Over eight albums and two dwell data, Talking Heads charted an unlikely course — transferring from a tiny punk membership in New York City’s East Village to the pop charts and even film stardom. David Byrne, Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth, and Jerry Harrison put their distinctive spin on the standard rock quartet, pulling soul music, Afrobeat, hip-hop, Krautrock, and different influences into their herky-jerky grooves. Along the best way, they helped to invent what we now name “alternative rock” about as a lot as any band.
Talking Heads formally ended 30 years in the past this 12 months. The breakup was contentious: In 1996, Byrne sued his former bandmates, making an attempt to cease them from performing below the identify The Heads. The group has solely reunited as soon as, to play 4 songs at their 2002 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction. And given the tales which have come out over time, together with in Frantz’s 2020 memoir Remain in Love, there appears little hope of ever seeing Talking Heads again in motion. But right here’s a glance again at 10 of essentially the most memorable moments within the band’s story:
10. Their first gig, opening for the Ramones at CBGB
The Artistics, the primary band that singer-guitarist David Byrne and drummer Chris Frantz shaped after assembly on the Rhode Island School of Design, was short-lived. But by the point they’d shaped their new trio with bassist Tina Weymouth, Frantz’s girlfriend, all three had moved right into a loft in New York, the place Talking Heads made their dwell debut on the soon-to-be-legendary East Village membership CBGB.
On June 5, 1975, Talking Heads staged the primary of 4 reveals opening for the Ramones, debuting a handful of songs that would seem on their first two albums, together with “Psycho Killer.” By the top of 1976, the 2 bands had been Sire Records labelmates, and in 1977, the Heads as soon as once more opened for The Ramones on their first European tour. At reveals in Syracuse and Boston that 12 months, the Talking Heads lined “I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend.”
9. The band data “Psycho Killer” regardless of awkward moments within the studio
“Psycho Killer” was the primary tune the band wrote collectively, again once they had been nonetheless The Artistics. But the tune didn’t take its acquainted bass-driven form till after Weymouth joined the band. It turned the standout on their debut album, Talking Heads: 77, and the band’s first Hot 100 hit — unintentionally capturing the zeitgeist of the second that the Son of Sam murders had been terrifying New York City, years after the lyrics had been penned.
Talking Heads: 77 was co-produced by Tony Bongiovi and Lance Quinn, who’d been assigned to the challenge by Sire. Unfortunately, the band didn’t appear to be working on the identical wavelength as Bongiovi, who quickly based the legendary New York studio Power Station and helped launch his cousin Jon Bon Jovi’s profession. Bongiovi tried to persuade Byrne to carry a carving knife whereas recording “Psycho Killer,” to get into character because the tune’s murderous protagonist. Byrne refused. According to Harrison’s liner notes for Once In A Lifetime: The Best of Talking Heads, the producers pushed to launch an alternate combine with acoustic guitars and cello over the electrical model everyone knows at this time.
7. When “Radio Head” turned one other nice band’s namesake
In December 1991, three years after Talking Heads’ final album and 7 years after their remaining live performance, David Byrne lastly confirmed the band was over, telling the Los Angeles Times, (*10*) The identical month, British band On A Friday signed a contract with EMI Records and adjusted their identify on the label’s request. Their new moniker, Radiohead, was an homage to the 1986 Talking Heads monitor “Radio Head.”
On the True Stories album, Byrne sang “Radio head, the sound of a brand new world” over a Latin rock groove that includes legendary Tejano accordionist Steve Jordan. (In the movie of the identical identify, Tito Larriva of the Mexican-American punk band the Plugz sang the tune.) Though Thom Yorke’s band would in all probability be embarrassed to name themselves “the sound of a brand new world,” Radiohead adopted in Talking Heads’ footsteps — a boldly experimental band that additionally made platinum-selling hit data.
Things got here full circle in 2019, when Radiohead had been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, with Byrne giving their induction speech. “I was surprised and very flattered when Radiohead stated that they had named themselves after a song that I’d written,” Byrne mentioned. “But I had to ask myself, ‘Why that song?’ I still haven’t been able to figure it out. In a certain way I don’t wanna know. This was a kind of goofy Tex-Mex song that I’d written. Maybe we’ll find out — who knows. Thankfully, I’m a huge fan of the group. They richly deserve this honor.”
6. Jerry Harrison completes the band’s lineup
One group that appeared to put the groundwork for Talking Heads was The Modern Lovers, who married The Velvet Underground’s edgy proto-punk aesthetic to wry, wide-eyed views on up to date life. The Modern Lovers broke up in 1974 after the collapse of offers with Warner Brothers and A&M, although their sole album was ultimately launched independently and have become an influential cult favourite.
Talking Heads carried out as a trio for almost a 12 months whereas in search of a keyboardist and/or a second guitarist to spherical out the lineup. Harrison, who’d performed keyboards (in Modern Lovers) and guitar, was an excellent candidate. But after his disappointing Modern Lovers saga, Harrison was reluctant to hitch till that they had a document deal in place. He got here onboard after the Sire contract was signed, turning into a secret weapon who fleshed out their sound completely. In October 1976, the Heads even lined The Modern Lovers’ “Pablo Picasso” throughout their efficiency at New York membership Max’s Kansas City.
5. Tina Weymouth turns into a brand new sort of bass guitar hero
When Frantz’s band couldn’t discover a bassist, Weymouth realized the instrument by enjoying together with data by glam rock artist Suzi Quatro. Things had been usually contentious between Weymouth and Byrne, who made her re-audition to stay within the band once they scored a document deal. But her significance to the Heads sound is plain, beginning with the long-lasting bassline to “Psycho Killer.” (Weymouth, the one Francophone within the band, additionally helped write the French sections of the tune’s lyrics.) It’s arduous to think about numerous Talking Heads songs, from “Warning Sign” to “Crosseyed and Painless,” with out Weymouth’s inimitable sense of phrasing.
Although Patti Smith and Blondie’s Debbie Harry had been the highlight frontwomen of the CBGB’s scene, Weymouth minimize a singular determine that might quickly grow to be an archetype: the feminine bass participant in an in any other case all-male band. A number of years later, Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth and Kira Roessler of Black Flag adopted in her footsteps. And over the following couple of a long time, it turned such a ubiquitous gender dynamic of alt-rock that it was typically sneered at as a cliché: Smashing Pumpkins, The Pixies, Superchunk, White Zombie, The Pogues, A Perfect Circle, the checklist goes on and on. Weymouth additionally took middle stage in her facet challenge with Frantz, Tom Tom Club, singing lead on the band’s timeless 1981 single “Genius of Love.”
4. The sleeper success of “This Must Be The Place”
Today, “This Must Be The Place (Naïve Melody)” is the second-most standard Talking Heads tune on streaming companies. But it took a long time to catch on. In the ‘80s, the closing track to Speaking In Tongues was released as a single twice, underperforming both times. As the follow-up to the band’s high 10 hit “Burning Down the House,” it stalled at No. 62 on the Hot 100. But because the band’s first actual love tune, it’s grow to be a leftfield wedding ceremony staple and an indie rock commonplace, lined by Arcade Fire, Iron & Wine, The Lumineers, Kishi Bashi, and plenty of extra. On tv, the tune has popped up in episodes of Northern Exposure, Grey’s Anatomy, 9-1-1, Industry, and Little Fires Everywhere, amongst different collection.
3. David Byrne powers via author’s block, arriving at a signature lyrical model
After the primary two Talking Heads albums burned via nearly all of the band’s early dwell repertoire, they spent lengthy hours jamming instrumentals to create 1979’s Fear of Music. When Byrne had bother writing lyrics to those intensely polyrhythmic grooves, producer Brian Eno steered he write out a “table of contents” with themes for the album to handle. That checklist of nouns turned the titles of songs like “Mind,” “Paper,” “Cities,” “Air,” “Animals,” and “Drugs.” Byrne would riff on every subject, arriving at a distinctly Talking Heads model of lyricism — a mix of blandly goal descriptions, non-sequiturs, arresting imagery, and piercing perception.
2. The band’s warped tackle pop music turns into pop music
Talking Heads had been, from the start, each essentially the most experimental and essentially the most pop of the CBGB bands. At their earliest gigs, they’d cowl ‘60s bubblegum hits by the 1910 Fruitgum Company and the Troggs. They scored their own first Top 40 hit by covering “Take Me to the River,” a previously obscure album track by R&B hitmaker Al Green. “Burning Down the House” arose after Byrne heard the title chanted at a Parliament-Funkadelic show. But Talking Heads’ stiffly funky sound was all the time distinctive, as in the event that they’d sidestepped makes an attempt to grow to be an genuine blues or R&B band and as a substitute channeled these influences into one thing new.
Eventually, although, Talking Heads turned a part of the pop music firmament themselves, returning to the Hot 100 again and again in several types. Jay-Z and Memphis Bleek sampled “Once In A Lifetime” for 1998’s “It’s Alright,” Trick Daddy interpolated the obscure early Heads monitor “Sugar on My Tongue” for 2005’s “Sugar (Gimme Some),” and Selena Gomez sampled “Psycho Killer” for 2017’s “Bad Liar.” Furthermore, Weymouth and Frantz’s Tom Tom Club hit “Genius of Love” is among the most-sampled songs in standard music, gracing large hits by Mariah Carey and Latto.
1. The best live performance movie of all time, Stop Making Sense
Talking Heads, extra standard than ever in 1984, determined to cap their peak inventive interval with a live performance movie, teaming up with director Jonathan Demme, then greatest identified for 1980’s Oscar-winning Melvin and Howard. But Stop Making Sense was something however a standard rock doc: There had been no interviews, and the band didn’t have interaction in stage banter or guitar hero poses. Instead, the fantastically staged movie took a easy, putting aesthetic, letting the band’s deeply inventive songs and the enjoyment of performing them communicate for themselves.
Stop Making Sense doesn’t have a plot per se. But it does inform the story of the band in its personal indirect approach, with Byrne performing “Psycho Killer” solo to open movie earlier than being joined by bandmates, little by little, till an expanded nine-piece lineup crowds the stage. It appears like all of the musicians are having the time of their lives, with Byrne because the present’s whimsical star, dancing with a lamp and donning his unforgettable “big suit” for the previous couple of songs. In 2021, Stop Making Sense was chosen by the Library of Congress for preservation within the United States National Film Registry.
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