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

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