Really enjoyed this reflection, Roy. I saw TH several times back in the CBGB era and one of the things I enjoy most about them, aside from their musical innovation/synthesis, is their ambiguity. Are they being ironic? Sincere? Both? Only David Byrne knows for sure and maybe he’s not certain himself.
Byrne (and an awesome band of unknowns, at least to me) did a whole “Sessions at West 54th” show. You can see it on YouKnowWhatTube. The “I Zimbra” set is particularly toothsome
“Life During Wartime “ was on my “drive to craft show” mixtape, along with Suicidal Tendencies “Institutionalized” ...and I got it was post Apocalyptic..nothing breed contempt for “the Free Market” like selling yourself a piece of work at a time.
Tired of rock I'd explored reggae and Afrobeat. Punk was easy to embrace but the real zeitgeist was The Police, The Cars, The Go-Go's, and lots of The Talking Heads. Speaking in Tongues got me to study Rauschenberg; Byrne & Eno's My Life in the Bush of Ghosts made me read Amos Tutuola. I still think of that last one as the national anthem of tripping (it came out right after Owlsley got out of prison and the quality of acid skyrocketed, The Cabaret Voltaire was good and if none of that rocked your boat Bill Laswell was coming into his own on Celluloid.
Good times. Didn't even remember Reagan until just now. But that was the point of the music: to forget about Reagan and Thatcher.
I had pretty much stopped paying attention to rock by about 1972, finding it increasingly turgid, formulaic, overproduced. Six or seven years later my friend Amy (a Republican, LSD-gobbling, Deadhead lesbian), visiting, complained after listening to some old standards set spinning on the turntable, complained, “Jesus, don’t you have anything *fast*?” And so, the next time she dropped by, she brought with her an armload of LPs: Eno, Devo, The Cars, Blondie, Talking Heads and a few others. My then-wife and I were charmed by the comparatively stripped-down sound, and I am afraid that over the next few months we rather annoyed some of our friends proselytizing the new stuff. The future ex, who was given to throwing herself abruptly into (and out of, to my subsequent sorrow) things, actually fell in with Tim Yohannon’s crowd a few years later, and “typeset” much of an issue of Maximumrocknroll from an Apple II/9-pin dot matrix printer. On one occasion she persuaded me to accompany her to the Mabuhay Garden, and waded into the mosh pit, where she was promptly knocked ass-over-teakettle. I moved forward with a mind to pulling her back to her feet, whereupon an enormous character, maybe 6'5", leather, bestrewn with chains, moved in front of me and, while looking away, ground his bootheel into my toe. “Well,” thought I, “if she needs me, she’ll call out.”
Oddly, of that first sample of “new wave,” I remember “Talking Heads 77” impressing me the least, although I came to cherish it, and this was the pattern with all their subsequent records: each one underwhelmed me on first listening; each (“Little Creatures,” to which I have to this day inexplicably never warmed, alone excepted) I subsequently came to cherish. I caught the Heads live only once, during their “Fear of Music” tour, although a decade later I saw David Byrne at the Warfield doing “Rei Momo,” a magnificent show.
As a child of the parched postwar suburbs of Southern California, I must say that “The Big Country” still resonates with me, and I prefer its high-altitude condescension toward “those people down there” to Byrne’s later “ah, the simple, good-hearted yeomanry, how authentic they are” schtick.
Great rundown, Roy. To my own surprise, I loved Talking Heads '77 the first time I heard it, and only long afterward did it occur to me that none of the songs were about sex or romantic love (as I recall). I also continue to give Byrne a standing o. for his 4 record/cassette (!) compilations of Brazilian music. He had terrific taste. The only reason it didn't completely re-define my musical world and set me on the path of Brazilian music fandom was, that had already been accomplished, literally in 1966, by Sergio Mendez and Brazil '66. Can you dig it?
I knew a guy, guitarist, droll to the nth, dry as a dead dingo's donger, subtle, Machiavellian except when he played guitar. When I spoke of Talking heads he just said "great bass player". Next time I listened to the band I paid attention. 'Once in a lifetime' is based on two bass notes which are not connected to large sections of the chordal structure. Her 'minimalist art-punk bass lines' tie the rhythm and melody together with little direct modal correlation. Fabo.
Interestingly, according Wikipedia, 'Weymouth has been critical of Byrne, describing him as "a man incapable of returning friendship." '
Just saw the David Byrne show in NY. It was great! Lots of TH songs, including I Zimbra, with a long introduction explaining it. Also, the post show music was the original 30s recording, probably one of the more bizarre tracks to serenade an exiting broadway audience.
I'm hardly a pop music expert but I always thought The Talking Heads were a New Wave band rather than a Punk band (like the Sex Pistols, Joan Jett, etc.). Byrne is incredibly creative in multiple media as well as charmingly eccentric. I think he was one of the most important creative forces of the '80s. That said, it would never have occurred to me to associate the musical style the Talking Heads with the Scottish band The Big Country. Other than being both '80s bands they are wildly different.
Really enjoyed this reflection, Roy. I saw TH several times back in the CBGB era and one of the things I enjoy most about them, aside from their musical innovation/synthesis, is their ambiguity. Are they being ironic? Sincere? Both? Only David Byrne knows for sure and maybe he’s not certain himself.
Byrne (and an awesome band of unknowns, at least to me) did a whole “Sessions at West 54th” show. You can see it on YouKnowWhatTube. The “I Zimbra” set is particularly toothsome
“Life During Wartime “ was on my “drive to craft show” mixtape, along with Suicidal Tendencies “Institutionalized” ...and I got it was post Apocalyptic..nothing breed contempt for “the Free Market” like selling yourself a piece of work at a time.
Excellent stuff--more arts criticism, please.
Thank you for introducing me to Strange Planet. It’s the offbeat, quirky kind I enjoy, like Glen Baxter https://images.app.goo.gl/cRnhsCvV2qs9K3Md8
Tired of rock I'd explored reggae and Afrobeat. Punk was easy to embrace but the real zeitgeist was The Police, The Cars, The Go-Go's, and lots of The Talking Heads. Speaking in Tongues got me to study Rauschenberg; Byrne & Eno's My Life in the Bush of Ghosts made me read Amos Tutuola. I still think of that last one as the national anthem of tripping (it came out right after Owlsley got out of prison and the quality of acid skyrocketed, The Cabaret Voltaire was good and if none of that rocked your boat Bill Laswell was coming into his own on Celluloid.
Good times. Didn't even remember Reagan until just now. But that was the point of the music: to forget about Reagan and Thatcher.
The set-opening version of "Psycho Killer" on the Remain in Light tour featured Adrian Belew. Nuff' said. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=galXYbepW_s
The movie 'True Stories' is kind of an exegesis of 'The Big Country'
I had pretty much stopped paying attention to rock by about 1972, finding it increasingly turgid, formulaic, overproduced. Six or seven years later my friend Amy (a Republican, LSD-gobbling, Deadhead lesbian), visiting, complained after listening to some old standards set spinning on the turntable, complained, “Jesus, don’t you have anything *fast*?” And so, the next time she dropped by, she brought with her an armload of LPs: Eno, Devo, The Cars, Blondie, Talking Heads and a few others. My then-wife and I were charmed by the comparatively stripped-down sound, and I am afraid that over the next few months we rather annoyed some of our friends proselytizing the new stuff. The future ex, who was given to throwing herself abruptly into (and out of, to my subsequent sorrow) things, actually fell in with Tim Yohannon’s crowd a few years later, and “typeset” much of an issue of Maximumrocknroll from an Apple II/9-pin dot matrix printer. On one occasion she persuaded me to accompany her to the Mabuhay Garden, and waded into the mosh pit, where she was promptly knocked ass-over-teakettle. I moved forward with a mind to pulling her back to her feet, whereupon an enormous character, maybe 6'5", leather, bestrewn with chains, moved in front of me and, while looking away, ground his bootheel into my toe. “Well,” thought I, “if she needs me, she’ll call out.”
Oddly, of that first sample of “new wave,” I remember “Talking Heads 77” impressing me the least, although I came to cherish it, and this was the pattern with all their subsequent records: each one underwhelmed me on first listening; each (“Little Creatures,” to which I have to this day inexplicably never warmed, alone excepted) I subsequently came to cherish. I caught the Heads live only once, during their “Fear of Music” tour, although a decade later I saw David Byrne at the Warfield doing “Rei Momo,” a magnificent show.
As a child of the parched postwar suburbs of Southern California, I must say that “The Big Country” still resonates with me, and I prefer its high-altitude condescension toward “those people down there” to Byrne’s later “ah, the simple, good-hearted yeomanry, how authentic they are” schtick.
Great rundown, Roy. To my own surprise, I loved Talking Heads '77 the first time I heard it, and only long afterward did it occur to me that none of the songs were about sex or romantic love (as I recall). I also continue to give Byrne a standing o. for his 4 record/cassette (!) compilations of Brazilian music. He had terrific taste. The only reason it didn't completely re-define my musical world and set me on the path of Brazilian music fandom was, that had already been accomplished, literally in 1966, by Sergio Mendez and Brazil '66. Can you dig it?
I knew a guy, guitarist, droll to the nth, dry as a dead dingo's donger, subtle, Machiavellian except when he played guitar. When I spoke of Talking heads he just said "great bass player". Next time I listened to the band I paid attention. 'Once in a lifetime' is based on two bass notes which are not connected to large sections of the chordal structure. Her 'minimalist art-punk bass lines' tie the rhythm and melody together with little direct modal correlation. Fabo.
Interestingly, according Wikipedia, 'Weymouth has been critical of Byrne, describing him as "a man incapable of returning friendship." '
Just saw the David Byrne show in NY. It was great! Lots of TH songs, including I Zimbra, with a long introduction explaining it. Also, the post show music was the original 30s recording, probably one of the more bizarre tracks to serenade an exiting broadway audience.
I'm hardly a pop music expert but I always thought The Talking Heads were a New Wave band rather than a Punk band (like the Sex Pistols, Joan Jett, etc.). Byrne is incredibly creative in multiple media as well as charmingly eccentric. I think he was one of the most important creative forces of the '80s. That said, it would never have occurred to me to associate the musical style the Talking Heads with the Scottish band The Big Country. Other than being both '80s bands they are wildly different.