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

"I'm Not in Love" has that beautiful synth outro, for which I've traditionally credited Eno but it slights Harrison. One of the things about that 1985 book I cited is how Harrison was always discounted: Eno got the credits for his keyboards and Byrne the credit for the guitars.

Maybe it's because More Songs was the first Talking Heads album I owned, but I think it's great all the way through, better sounding than the debut and more consistent than Fear of Music. As a full album I prefer it to Remain in Light (but I burned out on RIL long ago).

Not having heard them in ages, I was surprised how much I enjoyed Little Creatures and even True Stories. I've never knowingly heard Naked, so I intend to give that extra attention.

Just submitted. I got MTV in 1988, so so many of my favorite TH songs are on Little Creatures, True Stories and Naked

look at these guys

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imWnuirIL8o

I won't hear anyone slight LC. It's got a song mentioning a baby's peepee, a song that says "I've seen sex and I think it's OK," a song with a zydeco arrangement that could be an 1984 GOP convention anthem, and some ridiculous outfits on the sleeve. To me it's like Elvis C's Blood and Chocolate: a return to "simplicity" enlivened and reinforced by years of experiments.

They should have stopped in 1985, but then we wouldn't ahve gotten "(Nothing But) Flowers."

"Blind" is dope too

Also, if they stopped in 1985, Radiohead would be called "Tomviolence"

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

― sciatica, Thursday, March 16, 2017 1:51 PM (twenty-four minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

nah, that one's a drag

― contenderizer, Thursday, March 16, 2017 1:55 PM (nineteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

ridiculous, "the good thing" rules

― the raindrops and drop tops of lived, earned experience (BradNelson), Thursday, March 16, 2017 1:57 PM (eighteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i kinda agree that more songs is the least of the first four though

― the raindrops and drop tops of lived, earned experience (BradNelson), Thursday, March 16, 2017 1:57 PM (seventeen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

whatever the hook's supposed to be, it escapes my ears

xp - whatever the hook's supposed to be, it escapes my ears

― contenderizer, Thursday, March 16, 2017 1:59 PM (sixteen minutes ago)

if there is a thread i would love to see it. i think i've barged in to proclaim my love for that song several times over the years.

i realize the song could be interpreted many ways, but it really spoke to me in grad school (public policy) and working in the govt. it seemed to be about the internal struggle between a technocratic mindset and an intuition-based artistic process. technocratic is a bit of a loaded term, but i just mean the belief that most things can be measured and quantified, that models can be built that incorporate those variables and which can be iterated according to new data, and that this kind of analysis can and should be the basis for public policy and making decisions. when i was in school i was especially attracted to this line of thinking, and of course as i hit real life within the govt i began to understood where it falls short, the caveats and impossibilities of trying to measure some aspects of human nature. i didn't end up getting to work on anything related to climate change, but it's a perfect example. on one side you have the data and modeling which helps us to understand how it's occurring and how it will unfold in the future, and on the other you have the struggle to make changes in the real world, to change the behavior of knuckle-dragging climate change denying fuckfaces, or at least persuade them not to stand in the way of change.

so a struggle emerges that's probably common to a lot of people - trying to figure out how to balance heart and mind, intuition and logic.

A straight line exists between me and the good thing
I have found the line and its direction is known to me
Absolute trust keeps me going in the right direction
Any intrusion is met with a heart full of the good thing

for me the essence of the song is in the incredible catharsis of the ending when the entire band shifts. this is peak talking heads for me:
So I say:
I have adopted this and made it my own
Cut back the weakness
Reinforce what is strong

Watch me work

it's a triumphant acknowledgment of compromise, a tribute to the iterative possibilities of data-driven thinking (or to extend that, a logic-based approach to life) that still has room for intuition. and it's goddamn catchy as fuck as well.

i didn't express that very well (shocker) but hopefully some of you know what i mean. "The Good Thing" is more than a song to me, it is a song-shaped encapsulation of the essential struggle in modern life

as an expression of my own compromise between quantification and the gut, i rate it 11 out of 10

^^ everybody. get. in. line.

I definitely prefer More Songs to the debut, which is fine and has some great moments but feels kind of monochromatic by comparison.

deja vu-- karl i'm pretty sure it was you interpreting those lyrics that made the discussion of the good thing i'm thinking of so memorable! i think there was some maoism in there too, re the straight line verse. and the maniacal WATCH ME WORK to send us into the coda...

I won't hear anyone slight LC. It's got a song mentioning a baby's peepee, a song that says "I've seen sex and I think it's OK," a song with a zydeco arrangement that could be an 1984 GOP convention anthem, and some ridiculous outfits on the sleeve. To me it's like Elvis C's Blood and Chocolate: a return to "simplicity" enlivened and reinforced by years of experiments.

They should have stopped in 1985, but then we wouldn't ahve gotten "(Nothing But) Flowers."

― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, March 16, 2017 2:40 PM (sixteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Xgau concurs in his Blood and Chocolate review:

Like Little Creatures, it's a return to basics with a decade of growth in it

Anyone know why they didn't tour after Little Creatures? I get why they didn't tour after True Stories (Byrne didn't really want to make the album in the first place) and Naked (they broke up), but were there reasons given at the time for not touring in '85?

Byrne's movie.

Oh, yeah. Makes sense.

More Songs might be my fave. "Stay Hungry" is my jam, it could go on forever as far as I am concerned.

On board with this, though

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.

Revising a previous claim, '77, True Stories and Little Creatures have never been faves. I mean, I think '77 is great, and love it. But the other two I literally never put on and have never liked. Blood and Chocolate >>>>> Little Creatures. It's almost everything interesting they did made less interesting, whereas B&C is super weird and edgy and cool, imo. Side one, at least.

this is where I decided David Byrne's whole solo artist schtick was just not for me (1986, but I saw this in the mid-90's and was horrified)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Km5WT83j-lE

If he felt Talking Heads were holding him back, it's evident he needed holding back. That video comes off as a half-assed parody of '80s downtown performance art.

yup

and it's goddamn catchy as fuck as well.

― Karl Malone, Thursday, March 16, 2017 11:44 AM (one hour ago)

loved reading your mini-essay, but this is where the nope sets in

oh, the catchy part i'm talking about is the ending ("i have adopted this...")

i agree that the rest (aka 9/10th of the song) isn't quite as musically outstanding. if it was, i would rate it 12 out of 10! which is one of the top beyond-the-range scores iirc

yeah, the ending's rad

I won't hear anyone slight LC. It's got a song mentioning a baby's peepee, a song that says "I've seen sex and I think it's OK," a song with a zydeco arrangement that could be an 1984 GOP convention anthem, and some ridiculous outfits on the sleeve.

― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, March 16, 2017 11:40 AM (one hour ago)

yeah, but that's exactly the problem. there's this point c. true stories/little creatures where byrne seems to decide that being cute is his main thing. a certain wackiness had always been there, obscured by detached opacity, but in the mid 80s he full-on dove into the "brainy-zany art guy" aspect of his persona.

the big suit from speaking in tongues wasn't the turning point (look back to stuff like "in the future" for that?), but it was so critically celebrated and commercially successful in its moment that I suppose it's no surprise he never recovered.

More Songs is the same album as the debut except the production is thicker and does away with the cute arrangements like the marimba in "Uh Oh Love Has Come to Town." That's not to slight the debut.

More Songs is indeed a more "professional" version of the debut, but for my money that has always made it a lot duller. I have several tracks from '77 on my temporary ballot right now, but I can't think of a single thing from More Songs that I want to include. Even "Take Me To The River" is played out for me at this point.

yeah, but that's exactly the problem. there's this point c. true stories/little creatures where byrne seems to decide that being cute is his main thing. a certain wackiness had always been there, obscured by detached opacity, but in the mid 80s he full-on dove into the "brainy-zany art guy" aspect of his persona.

I spare LC from this fate.

More Songs is indeed a more "professional" version of the debut, but for my money that has always made it a lot duller. I

I disagree with "professional" as applied to More Songs. If anything, the marimba on "Uh Oh" and the horns on "Psycho Killer" are exactly the kind of touches I expect from Tony Bongiovi and a new band tentative in the studio.

Ballot submitted.

David Bowman's book should be set on fire.

― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn)

Why? I just speed-read through it to get some background info for this poll (I don't know anything about Talking Heads), and I thought it was pretty decent. Sometimes critical towards Byrne and especially Weymouth, but I thought that was refreshing.

The reporting is terrible. He mixes free indirect style with speculation. And he obv has it in for Weymouth.

OK, thanks. I'll keep that in mind when I revisit certain parts.

My ballot will be the most boring one of all. Most of the Best Of + extra tracks from Remain in Light. Though as I listen to it, MSABAF becomes better and better. The Good Thing, Stay Hungry and Girls Want To Be With Other Girls especially.

pull up the roots is relentlessly good. i love that quick 16th-note pattern on the keyboard, all the same note, that goes on and off duty

"Found a Job" won the More Songs poll, didn't it? People not into that one anymore? I love it for similar reasons to Karl loving "The Good Thing": those weird self-help philosophy as-explained-by-robots lyrics. On both songs, it's impossible for me to tell if Byrne is singing ironically or seriously, which I think really makes it - I mean, that's a big part of his appeal as a singer and lyricist in general

"Found a Job" may well get extra support in this poll, because of the blistering SMS performance.

Tina's "what a nut" look at Adrian Belew around 1:33:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCfC5yVlvj4

I wonder how long it takes, when Adrian Belew is in your band, to get tired of his schtick? I mean, I love him, but if he was in my band doing his thing every night? I dunno.

lol

"Found A Job" is awesome, my favorite on that album, the jam at the end prefigures a lot of the Remain In Light grooves

I'm enjoying digging back through the catalog for this poll, and I actually like a lot of True Stories more than I remembered, but it also reminds me that Radiohead weren't just named after a Talking Heads song, they were named after a cod-ska oompah Talking Heads song. Otoh, I remain a total sucker for "Dream Operator."

I really can't understand the appeal of Found A Job, it's lacking in hooks & the ending jam is really grating and doesn't go anywhere interesting

dl and Alfred, thanks for the book recommendations.
dl, I bought the Byrne book a couple of years ago to read on a holiday trip, could not get into it at all. Not the author's fault I think, fiction rather than non-fiction was what I needed back then. I'll try again. Some time.
Alfred, I'll look out for the book, a quick search indicates it should not be that hard to find a copy online.

There's also Jonathan Lethem's 33⅓ entry on Fear of Music, but after a quick scan it looks like it's more about the author than about the album or the band.

Yeah I checked, considered then dismissed that

willem - I didn't make it all the way through the book. I wasn't interested in certain chapters about music distribution etc, but the first half is excellent in a 'waxing philosophical about music and the process of making it' way.

Can't believe people are dismissing More Songs About BAF upthread. It's just such a good, punchy selection of songs. Just track after track after track of punky fun.

And yeah The Good Thing is fantastic. The weird spider-scramble guitar in the verse alone...

oh no I'm thinking of 'With Our Love'

But yeah, The Good Thing is definitely a good thing. They're all good things, it's just they pass in such a quick succession with no let-up in between it's hard to really pull that album apart. I mean 'Warning Sign'. Each track is upbeat but also has this uneasy ominous feeling.

As you've probably worked out, I'm listening to MSABAF.

Do people like Found A Job?

Artists Only is another amazing one that I'm placing high on my ballot.

wish i were less indifferent to little creatures, sorry alfred

i also think on that one side two >>> side one