Jerry Harrison

Jerry Harrison

Harrison in 2010
Background information
Birth name Jeremiah Griffin Harrison
Born (1949-02-21) February 21, 1949
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S.
Genres New wave, indie pop, rock and roll, art rock
Occupation(s) Musician, songwriter, record producer
Instruments Vocals, keyboards, guitar
Years active 1971–present
Labels EMI, Sire/Warner Bros. Records
Associated acts Talking Heads
The Modern Lovers

Jeremiah Griffin Harrison (born February 21, 1949) is an American songwriter, musician and producer. He achieved fame as the keyboardist and guitarist for the New Wave band Talking Heads and as an original member of The Modern Lovers.[1]

Career

Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Harrison played with Jonathan Richman in The Modern Lovers when he was an architecture student at Harvard University. Harrison was introduced to Richman by mutual friend and journalist Danny Fields and the pair bonded over their shared love of the Velvet Underground. He joined The Modern Lovers in early 1971, playing on their debut album in 1972 (not released until 1976), and left in February 1974 when Richman wished to perform his songs more quietly.

Harrison joined Talking Heads in 1977; after the release of their debut single Love → Building on Fire.

Harrison's solo albums include The Red and the Black, Casual Gods, and Walk on Water.

After the 1991 breakup of Talking Heads, Harrison turned to producing and worked on successful albums by bands including Hockey, Violent Femmes, The BoDeans, The Von Bondies, General Public, Live, Crash Test Dummies, The Verve Pipe, Rusted Root, Stroke 9, The Bogmen, Black 47, Of A Revolution, No Doubt, Josh Joplin, The Black and White Years, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Bamboo Shoots, the String Cheese Incident and The Gracious Few. He also is Chairman of the Board for Garageband.com ("an internet music resource he co-founded in 1999").[2]

Film work

Harrison, as a member of Talking Heads, is featured throughout the 1984 concert film Stop Making Sense, directed by Jonathan Demme. Also during the Talking Heads era, Harrison made cameo appearances as Billy Idol and Prince look-alike lip-synchers in David Byrne's 1986 film True Stories. Harrison also had a small part in the 2006 film The Darwin Awards as "Guy in Bar No. 1" alongside John Doe of the band X.

Discography

Talking Heads

Solo albums

Year Title US AUS NZ AUT GER SUI
1981 The Red and the Black - - - - - -
1988 Casual Gods 78 18 4 17 31 10
1990 Walk on Water 188 - - - - -

Singles

Year Title US Modern AUS NZ GER
1984 Five Minutes - - - -
1987 Rev It Up 7 3 6 45
1987 Man With A Gun - 17 15 -
1988 Cherokee Chief - 92 - -
1990 Flying Under Radar 13 98 - -

In recent years, Mr. Harrison has become more involved in business ventures and social causes such as snakebite, a severely neglected global epidemic being featured in the upcoming documentary "Minutes to Die," being narrated by Mike Rowe and in which Mr. Harrison appears.

References

  1. ↑ Bush, John. "Biography – Jerry Harrison". Allmusic. Retrieved March 21, 2012.
  2. ↑ Jerry Harrison bio
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