounds

aka their Pere Ubu song?

Drugs has always been one of my favorite things from FOM – I will admit that I came to it from a "Listen for Eno" perspective and adore all the AMS echo triggers. Is it more atmosphere than melody? I suppose but the chorus is sublimely unsettling – and Byrne's guitar deconstruction at the close is equal to anything, say, Henry Kaiser ever did.

I'm a fan.

as i suggested upthread it uncoils fully live

aka their Pere Ubu song?

― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, March 21, 2017 11:13 AM (one hour ago)

it really is

Help Needed I would like to ask for some help with the images of this poll. Similar to what Thermo Thinwall did for my Spoon poll or pplains did for Steely Dan. Email the TH box if interested and I will get back to you when I get home from work in a few hours.

I really need the help as I don't want just album images for this poll. Thanks
.

yeah, first half is maybe the best. I love air except for the part where they sing "air". That part annoys me for some reason.

― Sufjan Grafton, Tuesday, March 21, 2017 11:21 AM (twenty-four minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

"air" can hurt you too

― the raindrops and drop tops of lived, earned experience (BradNelson), Tuesday, March 21, 2017 11:46 AM (four hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I suppose that is also air coming out of Frantz's mouth when he "Jaaaaaaaammmmeeess BrrrrooooOOWN"s, too

still need help with images, no one has offered yet.

OK very happy, i think we are good to go!

i will be sending out confirmations but none have gone out yet. i think the first round will be tonight, to give my co-poll running an idea of what is going to place.