Now Talking Heads and all the supporting cast

We listened to the Talking Heads from Junior High (1977-1979) and continued our appreciation through High School and early college with estimable releases like Speaking in Tongues (June 1, 1983). So much begins with Burning Down the House, from  Speaking in Tongues, released: on June 1, 1983. Speaking in Tongues is the fifth studio album by Talking Heads, released by Sire Records on June 1, 1983. Speaking in Tongues, Burning Down the House,  christened parties, including our younger brother’s high school graduation, encouraging dad to the dance floor. Speaking in Tongues release was a break from producer Brian Eno, and it produced the first big hit, Burning Down the House. The album’s tour was documented in Jonathan Demme’s 1984 film Stop Making Sense, which generated a live album of the same name. 

In 1973, Rhode Island School of Design students David Byrne (guitar and vocals) and Chris Frantz (drums) formed the Artistics band. Fellow student Tina Weymouth, Frantz’s girlfriend, often provided transportation. The Artistics dissolved the following year, and the three moved to New York City, eventually sharing a communal loft. After they could not find a bassist, Weymouth took up the role. Frantz encouraged Weymouth to learn to play bass by listening to Suzi Quatro’s albums. Byrne asked Weymouth to audition three times before she joined the band. David Byrne came with innate natural strange David lynch charisma to spare.  No one wore an oversized suit better than David Byrne.  What could Adrian Belew and Brian Eno do with this fantastic group of Rhode Island School of Design grads?  Talking Heads had tapped Adrian Belew and their producer Brian Eno (with whom he’d worked on Lodger) to add guitar solos to several tracks on the Remain in Light album. He was added to the expanded nine-piece Talking Heads live band for tours in late 1980 and early 1981. Eno produced three studio albums from the Talking Heads: 1978’s ‘More Songs About Buildings and Food,’ 1979’s ‘Fear of Music’ and 1980’s ‘Remain in Light.

Everything Belew played on Remain In Light was recorded in that one day. That’s the kind of spontaneity and creativity you might expect from a musician who was discovered playing his unique, angular, atmospheric lead guitar just a few years earlier by Frank Zappa in Nashville and soon found himself playing with some of the most exciting acts in popular music: King Crimson, David Bowie, Paul Simon, Herbie Hancock, and, yes, Talking Heads.
The band was composed of Scottish-born David Byrne (lead vocals, guitar), Chris Frantz (drums), Tina Weymouth (bass), and Jerry Harrison (keyboards, guitar). Described as “one of the most critically acclaimed bands of the ’80s”, Talking Heads helped to pioneer new wave music, elements of punk, art rock, funk, and world music with an anxious, clean-cut image. From the early 1980s, they included additional musicians in their recording sessions and shows, including guitarist Adrian Belew, keyboardist Bernie Worrell, singer Nona Hendryx, and bassist Busta Jones. We have included the requisite, full concert Talking Heads Stop Making Sense, Remain in Light album, and several choice live recordings covering the rich creative periods from 1977 to 1981. The live shows during this period showcase the core group’s chief talents, stage presence, and individual standouts with Tina on Bass, Adrian Belew’s impressionistic guitar work, David Byrnes’s shamanic vocal control, and the incomparable vocal stylings of Nona Hendryx. Throughout, one is left with no doubt the master of ceremonies is of course, David Byrne.

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This is the minimalist aesthetic, characteristic of both Belew and Eno at the time, both influenced by the composer Stephen Reich.

Few bands can boast an image-defining performance as the one the Talking Heads pulled off in Jonathan Demme’s Stop Making Sense. Given its physical meticulousness, seamless editing, and refined aesthetic sense — qualities rarely prioritized in rock concert films — its place in the zeitgeist seems well-earned. But that picture opened in 1984 when the band had already released its most widely respected albums and when they had only four years to go before effectively dissolving. Live in Rome, which you can now watch uncut on YouTube, captures the Heads in 1980, a less established moment in their history. David Byrne and company express the same kind of off-kilter energy on display in Stop Making Sense — the enthusiasm of punks who also happen to be musicology nerds — but here they express it in a more straightforward, more traditionally “rock concert-ish” setting.

Talking Heads enthusiasts note that Live in Rome features the group’s full “Afro-Funk Orchestra” lineup. Additionally, you’ll see a certain Adrian Belew on guitar, who would begin fronting King Crimson the following year. (As he might, in another reality, have fronted the Heads themselves; in our reality, he turned down an offer to take Byrne’s place.) The songs not heard in Stop Making Sense include “Stay Hungry,” “Cities,” “I Zimbra,” “Drugs,” “Houses in Motion,” “Born Under Punches,” and “The Great Curve.” No die-hard fan will feel completely satisfied with this concert until someone remasters it on Blu-Ray with a complete surround sound mix. But if you need a hit of a pack of art-school rockers unlike any others America has produced, this Remain in Light-era.