Talking Heads: Little Creatures poll

I like the latter, but the former is so damn pretty with its pedal steel and its harmonies.

Also: "I've seen sex and I think it's okay" is as profound a line coming from this man as "Home is where I want to be"

the ominous minor chords of "Give Me Back My Name" are the last departing wave of the Fear of Music era.

Word. Little Creautures was the first Talking Heads I heard, at 10 or whatever, and "Name" was the big hint that they were potentially more interesting/idiosyncratic/unsettling than then-recent airplay had indicated.

its always been remarkable to me how after the soaring peak of Stop Making Sense & all the interplay, imagination and power on display there, they follow it up with a record where all of those exciting musical dynamics have been wiped away and harrison frantz & weymouth sound bland and anonymous, like an assemblage of crack session players (as dr casino noted.) the hits are undeniable and the album cuts ("stay up late" & "creatures of love" especially) are way underrated in the their catalog. but the only identifiable musical personality on it is byrne, and for that reason i'll never be able to truly love it.

ive been revisiting this era recently after coming across a folder of tracks i never heard before, 1984 home demos by byrne of songs that would end up on this and true stories, mostly just guitar & drum machine. its fun to hear the tunes wiped of their pop sheen. the acoustic take on "lady dont mind" seems to consciously reference "psycho killer", and "give me back my name" definitely stands out as something that could have been a lost track from 1978.

Listening to LC after buying Rei Momo, I could hear the continuity in Byrne's vocalizing choices; he had started singing "normally" on LC.

xp 6 of 9 tracks are credited only to Byrne, including the three best-known singles. I know Frantz's book mentioned that Byrne attempted to take all of the songwriting credit on one of their earlier albums (which didn't get past the band's approval), but in this case, is it an accurate reflection of how much of the album came from Byrne alone?

Sounds like it if you've heard the demos. Funny how Frantz mentions it when Frantz is the Heads member most often credited with co-writes.

Apparently, Byrne always regarded the band as his. At one point, he "fired" the others.

xp Could be the squeaky wheel gets the grease, where someone else is likely to let it slide but Frantz is like "PUT MY NAME DOWN IN THE CREDITS!"

iirc in Frantz's book he frames their discussion abt songwriter credit as a moment when, not long after "learning how publishing works" (how long after? CF doesnt say) Byrne approached him about being the sole lyric writer bc he felt uncomfortable singing words he didnt write - not an unheard-of thing among singers ime, but in Frantz's telling Byrne is obv lying and it's a sinister deception in order to greedily capture publishing money. but idk listening to frantz's lyrics in the years since TH i cant say as i blame byrne.

nb: i've always taken Frantz's malevolent depictions of Byrne with a grain of salt, obv i'm sure he was not the worlds most chill collaborator but i've always assumed the truth is somewhere in between (espec since Byrne has historically held back from dishing dirt from his side.) I felt Frantz's book to be particularly cruel imho, especially if you look with modern eyes on Byrne in his youth as someone navigating neurodivergence/autism spectrum issues in an era when that was considered a punchline. Frantz makes sure to include seemingly every time someone said anything bad about Byrne, incl many stories about people mocking his body & appearance, which felt ott. lots of bits like "here were me and tina drinking and partying with such-and-such famous person, but then david embarrassed us by leaving without saying goodbye, what a weird asshole!"

like, not impossible for me to imagine a more sympathetic reading where byrne, as he grows more self confident, decides he doesnt need to keep accepting poetry tips from his pushy jock drummer

boy, "Perfect World" and "Walk It Down" are nothing songs, eh?

Still reeling from learning that the lyric is not "And she could see an earmuff factory."

And it should be any earmuffs factory, so you can get some thinking done in that dry ice factory over there.

*an earmuff*

I haven’t listened to this in forever, but I remember liking Walk it Down fine. Sounds like a True Stories song.

Perfect World is nowhere in my memory.

Perfect World is my favourite song on the album, talking of mishearing lyrics I thought for a time that Byrne was singing "I'm staring in your face, your photograph mind" rather than "you'll photograph mine"

My least favorite Talking Heads album.

OH THAT SONG! Yes, that’s a good song.

Television Man is my least favorite on this one.

Road to Nowhere is my fave.

My least favorite Talking Heads album.

― Josh in Chicago,

Less than True Stories?

i had no idea this won Pazz & Jop in 1985, that was a big surprise!

Christgau's essay suggests it was kind of a consensus default - like there was no one album that grabbed a broad spectrum of critics that particular year. I can see what he means - Hüsker Dü and Tom Waits had the best albums IMHO and so did the Replacements (though Tim could have been the best if it was better mixed and included two key outtakes) but they were all selling in pretty small numbers (Rain Dogs wouldn't go gold until 2013) and no album that sold only a few hundred thousand copies in 1985 was going to top P&J. That's not because critics cared about sales, but if it wasn't reaching that many people in general, I think that translated into reaching less voting members who would push it to the very top.

Also I actually like this album quite a bit! It's the "least" of their studio LP's at that point, but it's still an excellent one IMHO and closes out a classic run. The next and final two had enjoyable singles, but that was it.

At the time, I thought the band was trying to recreate itself in a kinder, gentler image. The album has aged pretty well, but I hardly ever listen to it. I would pick "Stay Up Late," just because it's hilarious.

"(Nothing But) Flowers" >>>>>>>> "And She Was"

otm

Less than True Stories?

Ha, I don't even count "True Stories." I'm not even sure I've *heard* "True Stories," which is strange, given this is one of my favorite bands of all time. But that's just how it is.

The film True Stories has its moments, e.g., the Spalding Gray monologue.

I have a fuzzy memory of local Chicago weekend show (I believe ABC7) covering how much various 85’ Super Bowl champ Chicago Bears players picked it amongst their faves for the year. Complete with montage footage - wish I could remember the particular song.

True Stories (album) is 80% great. "Hey Now" is the only one I'm really compelled to skip. It has more good songs than Little Creatures.

True Stories (album & movie) is Byrne going deep into the "Big Country" and coming out with an album about it. Once I realized Terry Allen was part of the project in some way, it unlocked for me. It's certainly not perfect; the different outfits that the Heads try on don't always fit so well, but it's more fun than the albums before and after.

John Goodman is excellent in it

boy, "Perfect World" and "Walk It Down" are nothing songs, eh?

Scott Miller, choosing his songs of 1985, writes of the latter:

The very catchy West African-sounding chorus requires that you sit through the verse, whose cookie-cutter '80s funk typifies the later Talking Heads who would never drift far from the primarily one-chord, slice-of-life success of "Once In a Lifetime". But I always enjoy listening to it,