Talking Heads

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For other uses, see Talking Heads (disambiguation).
Image:Talking-Heads-logo.png
(clockwise from top: Frantz, Harrison, Byrne, Weymouth)
(clockwise from top: Frantz, Harrison, Byrne, Weymouth)
Background information
Origin U.S. flag New York City, New York, United States
Genre(s) New Wave, Art punk, Post-punk
Years active 1974–1991
Label(s) Sire
EMI
Associated
acts		 Brian Eno
Tom Tom Club
Gorillaz
Former members
David Byrne
Jerry Harrison
Tina Weymouth
Chris Frantz

Talking Heads were an American rock band existing between 1974 and 1991, composed of David Byrne, Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth, and Jerry Harrison.

Talking Heads sound combined punk rock pop, funk rock, new wave, art rock, and later, world music. In David Byrne, they had one of the most distinctive front men of the period; they remained popular during their lifetime, and their concert film Stop Making Sense (made at the Pantages Theater in Hollywood, directed by Jonathan Demme) is acclaimed as one of the finest examples of the genre [1].

Contents

[edit] History

[edit] 1974-1977: First years

Formed in 1974 at the Rhode Island School of Design, the band first consisted of three members: David Byrne (vocals, guitar), Chris Frantz (drums), and Tina Weymouth (bass). 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 CBGBs club. In 1976, they added one more member, Jerry Harrison (keyboards and guitar), formerly of Jonathan Richman's band The Modern Lovers. The group quickly drew a following and was signed to Sire Records in 1977. Their first album, Talking Heads: 77 was released soon afterward. Combining a taut rhythm section with David Byrne's signature neurotic vocals, '77, despite poor sales, endeared the band to the more experimental elements in New York's burgeoning punk scene. Talking Heads are among the first bands to be labeled as "New Wave."

[edit] 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 art rock pioneer Brian Eno, who had previously worked with Roxy Music, David Bowie and Robert Fripp. As a producer, Eno became a virtual fifth member of the band. 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 memorable catchphrase, "This ain't no party, this ain't no disco." 1980's Remain in Light explored African polyrhythms, foreshadowing Byrne's later interest in world music. The band toured with an expanded group, first at the Heatwave festival in August. The album's single, "Once in a Lifetime," failed to make an impression upon its release, 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.

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

After releasing four albums in barely four years, the group paused nearly three more before releasing another. In the meantime, they released a live album, The Name of This Band Is Talking Heads, and parted ways with Brian Eno, who went on to successfully produce U2.

[edit] 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 during the song's run. 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, 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 were much more American pop rock, while Naked took heavy Latin 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, in 1991 for "Sax and Violins," an original single that appeared on the soundtrack to Wim Wenders' Until the End of the World. Though the band broke up as David Byrne undertook his solo career.

[edit] 1991-present: Post break-up

Frustrated by David Byrne's lack of interest in another album, Tina Weymouth, Chris Frantz, and Jerry Harrison also reunited without him for a one-off album called No Talking, Just Head under the name The Heads in 1996, featuring a rotating cast of vocalists, including Debbie Harry.

Byrne has gone on to become something of a rock icon in recent years, while Harrison has become a producer of some note — his résumé includes the Violent Femmes' The Blind Leading the Naked, the Fine Young Cannibals' The Raw and the Cooked, Crash Test Dummies' God Shuffled His Feet, Live's Throwing Copper, and No Doubt's Return of Saturn. 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 under that name, 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 Mariah Carey's 1995 hit "Fantasy." They also have produced several artists, including Happy Mondays, Ziggy Marley, and are among Blur singer Damon Albarn's collaborators on his Gorillaz side-project.

[edit] Reunion?

The band played together one 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 the likelihood of reunion is small. Also David Byrne says that "that's one reason, and another is that musically we're just miles apart."[1]

[edit] Discography

Main article: Talking Heads discography

[edit] Influence

Talking Heads' body of work has been influential, with bands as wide-ranging as Radiohead (named after a Talking Heads song), Phish (covering the songs "Cities" and "Crosseyed and Painless" at numerous shows, as well as the entire album Remain in Light at a 1996 Halloween show), and Red Hot Chili Peppers acknowledging them among their roots. Living Colour covered "Memories Can't Wait." Simply Red included a cover of "Heaven" on their album Picture Book. Numerous bands including Perpetual Groove, The String Cheese Incident and Arcade Fire have regularly covered the song "This Must Be the Place (Naïve Melody)", while the band Widespread Panic performs cover versions of "Life During Wartime," "Swamp," "Heaven," "City of Dreams," and "Papa Legba" (from the True Stories album). The Hypertonics have covered "Psycho Killer" a number of times in concert. The band Umphrey's McGee covers "Making Flippy Floppy" and other Talking Heads songs. U2 often performed a snippet of "Life During Wartime" during performances of "Discothèque", as seen on the Popmart: Live From Mexico City video, Bonnie Raitt covered the song on her 1995 live album Road Tested and The Automatic covered the song live on the recent NME Awards Tour. The band are mentioned in the Edan song 'Rock & Roll'.

Four Talking Heads albums appeared on Rolling Stone's 2003 list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Remain in Light was ranked at #126, Talking Heads: 77 was ranked at #290, Stop Making Sense was ranked at #345 and More Songs About Buildings and Food was ranked at #382. Also in the Channel 4 '100 greatest albums' poll the album 'Fear of Music' ranked at #76.

At least two well known bands have taken names from Talking Heads song titles. In addition to Radiohead, when the band now known as Hüsker Dü were doing a cover of "Psycho Killer", singer Grant Hart could not remember the French lyrics and instead started saying random phrases in foreign languages. Someone in the audience shouted "Husker Du" (literally, "do you remember?"), the name of a popular 1950s board game, and the name stuck.

[edit] In popular culture

  • The movie Risky Business takes its name from a line in the song "Swamp", which is also used in the movie's soundtrack.
  • A version of the song "Once in a Lifetime" was the opening theme for Season 1 of the CBS hit series NUMB3RS.
  • The song "(Nothing But) Flowers" can be heard in the movie Clerks 2. It is also featured on the official soundtrack, and was played in several promotional ads for the movie.
  • In Episode 1F02 of The Simpsons, titled "Homer Goes to College", Lisa comments on successful nerds in history, including "rocker David Byrne". The Itchy & Scratchy cartoon watched by Bart and Lisa in this episode is entitled "Burning Down the Mouse". In another episode, David Byrne collaborates first with Homer on a song about how much he hates Flanders, and in the same episode Byrne also collaborates with Moe to write a song about how nobody likes him.
  • The song "Once in a Lifetime" is included on the soundtrack of the popular snowboarding video Afterbang.
  • The band Phish covered Remain In Light, in its entirety, as a "musical costume" during their October 31, 1996 Halloween concert.
Waldorf: "Same as it ever was."
Statler: "Same as it ever was."
Both: "TERRIBLE!"
  • The band's minor hit Psycho Killer indirectly inspired rapper Ice T's heavy metal band Body Count's controversial song, Cop Killer. During the recording of their debut, self-titled album, Ice T walked into the studio singing "Psycho Killer" to himself; one of the other band members asked what the song was, and when Ice supplied the answer, responded that "someone should make a 'Cop Killer'".
  • A 1980's television commercial for the soft drink Orangina included four David Byrne impersonators, all dressed in his trademark giant white suit.
  • "Road to Nowhere" can be heard at the end of the 1989 film Little Monsters.
  • A Talking Heads poster can be seen in the film Re-Animator.

[edit] References

  • Weymouth, Tina (1992). In Sand in the Vaseline (p. 12) [CD liner notes]. New York: Sire Records Company.
  1. ^ Blackman, Guy. "Byrning down the house", The Age, 2005-02-06. Retrieved on 2007-03-13.

[edit] Notes

[edit] External links

Talking Heads
David Byrne – Chris Frantz – Tina Weymouth – Jerry Harrison
Discography
Studio Albums: Talking Heads: 77 (1977) - More Songs About Buildings and Food (1978) - Fear of Music (1979) - Remain in Light (1980) - Speaking in Tongues (1983) - Little Creatures (1985) - True Stories (1986) - Naked (1988)
Live Albums: The Name of This Band Is Talking Heads (1982) - Stop Making Sense (1984)
Filmography
Stop Making Sense (1984) - True Stories (1986) - Storytelling Giant (1988)
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