Talking Heads | |
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| Works | Talking Heads discography |
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| Website | talkingheadsofficial |
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Talking Heads were an Americanrock band formed in New York City in 1975.[2] It consisted of vocalist-guitaristDavid Byrne, drummerChris Frantz, bassistTina Weymouth, and guitarist-keyboardistJerry Harrison. Described as "one of the most critically acclaimed groups of the '80s," Talking Heads helped to pioneernew wave music by combining elements ofpunk,art rock,funk, andworld music with "an anxious yet clean-cut image".[3]
Byrne, Frantz, and Weymouth met as freshmen at theRhode Island School of Design, where Byrne and Frantz were part of a band called the Artistics.[1]: 24 The trio moved to New York City in 1975, adopted the name Talking Heads, joined theNew York punk scene, and recruited Harrison to round out the band; this lineup remained the same for the rest of Talking Heads' career. Signing toSire Records in 1976, the band's debut album,Talking Heads: 77, was released in the following year to positive reviews.[4] They collaborated with the British producerBrian Eno on the acclaimed albumsMore Songs About Buildings and Food (1978),Fear of Music (1979), andRemain in Light (1980), which blended theirart school sensibilities with influence from artists such asParliament-Funkadelic andFela Kuti.[3] From the early 1980s, they included additional musicians in their recording sessions and shows, including guitaristAdrian Belew, keyboardistBernie Worrell, singerNona Hendryx, and bassistBusta Jones.
Talking Heads reached their commercial peak in 1983 with theU.S. Top 10 hit "Burning Down the House" from the albumSpeaking in Tongues. In 1984, they released the concert filmStop Making Sense, which was directed byJonathan Demme. For these performances, they were joined by Worrell, guitaristAlex Weir, percussionist Steve Scales, and singersLynn Mabry and Ednah Holt.[3] In 1985, Talking Heads released their best-selling album,Little Creatures. They produceda soundtrack album for Byrne's filmTrue Stories (1986), and released their final album, theworldbeat-influencedNaked (1988), before disbanding in 1991. Without Byrne, the other band members performed under the nameShrunken Heads, and released an album,No Talking, Just Head, asthe Heads in 1996, featuring various singers in place of Byrne.
Four of their albums appeared onRolling Stone's 2003 list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time", and three of their songs—"Psycho Killer", "Life During Wartime", and "Once in a Lifetime"—were included among the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll.[5] The band was also ranked number 64 onVH1's list of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time".[6] In the 2011 update ofRolling Stone's list of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time", they were ranked number 100.[7]
In 1973,Rhode Island School of Design studentsDavid Byrne (guitar and vocals) andChris Frantz (drums) formed a band, the Artistics.[1]: 28 [8] Frantz has described the Artistics as a "prototype punk band" that would perform a number of covers, including "Psycho" bythe Sonics,the Who's "I Can't Explain" andAl Green's "Love and Happiness", live.[9] Fellow studentTina Weymouth, Frantz's girlfriend, often provided transportation. The Artistics dissolved the following year, and the three moved to New York City, eventually sharing a communal loft.[10] After they were unable to find a bassist, Weymouth took up the role. Frantz encouraged Weymouth to learn to play bass by listening toSuzi Quatro albums.[11] Byrne asked Weymouth to audition three times before she joined the band.[12]
The band played their first gig as Talking Heads—opening for theRamones atCBGB in theEast Village—on June 5, 1975.[2] According to Weymouth, the name Talking Heads came from an issue ofTV Guide, which "explained the term used by TV studios to describe a head-and-shoulder shot of a person talking as 'all content, no action'. It fit."[13] Later that year, the band recorded a series of demos forCBS, but did not receive a record contract. However, they drew a following and signed toSire Records in November 1976. They released their first single in February the following year, "Love → Building on Fire". In March 1977, they addedJerry Harrison, formerly ofthe Modern Lovers, on keyboards, guitar, and backing vocals.[14]Gary Kurfirst started managing Talking Heads in 1977.[15]
The first Talking Heads album,Talking Heads: 77, received acclaim and produced their first charting single, "Psycho Killer".[16] Many connected the song to theserial killer known as theSon of Sam, who had been terrorizing New York City months earlier; however, Byrne said he had written the song years prior.[17] Weymouth and Frantz married in 1977.[18]
More Songs About Buildings and Food (1978) was Talking Heads' first collaboration with producerBrian Eno, who had previously worked withRoxy Music,David Bowie,John Cale, andRobert Fripp;[19] the title of Eno's 1977 song "King's Lead Hat" is ananagram 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—frompsychedelic funk toAfrobeat, influenced prominently byFela Kuti andParliament-Funkadelic.[20][21][22] This recording also established the band's relationship withCompass Point Studios inNassau, The Bahamas.More Songs About Buildings and Food included a cover ofAl Green's "Take Me to the River", which brought Talking Heads into the public consciousness and gave them their firstBillboard Top 30 hit.[22]
The collaboration continued withFear of Music (1979), which mixed the darker stylings of post-punk rock with funk and subliminal references to the geopolitical instability of the late 1970s.[22] Music journalistSimon Reynolds citedFear of Music as representing the Eno–Talking Heads collaboration "at its most mutually fruitful and equitable".[23] The single "Life During Wartime" produced the catchphrase "This ain't no party, this ain't no disco".[24] The song refers to theMudd Club and CBGB, two popular New York nightclubs of the time.[25]
Remain in Light (1980) was heavily influenced by Fela Kuti, whose music had been introduced to the band by Eno. It explored West Africanpolyrhythms, weaving these together with Arabic music from North Africa, disco, funk, and "found" voices.[27] These combinations foreshadowed Byrne's later interest inworld music.[28] To perform these more complex arrangements, the band toured with an expanded group, including guitaristAdrian Belew and keyboardistBernie Worrell among others, first at theHeatwave festival in August 1980.[29]
During this period, Weymouth and Frantz formed a commercially successful splinter group,Tom Tom Club, influenced by the foundational elements ofhip hop,[30] and Harrison released his first solo album,The Red and the Black.[31] Byrne and Eno releasedMy Life in the Bush of Ghosts, which incorporated world music, found sounds and a number of other prominent international and post-punk musicians.[32]
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 US. It grew into a popular standard over the next few years on the strength of its music video, whichTime named one of the greatest of all time.[33][34]
After releasing four albums in barely four years, the group went on a recording hiatus, and nearly three years passed before their next release, although Frantz and Weymouth continued to record with Tom Tom Club. In the meantime, Talking Heads released the live albumThe Name of This Band Is Talking Heads, toured the United States and Europe as an eight-piece group, and parted ways with Eno,[35] who went on to produce albums withU2.[19]
1983 saw the release ofSpeaking in Tongues, a commercial breakthrough that produced the band's only American Top 10 hit, "Burning Down the House".[36] Once again, a striking video was inescapable, owing to it being played so much on MTV.[37] The following tour was documented inJonathan Demme'sStop Making Sense, which generated another live albumof the same name.[38] The tour in support ofSpeaking in Tongues was their last.[39]
I try to write about small things. Paper, animals, a house… love is kind of big. I have written a love song, though. In this film, I sing it to a lamp.
Three more albums followed: 1985'sLittle Creatures (which featured the hit singles "And She Was" and "Road to Nowhere"),[41] 1986'sTrue Stories (Talking Heads covering all the soundtrack songs of Byrne'smusical comedy film, in which the band also appeared),[42] and 1988'sNaked.Little Creatures offered a much more American pop-rock sound as opposed to previous efforts.[43] Similar in genre,True Stories hatched one of the group's most successful hits, "Wild Wild Life", and the accordion-driven track "Radio Head".[44]Naked explored politics, sex, and death, with much African influence of polyrhythmic styles like those seen onRemain in Light.[45] During that time, the group was falling increasingly under David Byrne's control, and afterNaked, the band went on "hiatus".[3] In 1987, Talking Heads released a book by David Byrne,What the Songs Look Like: Contemporary Artists Interpret Talking Heads Songs, withHarperCollins that contained artwork by some of the top New York visual artists of the decade.
In December 1991, Talking Heads announced that they had disbanded.[3] Frantz said he learned that Byrne had left from an article in theLos Angeles Times, and said: "As far as we're concerned, the band never really broke up. David just decided to leave."[46] Their final release was "Sax and Violins", an original song that had appeared earlier that year on the soundtrack toWim Wenders'Until the end of the World. Byrne continued his solo career, releasingRei Momo in 1989 andThe Forest in 1991.[28] This period also saw a revived flourish from Tom Tom Club (Boom Boom Chi Boom Boom andDark Sneak Love Action)[47] and Harrison (Casual Gods andWalk on Water), who toured together in 1990.[48]
Harrison produced records such as theViolent Femmes'The Blind Leading the Naked; theFine Young Cannibals'The Raw and the Cooked;General Public'sRub It Better;Crash Test Dummies'God Shuffled His Feet;Live'sMental Jewelry,Throwing Copper, andThe Distance to Here; andNo Doubt's song "New" fromReturn of Saturn.[49] Frantz and Weymouth have produced for several artists, includingHappy Mondays andZiggy Marley. Tom Tom Club continues to record and tour intermittently.[50]
Talking Heads reunited to play "Life During Wartime", "Psycho Killer", and "Burning Down the House" on March 18, 2002, at the ceremony of their induction into theRock and Roll Hall of Fame, joined onstage by former touring membersBernie Worrell and Steve Scales.[51] Byrne said further work together was unlikely, due to "bad blood" and being musically "miles apart".[52] Weymouth has been critical of Byrne, describing him as "a man incapable of returning friendship"[52] and saying that he did not "love" her, Frantz, and Harrison.[11] In 2020, Frantz published a memoir about his relationship with Weymouth,Remain in Love, which covered the band's conflicts.[53]
Weymouth, Frantz, and Harrison toured without Byrne as Shrunken Heads in the early 1990s.[54] In 1996, they released an album,No Talking, Just Head, under the name the Heads. The album featured a number of vocalists, includingGavin Friday ofthe Virgin Prunes,Debbie Harry ofBlondie,Johnette Napolitano ofConcrete Blonde,Andy Partridge ofXTC,Gordon Gano ofViolent Femmes,Michael Hutchence ofINXS,Ed Kowalczyk ofLive,Shaun Ryder ofHappy Mondays,Richard Hell, andMaria McKee.[55] It was accompanied by a tour with Napolitano as the vocalist. Byrne took legal action to prevent the band using the name the Heads, which he saw as "a pretty obvious attempt to cash in on the Talking Heads name".[56] The band briefly reunited in 1999 to promote the 15th anniversary re-release ofStop Making Sense, but did not perform together.[57] In 2002, Talking Heads reunited for a one-off performance for their induction into theRock and Roll Hall of Fame.
In September 2023,Stop Making Sense was re-released inIMAX with remastered sound and picture to coincide with the film's 40th anniversary.[58] The band members reunited that month for a Q&A at theToronto International Film Festival, following limited showings of the film in theaters,[53][59] and gave subsequent interviews together to promote the re-release.[60] With regard to the possibility of a reunion tour, Harrison told theLos Angeles Times: "Right now, we're concentrating onStop Making Sense and how much fun we're having revisiting the film. We're living in the moment, so that's all we're thinking about."[61] In January 2024,Billboard reported that Talking Heads had turned down an $80 million offer for a reunion tour, which would have included a performance atCoachella.[62]
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In 2023 and 2025, Harrison and Belew toured with a band performingRemain in Light songs.[63][64] On June 5, 2025, their 50th anniversary, Talking Heads released a music video for "Psycho Killer" directed byMike Mills and starringSaoirse Ronan.[65]
AllMusic wrote that Talking Heads started out as "art-school punks", but evolved into one of the most celebrated bands of thepost-punk era, and "had recorded everything from art-funk to polyrhythmicworldbeat explorations and simple, melodicguitar pop," by the time of their breakup.[3] Andy Cush ofPitchfork also described the band as "New Yorkart-punks" whose "blend of nervy postmodernism and undeniable groove made them one of the defining rock bands of the late 1970s and ’80s."[66]Media theoristDick Hebdige said the group "draw eclectically on a wide range of visual and aural sources to create a distinctive pastiche or hybrid 'house style' which they have used since their formation in the mid-1970s deliberately to stretch received (industrial) definitions of what rock/pop/video/Art/ performance/audience are", calling them "a properly postmodernist band."[67]
While originating in the New York punk scene, Talking Heads rose to prominence for theirart pop innovations, which had a long-lasting impact on music.[68] David Byrne's "manic yelp" combined with "tightR&B grooves" helped the band define thenew wave genre in the United States, alongsideDevo,Ramones, andBlondie.[69]PopMatters labeled the band a "dance-rock outfit" who most in thepunk subculture will have trouble getting into, due to their "outward antisocial stance." Talking Heads also embracedfunk rock[20] andexperimental pop as their career progressed,[70] while their more cosmopolitan hits like 1980'sRemain in Light helped bring African rock to the Western world in the form ofAfrobeat.[71]
Talking Heads have been cited as an influence by many artists, includingNelly Furtado,[72]Eddie Vedder,[73]LCD Soundsystem,[74]Foals,[75]the Weeknd,[76]Primus,[77]Bell X1,[78]the 1975,[79]Kesha,[80]St. Vincent,[81]Danny Brown,[82]Trent Reznor,[83]Franz Ferdinand frontmanAlex Kapranos,[84] andRadio 4.[85]Radiohead took their name from the 1986 Talking Heads song "Radio Head",[86] and citedRemain in Light as a critical influence on their 2000 albumKid A.[87] Italian filmmaker and directorPaolo Sorrentino, receiving the Oscar for his filmLa Grande Bellezza in 2014, thanked Talking Heads, among others, as a source of inspiration.[88]
| Award | Year | Nominee(s) | Category | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK Music Video Awards | 2025 | "Psycho Killer" | Best Rock Video – International | Nominated | [89] |
| Best Performance in a Video | Nominated |
When it came time to select a college and a course of study, Byrne eventually chose the Rhode Island School of Design.
the new release's remastered sound and picture, projected in... IMAX
We were influenced by sound around us, facelesshouse stuff where you don't know the artist, and also Talking Heads,ESG,Liquid Liquid, real New York City stuff.
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Data from Wikidata
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