The Talking Heads

1974: David Byrne is at school at the Rhode Island School of Design. He and his classmate Chris Frantz started a band called the Artistics. This was the earliest iteration of the Talking Heads.

They played the New York clubs for a few years. Playing at CBGB in 1976, opening for the Ramones, they were discovered by a scout for Sire Records, and in February 77, they released their first single:

Love è Buildings on Fire.

In March of that year, Jerry Harrison was added to the band’s lineup. They commenced to work on their debut album, Talking Heads 77, which spawned the classic Psycho Killer and a few others. The songs were compelling, even though the production was not. It was during their tour for this album that the band met producer Brian Eno.

While thinking about starting their second album, they remembered Eno. They felt that his production style really fit their unique musical sensibilities. And rather than hiring someone they might end up disliking, they decided that Eno was the guy. So, in 1978, More Songs About Buildings And Food was released. Their cover of Al Green’s Take Me To The River finally catapulted them into the public eye. With appearances on American Bandstand and the UK’s Old Grey Whistle Test, they were getting quite a lot of attention.

The Talking Heads were doing a lot of work in the ‘70s. They did a huge tour a tour of Europe, beyond the iron curtain, to help introduce New Wave to their culture. In 1979, their second collaboration with Eno, Fear of Music came out. This is often considered to be the best Talking Heads album, because it’s consistently great, and its atmosphere of paranoia. Lester Bangs called it one of the best comedy albums he’s ever heard.

In between this and the next album, Byrne and Eno produced a highly experimental album: My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts. It is the earliest known example of vocal sampling, with all the vocals coming from old radio shows. The instruments are mostly found objects, too, For instance, a drumkit comprised of pots, pans and cans.

In 1980, their true masterpiece was released. Remain in Light. This album really picks up where Fear of Music left off. Sure, it’s less paranoid, but the instrumentation is the same but more so! They experimented with African rhythms, and the infamous “wall of sound.” At Eno’s urging, the band hired guitar wizard Adrian Belew to lay down some guitar tracks. And Adrien delivered. Utilizing a guitar synthesizer, Belew created some wild sounds. This marks the band’s final collaboration with Eno as a whole. After extensive touring, the band took a 3 year break.

During this time, Chris Frantz and his now-wife Tina Weymouth worked on a new project, Tom-Tom Club, who are still active to this day.

In 1983, the Talking heads returned with the remarkable Speaking in Tongues. The title refers to the lyric-writing method employed by Byrne, he'd sing nonsense syllables, just as one does when speaking in tongues. He then found words to match the syllables he was singing

Speaking in Tongues featured the only top 10 single: Burning Down The House. The subsequent tour was filmed by Jonathan Demme, and turned into their brilliant concert film: Stop Making Sense. It was an unusual concert, introducing the band members one at a time, and the iconic Big Suit. Unfortunately, this marked the last tour by the Talking Heads.

Little Creatures was a huge departure from previous works. It dealt subject matter that was more easily accessible to the average listener, as evidenced by it being the top-selling Talking Heads album. It utilized much simpler arrangements, featuring extra members only as special effects, it seems like a minimalist album. The final song on this album, Road to Nowhere featured a choral intro only because Byrne felt the song was embarrassingly simple and repetitive.

1986 saw True Stories, which was the soundtrack that David Byrne composed for his film of the same name. The film was based on true stories from tabloid newspapers (hence the title). It was available in both Talking Heads version, and soundtrack version, which had the actors from the film singing their respective songs.

Talking Heads’ last album Naked came out in 1988, and it was closest in spirit to Remain in Light. Additional musicians galore! More african rhythms, and the strange sort of innocence returned to the music.

The Talking Heads announced their breakup officially in 1991, due to several conflicts. Mostly that David Byrne and the rest of the band really didn’t get along anymore.

Jerry Harrison went on to produce records for several different bands such as the Crash Test Dummies and the Violent Femmes.

David Byrne went on to have a successful solo career, and collaborated with Eno a few more times. He recently released Love This Giant with St. Vincent.

Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth continued making music with the Tom-Tom Club. They also have a recent release: Downtown Rockers.

In 2002, Talking Heads were inducted into the Rock and Roll HOF, however, due to the Tina still being at odds with David, a real reunion looks extremely unlikely.

Listen to the documentary: https://soundcloud.com/fang-42/talking-heads-documentary