Talking Heads

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

Talking Heads were an American rock band existing between 1977 and 1991, composed of David Byrne, Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth, and Jerry Harrison.

Talking Heads married punk rock sensibilities with poppy sounds, clipped funk, art school intellectualism, 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 (which was made at the Pantages Theater in Hollywood, and directed by Jonathan Demme) is widely acclaimed as one of the finest examples of the genre ^*.

History

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). The group settled on the name 'Talking Heads' from an issue of TV Guide featuring definitions of commonly used terms in television. A talking head is a shot sometimes used in news programs that reveals only the head and shoulders of the person speaking. 'All content, no action' seemed to fit the band's musical style and stage presence, so the name stuck.

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, 77 was released soon afterward. Combining a taut rhythm section with David Byrne's signature neurotic vocals, '77 was a potent slab of art-punk virtuosity that, despite poor sales, instantly endeared the band to the more experimental elements in New York's burgeoning punk scene.

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 and David Bowie. 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 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. After releasing four albums in barely four years, the group then spent 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.

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, however, the group was falling more and more under David Byrne's sway, 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.

Post break-up

A brief reunion occurred in 1992 for "Sax and Violins," an original single that appeared on the soundtrack to Wim Wenders' Until the End of the World. 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 (using Pete Townshend's definition of the term: "It means no one buys your records any more"), 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 the 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.

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.

Influence

Talking Heads' body of work has been extremely 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. Both The String Cheese Incident and The Arcade Fire have regularly covered the song "Naive Melody", the band Widespread Panic performs a cover version of "Papa Legba" from the True Stories album, and the Canadian quartet Moxy Fruvous has a cover version of "Psycho Killer" for their Live Noise album. Even Montreal DJ/Producer Tiga recorded a cover of "Burning Down the House" for his 2006 album, Sexor.

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, 77 was ranked at #290, Stop Making Sense was ranked at #345 and More Songs About Buildings and Food was ranked at #382.

Discography

Studio albums

77 (1977) #97 US, #60 UK
More Songs about Buildings and Food (1978) #29 US, #22 UK
Fear of Music (1979) #21 US, #33 UK
Remain in Light (1980) #19 US, #21 UK
Speaking in Tongues (1983) #15 US, #21 UK
Little Creatures (1985) #20 US, #10 UK
True Stories (1986) #17 US, #7 UK
Naked (1988) #19 US, #3 UK

Compilations

Popular Favorites (1992)
Tribute Album (2000)
Once in a Lifetime (box set) (2003)
Best of Talking Heads (remastered) (2004)
Brick (box set) (2005)

Live albums and videos

The Name of This Band Is Talking Heads ^* (1982) (reissued in greatly expanded form in 2004) #31 US, #22 UK
Stop Making Sense ^* (1984) (reissued in expanded form in 1999) #41 US, #24 UK
Storytelling Giant (1988)

Feature-length film

"Stop Making Sense" — Talking Heads' highly energetic and bizzare concert film that verges on performance art. The film itself was shot and edited by notable director Jonathan Demme in 1984.
True Stories — starring David Byrne, cameos of other Talking Heads members, soundtrack by Talking Heads

Singles

"Love --> Building on Fire" (1977)
"Uh-Oh, Love Comes to Town" (1977)
"Psycho Killer" (1977) #92 US
"Pulled Up" (1978)
"Take Me to the River" (1978) #26 US
"Life During Wartime" (1979) #80 US
"I Zimbra" (1980)
"Cities" (1980)
"Crosseyed and Painless" (1980)
"Once in a Lifetime" (1981) #14 UK
"Houses in Motion (Remix)" (1981) #50 UK
"Life During Wartime (Live)" (1982)
"Burning Down the House" (1983) #9 US
"This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)" (1983) #62 US, #51 UK
"Stop Making Sense (Girlfriend Is Better) (Live)" (1984)
"The Lady Don't Mind" (1985)
"Road to Nowhere" (1985) #6 UK
"And She Was" (1985) #54 US, #17 UK
"Once in a Lifetime (Live)" (1986) #91 US
"Wild Wild Life" (1986) #25 US, #43 UK
"Love for Sale" (1986)
"Radio Head" (1987) #52 UK
"(Nothing But) Flowers" (1988)
"Blind" (1988) #59 UK
"Sax and Violins" (1991)
"Lifetime Piling Up" (1992) #50 UK

Trivia

Two well-known band names have come about from Talking Heads songs. 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 out "Husker Du", the name of a popular 1950s board game, and the name stuck. And the popular alternative band Radiohead took their name from a song on the True Stories album.

In the movie 13 Going on 30, Matt plays "Burning Down the House" at Jenna's birthday party.

The first season of the TV show NUMB3RS played the song "Once in a Lifetime" during its opening credits.

Instrumental sections of "Crosseyed and Painless" were used as the theme song for CBC's National Playlist, hosted by Jian Ghomeshi. "Once in a Lifetime" was also used as a theme song for Sounds Like Canada while Ghomeshi acted as a summer guest host in 2006.

Byrne and the Talking Heads are referenced in Episode 1F02 of The Simpsons titled "Homer Goes to College". Lisa comments on successful nerds in history, referencing "rocker David Byrne" among others. Also, the Itchy & Scratchy watched by Bart and Lisa in this episode is entitled "Burning Down the Mouse".

External links

Talking-Heads.net – fan site
at the dmoz Open Directory Project
Talking Heads on Rhapsody (a Real Player playlist)
Talking Heads Lyrics

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