Remain In Light, Side 2

fyi my parents smoke p-o-t w/ tina n chris a few times in the 70s

"In this album was sewn the seeds of what would later become Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers."

Nice writing, Alfred.

"Does anyone listen to Remain in Light past "Once in a Lifetime"? I've heard "Houses in Motion" get some love, but no one (including me) has claimed much for the three dirges with which the album concludes."

This is one of my ten or so favorite albums of all time, and one of the best sequenced, and I ALWAYS play it in its entirety. Love all three dirges, voted "Listening Wind."

i had a stoned theory once that each track on this album was slower than the one before it, so it's the like the whole album slowly grinds to a halt by the end. er...it's not true.

Ha! Back in the height of my stoner days I came to that very same conclusion. I don't think I've listened to it in full since then to discover its lack of veracity.

Hard one.

I remember Xgau commenting on the second side evoking John Cale somehow. Not sure I ever heard it that way myself, given that the closest (Music for a New Society) didn't come out until after this.

Well, "Listening Wind" conjures the same gently accumulating menace of, say, Cale's "Guts," only it's never funny, and if it is, it'll be grisly (the bomb might explode, and Mojique's arm winds up in a baobab tree).

"Houses in Motion." I love the dry, slinky, off-center funk, plus it was my first exposure to Jon Hassell.

I remember Xgau commenting on the second side evoking John Cale somehow.

If he was thinking specifically about "Listening Wind" and "Venus in Furs" (esp the viola drone), I can see it.

Or hear it, rather.

houses in motion. the album really falls off after that imo

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

i always thought that "the overload" sounded more like pink floyd than joy division (though i also hear the joy division influence too).

this is so tough, one of my favorite albums ever. i'd probably have to go with the overload just cause i think it epitomizes the vibe of side 2

TAKE A LOOK AT THESE HANDS!!

"listening wind" is my favourite of these but tbh i don't like any of these nearly as much as any of the first four tracks. it will be some rong madness if "the overload" wins though.

'listening wind' is my fave track on the album, and is generally the only section where i really sit up and start to take notice. the other tracks, up to that point, tend to zip by for me (albeit in a very assured, well-sequenced manner)

Houses in Motion needs more love. I watched last nigh that live perf included on the deluxe bonus DVD. So awesome

Houses in Motion

Yeah, "Houses in Motion" for me too

no way overload is gonna win, fule (xxxxpost), but some tru headz are gonna vote for it, no pun intended

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

One of the few polls whose results please me.

for some reason I am always surprised when I go back to this album and realize it was from 1980. It sounds like it came from several years later.

I had a stoner theory that each song gets faster than the one before. But I must have been reeeaally stonered.

goddamn the bass sounds in Houses in Motion so awesome

this is one of those records where I'd love a multi-disc "sessions" kinda box set, like the Miles Davis releases. So many layers and sounds to uncover.

what the fuck at "Seen And Not Seen" losing?

It really is remarkable how they nailed Joy Division's sound on "The Overload" without ever having heard their music.

i never believe that story. it can't be true

also it's one of my least favourite songs by them. appreciate the fact it exists but not into the dark atmospheric Heads so much as the funkier stuff

yeah I mean they started recording Remain in Light a full year after Unknown Pleasures came out, and I can't imagine Eno would've had any trouble getting a copy. Still. this legend I hold onto. it's such a good story!

yeah dog latin otm - i skip that song every time

angelique LP of this is on fire as well

I love the way Byrne trembles through the line, "in the free trade zone"

I love the way this record is sequenced, the way it just slowly grinds to a halt

yes

thirded

the version of "Houses in Motion" on The Name of this band is Talking Heads is so much funkier and livelier that I almost can't believe it's the same song

oh yeah, the live Houses in Motion is one of the very best Talking Heads songs.

Might be hard to find a Heads song where the live version isn't better than the studio tbh

Once in a Lifetime and Great Curve never came off too great live IMO. I mean they still rule but the studio recordings are perfect.

yeah i've never felt like "once in a lifetime" comes across right in a live setting for some reason — the chorus doesn't have the same lift

wearing shoes with no socks

I love "The Overload." And I never really 'got' Joy Division. But I 'get' The Melvins and this song is as close as Byrne ever got to Buzz (which is, admittedly, not very close, but that drone that runs throughout is some straight up Lysol shit)

hey, did Eno ever cop to "I Fall Up" being, err, inspired by "Houses in Motion?" Seems obvious to me but I'm no Eno scholar, and, lord knows, if anyone has the right to borrow ideas from TH it's Eno (and Hassell)

the wind in my heart, the dust in my head <3 <3 all time ultra humid groove

For the first four songs this is the greatest album ever made! Pity about the slower dirgey ones.

xp "Great Curve" was excellent live when I saw Byrne ten years ago, but I agree I haven't heard a live version of "Once in a Lifetime" that matches the studio version

otm and “Born Under Punches” too imo, perfect studio creations. “Crosseyed and Painless” bangs though.

live version of born under punches slays the studio version, you crazy

Too slow and a totally different groove. Tape loops make the song.

I like the live Born Under Punches, but it doesn't really compare. As flappy said the groove is totally different.

Not sure why Once in a Lifetime doesn't come through so well live, it's kind of got a strange rhythm to it and I think Eno's vocals are missed on the chorus. I feel like a lot of the power in the tune is due to the way the instruments are mixed - the bass up top, the twinkly synths in the background, Byrne front and center.

Great Curve...feel like it's too layered and complex to properly replicate. The live version I have sounds like it had to be slowed down and the mass vocals don't gel the way they do in studio.

here's the eno i zimbra remix:

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

and here's the arthur russell psycho killer (this was a bonus track on a 77 reish)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoclXuB6JOU

fuck yeah, thanks Tyler!

Tyler is definitely the guy to compile TH rarities and post it on his blog. Please and thank you! ;-)

ha! this thing pulls together some bits n bobs: https://www.amazon.com/Bonus-Rarities-Outtakes-Talking-Heads/dp/B00122REJU

I’d always thought of them as a band that did t leave much on the cutting room floor bc other van that houses in motion remix they were pretty stingy with their b-sides. But there’s a surprising amount of alternate versions and outtakes that have come out over the last 10 years from all the various reissues, the box set, greatest hits and etc. Not many of them are very revelatory imo, not many fully-realized unreleased songs, but a lot of fun listening just the same.

^typos, posting from the bar, etc etc

That Arthur Russell mix is an interesting historical artifact but it is p bad tbqh

yeah, it's kinda neat but it sounds more like an overdub than a remix

I've waffled on this before but it's funny how the non-extended cuts from the vinyl LP of Speaking In Tongues are pretty obscure now too; the CD copies all used the extra long mixes from the original cassette. Some are a minute longer, some almost 2 minutes.

Also weird; you can only get Storytelling Giant as part of that 2003 box set, there's still no other proper vids compilation.

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51gCb0C1zmL._SX355_.jpg

I got it on vhs in my attic if anyone wants to come over and check it out

On my way

The 5.1 downmix of Houses in Motion >>>

personally i prefer the long mixes but i guess i would...

Listened to this for first time in a long while - historically have played S1 far more but S2 genius really unlocked for me this time - just incredibly sequenced album

Anyway Seen and Not Seen - struck me as having a real Robert Ashley thing going on - like pretty specifically re vocal mannerisms - has Byrne ever copped to a direct influence/tribute here? Like I guess he def woulda been across Ashley’s thing - or was it just more that this “detached anthropological observer of humanity” vibe was common in NYC art scene of the time?

Heads albums have some really strong sides. This one, and side one of Naked come to mind.

Side one of Fear of Music also.

The final track on the album, "The Overload", was Talking Heads' attempt to emulate the sound of the band Joy Division. This effort was made in spite of the fact that no one in the band had actually heard the music of Joy Division. Rather, it was based on an idea of what Joy Division might sound like. [1]

As opposed to the reality of what "I Remember Nothing" sounded like? Yeah, right.