Talking Heads

For the plays by Alan Bennett, see Talking Heads (series).

Talking Heads

Talking Heads were an American rock band formed in 1974 in New York City who were active until 1991. The band comprised David Byrne, Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth and Jerry Harrison, but auxiliary musicians frequently made appearances in concert and on the group's albums.

The music of Talking Heads combined elements of punk rock, new wave pop, funk, world music and art rock. Frontman and songwriter David Byrne contributed whimsical, esoteric lyrics to the band's songs, and emphasized their showmanship through various multimedia projects and performances. Critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine describes Talking Heads as being "one of the most critically acclaimed bands of the '80s, while managing to earn several pop hits."

In 2002, the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Four of the band's albums appeared on Rolling Stone magazine's 2003 list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, and the Channel 4 100 Greatest Albums poll listed one album (Fear of Music) at number 76. DigitalDreamDoor.com ranked them as the greatest new wave band of all time and were ranked #26 in their list of greatest rock/pop artists of the 80s. Their concert film Stop Making Sense is widely regarded as one of the finest examples of the genre.

History

1974-1977: First years

Formed in 1974 at the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, Rhode Island, the band was initially called The Artistics and consisted of three members: David Byrne (lead vocals, guitar), Chris Frantz (drums, percussion), and Tina Weymouth (bass guitar, backing vocals). In an interview, Weymouth recalled how the group chose the name Talking Heads: "A friend had found the name in the TV Guide, which explained the term used by TV studios to describe a head-and-shoulder shot of a person talking as 'all content, no action.' It fit."

Moving to New York the nascent Heads landed a gig opening for The Ramones at the legendary CBGB club. In 1976, they added Jerry Harrison (keyboards, guitar, backing vocals), formerly of Jonathan Richman's band The Modern Lovers. The group quickly drew a following and was signed to Sire Records in 1977. The group released their first single, Love Goes To Building on Fire in February of that year.

Their first album, Talking Heads: 77 was released soon afterward and did not contain the earlier single.

1978-1982: With Brian Eno

It was with their second album, 1978's More Songs About Buildings and Food that the band began its long-term collaboration with producer Brian Eno, who had previously worked with Roxy Music, David Bowie and Robert Fripp. It was noticed that the title of Eno's song "King's Lead Hat" was an anagram of the band's name. Eno's unusual style meshed well with the group's artistic sensibilities, and they gained the confidence to explore in a wide variety of musical directions. Though the first album's "Psycho Killer" had been a minor hit, it was More Songs' cover of Al Green's "Take Me to the River" that broke Talking Heads into general public consciousness.

The experimentation continued with 1979's Fear of Music, which flirted with the darker stylings of post-punk rock. The single "Life During Wartime" produced the catchphrase, "This ain't no party, this ain't no disco." 1980's Remain in Light, heavily influenced by the Afro-Beat of Nigerian bandleader Fela Kuti, whose music Eno had introduced to the band, explored African polyrhythms, foreshadowing Byrne's later interest in world music. In order to perform these more complex arrangements the band toured with an expanded group, first at the Heatwave festival in August, and later in their famous concert film Stop Making Sense.

The album's single, "Once in a Lifetime", failed to make an impression upon its release in the band's own country (however, it became a Top 20 hit in the UK), but grew into a popular standard over the next few years on the back of its music video, one of the first signs of the power music videos would exert during the 1980s.

File:Talkingheads4.jpg

Talking Heads, Stop Making Sense, (Special release 2003.)

After releasing four albums in barely four years, the group waited nearly three years before releasing another. In the meantime, they released a live album, The Name of This Band Is Talking Heads, toured the US and Europe as an eight-piece group, and parted ways with Eno, who went on to produce albums with the group U2.

1983-1991: Post-Brian Eno

1983 saw the release of Speaking in Tongues, a commercial breakthrough that produced the band's first American Top 10 hit, "Burning Down the House". Once again, a striking video was inescapable owing to its heavy rotation on MTV. The following tour was documented in Jonathan Demme's Stop Making Sense, which generated another live album of the same name. The Speaking in Tongues tour would be their last.

Three more albums followed: 1985's Little Creatures (which featured the prominent hit singles "And She Was" and "Road to Nowhere"), 1986's True Stories (Talking Heads covering all the soundtrack songs of Byrne's musical comedy film, in which the band also appeared), and 1988's Naked. The sound of Little Creatures and True Stories was much more American pop-rock, while Naked showed heavy African influence with polyrhythmic styles like those seen on Remain in Light. During that time the group was falling increasingly under David Byrne's control, and after Naked the band went on "hiatus".

It took until 1991 for an official announcement to be made that Talking Heads had broken up. A brief reunion occurred, however, later that year for "Sax and Violins," an original single that appeared on the soundtrack to Wim Wenders' Until the End of the World. During this breakup period, Byrne continued his solo career, releasing Rei Momo in 1989 and The Forest in 1991.

1992-present: Post break-up

Frustrated by David Byrne's lack of interest in another album, Tina Weymouth, Chris Frantz, and Jerry Harrison reunited without him for a one-off album called No Talking, Just Head under the name The Heads in 1996. The album featured a number of vocalists, representing some of the most iconic voices of '80s and '90s alternative rock, including Debbie Harry of Blondie, Johnette Napolitano of Concrete Blonde, Andy Partridge of XTC, Gordon Gano of Violent Femmes, Michael Hutchence of INXS, Ed Kowalczyk of Live, Shaun Ryder of Happy Mondays, Richard Hell, and Maria McKee. The album was accompanied by a tour which featured Johnette Napolitano as the vocalist.

Byrne has continued his solo career, while Harrison has become a producer of some note – the latter's résumé includes the Violent Femmes' The Blind Leading the Naked, the Fine Young Cannibals' The Raw and the Cooked, General Public's Rub It Better, Crash Test Dummies' God Shuffled His Feet, Live's Throwing Copper, No Doubt's song "New" from Return of Saturn, and most recently work by The Black and White Years and Kenny Wayne Shepherd. Frantz and Weymouth, who were married in 1977, had been recording on the side as Tom Tom Club since 1981. Tom Tom Club's self-titled debut album sold almost as well as Talking Heads themselves, leading to the band appearing in Stop Making Sense. They achieved several pop/rap hits, particularly in the UK. Their single "Genius of Love" has been sampled numerous times, notably on old school hip hop classic "It's Nasty (Genius of Love)" by Grandmaster Flash and on Mariah Carey's 1995 hit "Fantasy". They also have produced several artists, including Happy Mondays and Ziggy Marley.

Reunion?

The band played together for the last time on March 18, 2002, at the ceremony of their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. There is reportedly bad blood between band members, so a lasting reunion is unlikely. David Byrne also states: "That's one reason, and another is that musically we're just miles apart." Weymouth also has been critical of David Byrne, saying he was "a man incapable of returning friendship".

Discography

Main article: Talking Heads discography

Influence

Talking Heads have influenced a number of bands:

• The band Radiohead took their name from the Talking Heads song "Radio Head" from the 1986 album True Stories.
• In an interview with VH-1, Ice-T stated that "Psycho Killer" was the inspiration for "Cop Killer".
• The band Widespread Panic performs cover versions of "Life During Wartime", "Swamp", "Heaven", "City of Dreams" and "Papa Legba".
• Widespread Panic lead singer John Bell frequently raps pieces of "This Must Be the Place" during the song "Blight",an example of such can be heard on the Widespread Panic Album*Live In The Classic City
• Widespread Panic also regularly covers "Life During Wartime" as done so in Atlanta on New Year's Eve, 2008; They also cover "City of Dreams" regularly, and included their performance of the song on their 2006 DVD "Earth to Atlanta: Live at the Fox Theatre".
• The band are mentioned in the Edan song "Rock & Roll".
• Numerous artists including Perpetual Groove, The String Cheese Incident, Shawn Colvin and Arcade Fire have regularly covered the song "This Must Be the Place (Naïve Melody)".
• The jam band Phish covered the album Remain in Light in its entirety on Halloween 1996. Phish continued to cover "Crosseyed and Painless" throughout their career.
• Living Colour covered "Memories Can't Wait" on their debut album.
• Canadian band Moxy Fruvous covered "Psycho Killer" on the Live Noise album.
• Simply Red included a cover of "Heaven" on their 1985 album Picture Book.
• U2 often performed a snippet of "Life During Wartime" during performances of "Discothèque".
• Bonnie Raitt covered "Burnin' Down the House" on her 1995 live album Road Tested, and The Automatic covered the song live on the recent NME Awards Tour.
• Velvet Revolver released a studio recording of "Psycho Killer" on their EP Melody and the Tyranny.
• The Exies recorded an acoustic cover of "Once in a Lifetime" for their album A Modern Way of Living with the Truth.
• Earthsuit covered "Once in a Lifetime" on their last recording, The Rise of Modern Simulation.
• Smashing Pumpkins was known to do a cover version of "Once in a Lifetime" on their Machina tour.
• Guster has a live recording of "Nothing But Flowers" on their live CD/DVD Guster On Ice.
• Kate Miller Heidke performs a cover of "Psycho Killer" in an operatic manner, which was played during the closing credits of an episode of Spicks And Specks.
• The novel American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis opens with a page displaying a Talking Heads lyric ("And as things fell apart, nobody paid much attention") and the protagonist later says Talking Heads is his favorite band.

Bibliography

• Weymouth, Tina (1992). In Sand in the Vaseline (p. 12) [CD liner notes]. New York: Sire Records Company.
• Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits, Billboard Books, New York (2004).

External links

• Talking-heads.net Official Talking Heads fansite
• Talking Heads at AllMusic
• Talking Heads discography at Discogs
• Talking Heads at the dmoz Open Directory Project
• Talking Heads discography at MusicBrainz
• Talking Heads at Rolling Stone