It’s time to talk. Talk a lot about the Talking Heads! Formed in 1975 in New York City, the art-punk and funk band consisted of three college students who all had met as Freshman at the Rhode Island School of Design. This was lead vocalist and guitarist David Byrne, bassist Tina Weymouth and Drummer Chris Frantz. When the three moved to NYC, they recruited keyboardist Jerry Harrison and the four went on to create the funkiest tunes of the late ‘70s and early ‘80s
Right out the gate, the Talking Heads were all the talk as their debut album, Talking Heads: 77, had hit single, and their most popular song to date: “Psycho Killer.” The song talks of, well, a Psycho Killer, utilizing lyrics both in English and French to symbolize the altering personalities of a very troubled person. Some believed it was in reference to an actual serial killer running rampant around NYC at the time: Son of Sam, but Byrne clarified he had written the song many years before.
The following three years after the debut album saw the band’s collaboration with English producer Brian Eno for their next three albums. The first was in 1978, titled More Songs About Buildings and Food. The name came from a comment of Weymouth’s with her stating “What are we gonna call an album that's just about buildings and food?” with drummer, and husband of Weymouth, Chris Frantz said, “You call it more songs about buildings and food.” Its biggest single was not a song about a building, nor food, but it was a cover of Al Green’s “Take Me to the River.”
Next, in 1979, was Fear of Music. This album leaned more into a disco inspiration to its tunes, taking from the subtle funk direction the previous album had begun to take. The themes in its songs are very urban in their topics, with the album placing the song’s subjects in almost dystopian situations.
The final album of the Brian Eno era of Talking Heads was 1980’s Remain in Light, and is my personal favorite. The lyrical style stems from Byrne’s writer’s block and lyrics that mostly resembled streams of random thoughts and is almost hip-hop-ish. Meanwhile the musical style has African percussion influences and uses more polyrhythms. Remain in Light had two main singles released worldwide: “Once in a Lifetime” and “Houses in Motion”, along with three other singles exclusive to individual countries.
Through the rest of the 80’s, Talking Heads would release four more studio albums. In 1983, it was Speaking in Tongues, with singles “Burning Down the House” and “This Must Be the Place (Naïve Melody)” Two years later, in 1985, Little Creatures was released with “Road to Nowhere” and “The Lady Don’t Mind” as its biggest singles. ’86 came around with True
Stories, and “Wild Wild Life” which won two MTV Video Awards. Lastly, their final album came around in 1988, Naked. It leaned back into the funky sound of the Remain in Light album with its songs and biggest singles “Blind” and “(Nothing But) Flowers”.
Whew. A lot of talking, and a lot of albums, but the band had a pretty great run, breaking up in 1991, as tensions grew and musical interests changed. Talking Heads was such an incredible and influential band as well as many, many musicians credit them as their biggest inspirations. Radiohead for example, got their name from a Talking Heads song, and they stated Remain in Light as a great influence on their album Kid A. As the years go by, there will still always be something to talk about when it comes to the Talking Heads.
