Talking Heads '77: Classic or Dud?

I agree, Speaking in Tongues is a contender for the talking top of the head pops.

That said, I was just making a mix CD for a friend, took this CD out, and couldn't really find anything that could go on a mix. I think these songs do not play well with others. That's not a bad thing.

45 years old today (…how old does that make me?? /cliche)

xpost to the posters at the top of the thread from 20+ years ago, "fruity" sounds bad but not sure what it's meant to convey about the music.

I like the record now! We were listening to it not that long ago.

I probably wouldn't use the term that way now, esp on a public forum, but is it really hard to see why someone would have described this as fruity? I don't find the quality so off-putting now, though.

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

I do see that "fruity" has a homophobic connotation so I'll belatedly apologize for that. It was a reaction to the goofy, wimpy persona, which, like I said, doesn't bother me now, and which I don't think I meant to connect to actual gay people or the gay community.

how's your mousse

77 is definitely the goofiest of their classic period albums, there are some comedic/light-hearted arrangement choices on this album that pretty much disappear by Buildings and Food, so I know what you were going for there two decades ago

Offensively Fruity *is* the new album by Lil Nas X. Preorder your copy now!

Haha

I actually think it's a good word apart from the insulting connotation, which is maybe so out of date it rubs me less wrong now than it would 20 years ago. 77 is lyrically and musically twee, wimpy, reflective; but also a bit sugary-sweet and reluctant to be engagingly tough ("rock and roll") except for the faster sections of the big statement songs near the end of each side (no compassion and psycho killer). It is not meaty, certainly. I've always felt this album was a let-down, as I think the run from More Songs through Stop Making Sense were so important to me. David had some much better songs from the 76 CBS demo that he maybe felt weren't right for the record like Angel, I'm Not In Love and Warning Sign.

I can kind of sense what they were trying to do in the context of the CBGB records to come (Marquee, Blank Generation) that were also attempts to not sound too Ramonesy/Stoogesy on the one hand - not as abrasive on record as they were live - and go for a more angular sound, but I think the record is just a little to friendly, too ingratiating for me. The live versions on Name of this Band are usually more engaging to me, too. I guess after Stop Making Sense I felt the band returned to that more naive style with Little Creatures. A fruity/be fruitful heterosexual domesticity to that one that turned me off.

talking heads did cover this 1910 Fruitgum Company song in the early days.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkbfcgMUzG8

The live versions on Name of this Band are usually more engaging to me

Same here, I only listen to the '77 songs through the Name of this Band lens. Maybe that's why I was surprised by the fruity description. The NOFB versions aren't too twee.

77 and Fear Of Music are my favourite Talking Heads' albums

77 and Fear Of Music are my favourite Talking Heads' albums

Oops

Yeah, mine too... though More Songs is in there pretty tight as well.

Don’t sleep on Positive Touch though.

I love the performances of the 77 songs on Name of This Band, too, but don’t think 77 would have been as special an album if it had been recorded in that style. Just my two cents

I had the hardest time tracking down a copy of 77 in the early oughts. For some reason nobody stocked it, just their third and fourth records, Stop Making Sense, and numerous hits collections.

Anyway, total classic. I do prefer Buildings and Food, but 77 is still incredible. The wackiness is what speaks to me! Uh-Oh and Psycho Killer are canon.

Christgau's take:

A debut LP will often seem overrefined to habitues of a band's scene, so it's not surprising that many CBGBites felt betrayed when bits of this came out sounding like Sparks or Yes. Personally, I was even more put off by lyrics that fleshed out the Heads' post-Jonathan Richman, so-hip-we're-straight image; when David Byrne says "don't worry about the government," the irony is that he's not being ironic. But the more I listen the more I believe the Heads set themselves the task of hurdling such limitations, and succeed. Like Sparks, these are spoiled kids, but without the callowness or adolescent misogyny; like Yes, they are wimps, but without vagueness or cheap romanticism. Every tinkling harmony is righted with a screech, every self-help homily contextualized dramatically, so that in the end the record proves not only that the detachment of craft can coexist with a frightening intensity of feeling--something most artists know--but that the most inarticulate rage can be rationalized. Which means they're punks after all. A-

Is there one moment on this record that sounds like Yes? On songs like "Don't Worry", is Byrne being ironic, or "ironic about not being ironic"? What's the difference between the lighter-hearted moments on this record and those on Little Creatures or Uh-Oh? What did Byrne take from Ray Davies and Randy Newman in terms of writing "character songs"?

The thinness of its mix combined with Bongiovi's ideas for commercial airplay make their weirdest album.

It could be Carpenters album.

That’s a fairly good Xgau blurb (even though I don’t quite get why “wimp” has come up twice now… is it really “wimpy”? Because they don’t rock out?)

my most mind-splitting talking heads experience was when my college friend dragged me down to cbgb to see them in what turned out to be probably one of their last performances as a trio. '77 gets closest to that, so it's my favorite. david byrne is a sponge for ideas, so all the successive albums to me sound like him plus someone else. which is fine. but '77 and that first single are undiluted.

"wimps" was more their image, with the pressed white shirt buttoned up to the top and the nice slacks and the respectable haircut.

What did Byrne take from Ray Davies and Randy Newman in terms of writing "character songs"?

In the liners to Sand In The Vaseline, Byrne said that "Psycho Killer" was 'Randy Newman doing Alice Cooper' (or vice versa? I forget).

talking heads did cover this 1910 Fruitgum Company song in the early days.

I just looked back at the original Rolling Stone Record Guide review of their first two albums, and Billy Altman also makes the connection:

https://i.imgur.com/aJsdnS7_d.webp?maxwidth=640&shape=thumb&fidelity=medium

Always thought picking that 1910 Fruitgum Company song showed excellent taste on Byrne's (or the band's) part.

"wimps" was more their image, with the pressed white shirt buttoned up to the top and the nice slacks and the respectable haircut.

I had meant it in reference to the music fwiw.

Idg the Yes comparison at all.

I feel like I've read more hilariously wrong Christgau reviews than ones where I've thought "yeah, he's got a point there" by a factor of 10, at least.

But I mean, not going to go harder on Xgau for his 45yo comments than I'd want for my 20yo comments.xp

Not Xgau's last Yes comparison:

XTC: White Music [Virgin International, 1979]
Although it took a year and a half for this debut album by the premier English art-pop band to get released in the States, two Andy Partridge songs on side one aim directly at the American market--"Radios in Motion," which mentions Milwaukee, surely isn't about the BBC, and the avowed purpose of "Statute of Liberty" is to get a look up her skirts. The third, "This Is Pop," is why he missed--radio programmers resent anyone telling them their business, especially subversives who favor herky-jerk rhythms, jerky-herk harmonies, Lene Lovich radar noises, and depressing subject matter. Colin Moulding's songs, on the other hand, are aimed at bored Yes fans, which is why he missed--the lad doesn't know that Yes fans like being bored. B+

I'm annoyed that the early-mix version of "New Feeling" that is the B-side of "Love Goes To A Building On Fire" (the 3:01 version, with some added horns and effects) isn't on Youtube, but there is this horrifying version from the '77 sessions that was released in 2003 (I think the 7" is a stripped down version of this) that shows you why the band pushed back so hard on Bongiovi's ideas:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7t5ZS3vRE3Q

I could be wrong, but I think the LP take is the same as this minus all of Tony's nonsense, and the early 7" B-side is still the same but with just touches of the horns etc

lol holy shit

Wow, that is utterly bizarre. I can't believe I've never heard that before.

It's like the horns are pushing it into a different key.

That New Feeling remix is bad but is it as annoying as the Life During Wartime "Alternate Version" with the ridiculous revving guitar layered over the old track like a wacky hand buzzer?

One can say that much like Bowie's and REM's covers being almost always crap despite what you'd guess based on their excellent taste and talent for experimentation, Talking Heads should have been great at remixes and just didn't get the format at all.

huh, every rem cover i can think of is pretty good

You know what, scratch REM, I think I had just forgotten about the entirety of Dead Letter Office for some reason

Superman is pretty classic and I like their party take on Strange

The New Feeling original mix is actually hilarious. Trying to picture Byrne's reaction to this

Speaking of R.E.M., it reminds me of hearing this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUv4tn3zGj0