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

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. ...