#383 - Talking Heads - More Songs About Buildings and Food (1978)
MUSIC HISTORY WRITTEN BY HEAD WRITER DJ MORTY COYLE:
Released on July 21st of 1978 on Sire Records and produced by Brian Eno and the band this is the second album from the American, New Wave, Post-Punk, Art-Pop, Rock group.
In 1974 Scotland-born and Baltimore-raised singer/songwriter/guitarist David Byrne, drummer Chris Frantz of Kentucky, and his girlfriend, Tina Weymouth of Southern California, were classmates at the Rhode Island School of Design.
Byrne dropped out and went to the Maryland Institute, College of Art before heading back to Rhode Island where he and Frantz formed the conceptual and performance art, Pop group The Artistics which due to David’s peculiar, deadpan, onstage, demeanor earned them the nickname The Autistics.
Tina was the band’s driver.
After Chris and Tina graduated the band dissolved and the three of them moved to a communal loft in New York and unable to find a bass player decided Tina, who could play guitar, would fill that role.
The named the trio the ‘60s T.V. term for a head and shoulders, close-up, shot, which, similar to their songs, was often utilized for clinical and critical analysis.
While Disco was sweeping the nation they dressed like the average, proto-preppy, art school, students that they were and played their quirky mix of minimalistic Rock, Funk, Motown, and Punk at cutting edge venues like The Mudd Club and CBGBs alongside up and coming bands like Blondie and the Ramones.
After they got their deal with Sire Records and their first single was released Milwaukee, Wisconsin native, keyboardist and guitarist Jerry Harrison dropped out of Harvard University’s architecture program to join. Harrison was a few years older than most of the band and a founding member of Jonathan Richman’s Modern Lovers, whose debut is next week’s record.
Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz got married in 1977, the same year and title of the band’s debut record.
But while working on that first album they went on a tour of Europe with the Ramones when in London they met famed producer Brian Eno. Eno saw their set and asked them to lunch the next day after which they went back to his place and listened to records and bonded. After another meeting later in New York they all agreed he would produce their next album.
This would become the first of four records made with Eno (including a side project with Byrne). Now you guys know all about him from the past episodes about his solo albums and his work in Roxy Music, as well as his production of Devo’s debut.
David Bowie was also an early fan of the band and Eno had just worked with him on his Berlin-era “Heroes” album and elements of those quirky and angular sensibilities would surface on this record.
While their first album of off-kilter views of normal life with some dark undertones had a jittery sound, Eno recognized that the solid Frantz and Weymouth rhythm section needed to be the engine that would give this record more groove and energy.
They were the first artists to record at Island Records founder Chris Blackwell’s newly-constructed, state-of-the-art Compass Point Studios in Nassau, The Bahamas which offered a relaxing, tropical, environment.
While the local Caribbean music and Eno broadened their musical landscapes this was the last record before the band and Byrne as a solo artist would really start exploring and incorporating World music into their sound.
As the main composer David continued writing his unique observational songs and they also remade older ones including some that went back to The Artistics.
The album did even better than their first getting to number 29 on the Billboard Pop Albums chart and its single to number 26 on the Pop singles chart.
After four albums with increasing popularity in four years the band took a three year break before they released their breakthrough record, “Speaking in Tongues” with their most successful single “Burning Down the House” which became a staple on MTV.
That album’s tour, which would be their last, was filmed by Jonathan Demme and released as the popular movie “Stop Making Sense.”
Three more studio albums followed including the band playing the songs from Byrne’s satirical, musical, comedy “True Stories.”
In 1991 the other three members learned Byrne had quit from an article in the L.A. Times which effectively ended the band. However they continued to tour as the Shrunken Heads and followed in 1996 with one album as the Heads with guest vocalists called “No Talking, Just Head.”
The original band has only performed together once since Byrne left, after they accepted their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002.
They all kept working on various solo and group projects.
Tina and Chris have been together over forty years and continued their early ‘80s side-band The Tom Tom Club and last year Chris wrote his memoirs called “Remain in Love.”
Jerry went on to be a successful producer working on records for artists like No Doubt, The Verve Pipe, Rusted Root, Live, The Von Bondies, Violent Femmes, and The String Cheese Incident.
And David went on to win Grammys, Oscars, and Golden Globe awards and worked in many medias including film, photography, opera, and most recently the 2019 hit Broadway show “American Utopia” which featured many Talking Heads songs.
My guest today is Jerry Harrison.