TALKING HEADS

The best rock act to surface in the last three decades? This one, without a doubt. With apologies to the Clash, this is the Only Band That Matters. In every conceivable way, their music is... different. It speaks in ways others don't. It's ignorant to genre, to convention, to image, to anything but the joy, complexity, and drama of creating music. Talking Heads stretched all sorts of boundaries thanks to their denial of them. Next to nobody since the Beatles shares their ability to conquer the mainstream through an orgy of imaginative subtlety, on their own terms but without a fear or ambivalence toward commercialism.

Historical perspective is a slow process, and we still can't comprehend fully the scope and impact of the CBGB's revolution except in the sense that it was by far the most creatively fertile enviornment for the punk movement, considering the brilliant groups it fathered. All I know is that the Heads go beyond all the others. Like the best early rock & roll, they stretch across the thick race line with the explosive thrill of their work, their humbling onstage presence, their astonishing and always quiet connection with their audience. Rock music had begun as a melting pot but had become deeply segregated (it still is); the Heads reminded us, all too briefly, that the secret of musical community is unification, not exclusion.

That's not to say their music was carefree and day-glo beautiful. The precise reason for its stunning power and the all-inclusive attitude it fostered was the theatrical, frequently disturbing context provided by lyricist and singer David Byrne, a true original. Byrne did not celebrate the Misfit in the obvious, cloying fashion of protegés Devo and They Might Be Giants. He can protest, in childlike, cartoonish rants, everything from memories to paper to his country, or he can write one of the most stirring love songs of our time, "This Must Be the Place," never breaking the focused, marvellously human, subtle qualities that have led so many to embrace this unexplored new realm of pop music.

Whether or not Byrne is playing a part on the stage, what matters is his relationship with his audience, and he always thinks of them first. I think we do idolize him, the way we held Buddy Holly up as a god of his kind. Nonetheless, his charisma is a small part of the Heads' arresting appeal. Bassist Tina Weymouth and drummer Chris Frantz, husband and wife, are the greatest and most effortless rhythm section in any rock band. Jerry Harrison is the anchor that holds the dynamic unit together.

The garage band unfiltered-voice-for-all aesthetic dreamed up by the punkers once again simply gave way to music far from what we typically think of as new-wave or "punk." The Heads' music is as closely derived from James Brown, the Miracles, and George Clinton as it is from the Ramones and the Velvet Underground. This would mean nothing -- as we know all too well in the new millennium, the age of the empty-headed hybrid -- were it not for Byrne's eloquent, often funny, occasionally scary, at times moving paranoia. The argument of music as emotional expression versus music as theater is negated by the Heads' passion for what they do. They make both. There has never been anything like them and I doubt there ever will be.

ANNOTATED DISCOGRAPHY

ALBUMS REVIEWED:
Talking Heads '77 (1977) [A]
More Songs About Buildings and Food (1978) [A+]
Fear of Music (1979) [A+]
Remain in Light (1980) [A+]
Speaking in Tongues (1983) [A]
Little Creatures (1985) [A]
True Stories (1986) [A-]
Naked (1988) [B]

LIVE ALBUMS
The Name of This Band Is Talking Heads (1981) [A]
Stop Making Sense (1984) [A+]
The Name of This Band Is Talking Heads: Deluxe Edition (2004) [A+]

COMPILATIONS
Sand in the Vaseline: Popular Favorites 1976-1992 (1992) [A-]
The Best of Talking Heads (2004) [A-]

BOXED SETS
Once in a Lifetime (2003) [B+]
Talking Heads Brick (2005) [?]

NON-LP SINGLES

OTHER WRITING

WEBBLOG ARCHIVE:
(Boldfaced links actually contain Heads-related material; others are just passing mentions.)
Wuzzon #9
digipack rant
Eno/Byrne: My Life in the Bush of Ghosts
anybody want a mix
1000th post
R.E.M.: Perfect Square
bad boxes
new releases
Wuzzon #8
Wuzzon #6
Life During Wartime
Peter Gabriel videos review
another look at Beatles & Beach Boys
Wuzzon #4
Depeche Mode: Some Great Reward
Brick previewed
CBGB's closure
True Stories movie (very short, one-line review)
Talking Heads release
The Big Country
A Hard Day's Night 2nd review
actual reviews
Pitchfork parody review & retraction
Wuzzon #2
David Byrne tour diary
site opening
the best cd's I own
Talking Heads review disaster
David Byrne article
Talking Heads box review
feelings of inferiority
boxset cover
music emotions survey
200 bands assessed III
Nirvana rant
quote