Talking Heads were an American rock band formed in 1975 in New York and active until 1991. The band was composed of David Byrne (lead vocals, guitar), Chris Frantz (drums), Tina Waymouth (bass), and Jerry Harrison (keyboards, guitar). Described as “one of the most critically acclaimed bands of the ’80s,” the group helped to pioneer new wave music by integrating elements of punk, art rock, funk, and world music with avant-garde sensibilities and an anxious, clean-cut image. I was first introduced to them when a friend had me listen to their first album ’77’. I can’t say that I warmed to it on first hearing but eventually it grew on me.
Former art school students who became involved in the 1970s New York punk scene, they released their first album in 1977, which received acclaim and produced their first charting single, “Psycho Killer”. Many connected the song to the serial killer known as the Son of Sam, who had been terrorizing New York City months earlier; however, Byrne said he had written the song years prior. Weymouth and Frantz married in 1977.
More Songs About Buildings and Food (1978) was Talking Heads’ first collaboration with producer Brian Eno. The title of Eno’s 1977 song “King’s Lead Hat” is an anagram of the band’s name. Eno’s unusual style meshed with the group’s artistic sensibilities, and they began to explore an increasingly diverse range of musical directions. More Songs About Buildings and Food included a cover of Al Green’s “Take Me To The River.” This broke Talking Heads into the general public’s consciousness and gave the band their first Billboard Top 30 hit.
Remain in Light (1980) was heavily influenced by the afrobeat of Nigerian bandleader Fela Kuti, whose music Eno had introduced to the band. It explored West African polyrhythms, weaving these together with Arabic music from North Africa, disco funk, and “found” voices. These combinations foreshadowed Byrne’s later interest in world music. Remain in Light‘s lead single, “Once In A Lifetime”, became a Top 20 hit in the UK, but initially failed to make an impression in the USA. It grew into a popular standard over the next few years on the strength of its music video, which was named one of Time‘s All-TIME Best Music Videos.
1983 saw the release of Speaking in Tongues, a commercial breakthrough that produced the band’s only American Top 10 hit, “Burning Down The House”. Once again, a striking video was inescapable owing to its heavy rotation on MTV. The following tour was documented in Jonathan Demme’s Stop Making Sense, which generated another live album of the same name. The tour in support of Speaking in Tongues was their last.
Three more albums followed: 1985’s Little Creatures (which featured the hit singles “And She Was” and “Road To Nowhere”), 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. Little Creatures offered a much more American pop-rock sound as opposed to previous efforts. Similar in genre, True Stories hatched one of the group’s most successful hits, “Wild Wild Life”.
