Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.

Talking Heads... universally loved even on Barbelith?

Page: 1(2)

Spaniel

13:46 / 21.02.06

I love The Good Thing. It's fantastically motivational. All that "a straight line exists between me and the good thing. I have found the line its direction is known to me" stuff really makes me feel like I can acheive my goals. It's all about cutting through the bullshit and trusting your instincts and doing what you really want, but, brilliantly, Byrne doesn't forget to remind you that you're going to have to work hard to get there.

Sorry, just gushed like a child.

electric monk

14:39 / 21.02.06

Effective gushing, tho. What album is that on?

(OBTW, I meant 'Sax and Violins' back there, obv. Heh heh heh. Freud, eh wot?)

Spaniel

14:43 / 21.02.06

That'd be More Songs About Buildings and Food.

Haus of Mystery

15:45 / 21.02.06

It would be their best album, but it's got the (IMO) overrated over of 'Take Me to The river' on it.
Best track is Stay Hungry by a million miles. Very sexy bassline wigout at the end, with Byrne crooning
Here's that rhythm again.
Here's my shoulder blade.
Here's the sound I made.
Here's the picture I saved.
Here I am.
over the top. It's lovely.

grant

15:48 / 21.02.06

I've never been terribly devoted to the Talking Heads -- they were sort of ubiquitous at my college, like a kind of brand, I think -- because I process most of it as vaguely interesting dance music.

But I will say that "Heaven" is a beautiful song, especially the live duet version on Stop Making Sense. It's one of the most peculiarly moving songs I know.

Spaniel

16:01 / 21.02.06

Dance music?

electric monk

16:31 / 21.02.06

Yeah, not sure I'd call TH 'dance music', but they sure as hell make me want to move when they're on the hi-fi. So: dance-able, yeah.

(BTW Boboss, 'Stay Up Late' makes a lovely if odd lullaby with the proper setting and a soft delivery. Our little guy loves it.)

grant

03:33 / 22.02.06

I tend to process (meaning: my brain starts pigeonholing before it even recognizes) almost all Talking Heads songs as some kind of revision of funk or soul. Well, the ones I heard the most of anyway. I'm thinking out loud, but it might be that Talking Heads is to Parliament as Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band is to Bob Dylan.

It's also that college thing -- they got played *every weekend* and most weeknights at, well, the local equivalent of the campus nightclub. The party in the courtyard. So it was, for me, dance music. Psycho Killer's wacky drum loops and all that stuff.

lord nuneaton savage

09:47 / 22.02.06

Oh, Talking Heads are definitely dance(able) music. Personal favourite has to be "Crosseyed and Painless". "Remain in the Light" is my favourite album, as it's the one where the Afro-beat influences are felt the most. Just endless grooves, modulated only by Byrnes choices of melody.

Very fond of "Love Becomes Building on Fire" as well. Such a sweet song.

Spaniel

12:34 / 22.02.06

Yeah, TH are danceable, espesh Once in a Lifetime, but I wouldn't, even in my wildest dance frenzy, describe them as Dance Music.

Jawsus-son Starship

14:31 / 07.10.07

Stop Making Sense is free in the Observer today, as if you needed the excuse. Was watchiong it again last night, and it really is good. It just seems like such fun.

More than that, it feels like you're being performed too, not simply watching a video of a concert. The lack of crowd shots help.

Also;

People who don't get talking heads don't get the reason you'd have sex with that crazy chick who could stab you any second but is so hot that the danger makes you cum like a freight train. It's like trying to stab yourself in the face with a piece of cake. It's like jumping into the middle of a fight just to kick all there asses. and thats the bottom line.

Might be the worst thing I have ever written, and rereading this thread has made me cringe and redden. I am very, very sorry. Who did I think I was?

Blake Head

22:26 / 07.10.07

I think I already did my Talking Heads gush in the "Ten Songs..." thread, but agree with everything Boboss says at the top of the page. I can't understand understanding Talking Heads (at their best) as emotionless or unengaging, or even as too intellectual - there are too many songs in celebration of ordinary-ness. So moving sometimes. In both senses I guess.

Can we talk about David Byrne here? Just picked up Grown Backwards, never tried any solo stuff before, on one listen it's kind of what I expected, gentle vocals, offbeat lyrics, nothing quite so desparate or claustrophobic as later TH albums or My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, world music influences (including 19th Century French Opera, I am reliably informed) but... it worked.

Where should I continue to start, post-Talking Heads?

Blake Head

22:29 / 07.10.07

Totally on the fly, but there's a vulnerability and longing in Byrne's voice in contrast to the music that I wouldn't associate with something like Parliament. It's the lack of confidence or ease that's the selling point.

Blake Head

23:41 / 14.10.07

So... David Byrne's solo career? What's should I look out for?

Now watch as I crudely attempt to bribe the thread with an endearingly home-made (but not my home) video to Glass, Concrete and Stone, which is an example of something I rather like...

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

00:24 / 15.10.07

My personal recommendation would be Look Into the Eyeball. It's one of my favourite albums ever.

Tsuga

01:59 / 15.10.07

This thread is reminding me of some Byrne music that I had basically forgotten, The Catherine Wheel, Knee Plays, and The Forest. I remember going through a time listening to The Forest alot, kind of bombastic orchestration but it worked very well, I'm remembering some nonsense language sung opera. Knee Plays also weird, big horn sounds and spoken word. Catherine Wheel I know I had but can't remember. There was a live show on the Sessions on 54th series on PBS we had on tape for a while, really a great live performance overall, like this song. I can't believe I've never seen him live. I can't believe I've forgotten all of this music.

Page: 1(2)

Add Your Reply