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

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