I love this band. I discovered them awhile back and I jstu love their music. they haev awesome funky bass and African rythms and use of many different percussion instrumetns. I really think Remain in Light is one of the best albums of all time. I cant wait to get Stop make sense and hear Bernie Worrell with them. I also think Tina Weymouth is a very underrated bassist. Her work is great on every album. I know she didnt play ever cut on Remain in Light but she did most of them and they are great. She showed me that simple can be very funky and be very great. I really like how The Talking heads bring in a broad cast of wonderful musicians to record like Adrian Belew, Busta Jones , & Bernie Worrell to name a few. I really look forward to getting more of their albums, like i said i only have Remain in Light.

If you can, get the DVD of Stop Making Sense as well. It's been called the Citizen Kane of concert films & for good reason.

They were a great band. Brian Eno should get a fair share of the credit for Remain In Light, as well.

I have to admit I've never seen Stop Making Sense. I am going to put it on my Amazon wish list right now. :)

The Name of this Band is Talking Heads is a way better live document than Stop Making Sense.

I'm a big fan of 'Fear of Music'.

Tina also wrote the "Genius of Love" bassline. She hurt her hand during the recording of the Tom Tom Club album, so she had to teach the engineer, who was also a bassist, how to play it. Very underrated indeed!

Fear of Music is the greatest coke-disco-party record ever, and the grooves are just incredible. "I Zimbra," "Cities," "Air," "Animals," "Electric Guitar," and the mindblowingly awesome "Drugs" are tracks with which every bassist should be intimately familiar, IMO--nothing technical, just devastating groove playing. Ms. Weymouth obviously did her Jamerson/Bootsy homework.

the 5.1 mixes on the dual discs are out of this world on the older ones, esp Remain in Light and after. A real surround sound treat!

I see there are other fans of Fear of Music as well?

First time I heard 'Drugs' I got *scared*.

Overall, I like Remain In Light much better. But Fear of Music is great. I Zimbra is definitely my favorite track. Animals and Electric Guitar probably after that.

If you can, get the DVD of Stop Making Sense as well. It's been called the Citizen Kane of concert films & for good reason.

Stop Making Sense is a great concert film. I saw it in the theatres - twice in fact - when it was released 20 years ago. The band totally grooves...

MM

BTW, Tina did an interview in Bass Player magazine several years ago, in which she confirmed that she could hardly play at all when the band first started up during the mid-70s. Her basslines were ultra-simple of necessity - because she couldn't play anything at all complex...

Since then, most of her lines have remained quite simple - and that's a big part of their charm. I just finished playing along with Psycho Killer, Once In A Lifetime and Burning Down The House in tribute. Besides, they're so much fun...

MM

Yes, I remember that article. I recall her mentioning that she dug in so hard on her little Hofner knockoff that her fingers bled. Who says that the Heads weren't punk? ;)

Stop Making Sense is a great concert film. I saw it in the theatres - twice in fact - when it was released 20 years ago. The band totally grooves...

MM

Wasn't 'the band' at point in time using outside/session musicians?
I recall Alex Weir(Brothers Johnson) playing guitar...can't recall offhand who was playing bass(IIRC, Tina was playing percussion + some keyboards at this time).

I've never sseen the film Stop Making Sense. I should go look it up though. I did see the tour at a couple of stops though. I was a huge fan back then. IIRC Tina shared bass duties with another player and filled in on keyboards with Bernie and Jerry.

I haven;t listed to either Fear or Music or Remain in Light for a long time but they were fabulous albums. The other album from the Remain in Light era that was pivotal for me was the King Crimson release (damned if I can remember the name but it was the red album which was the first release featuring Fripp, Belew, Levin and Bruford ...embarassing that I can;t remember the name YIKES! a senior moment) That whole afro-cuban and poly-rythmic thing in a rock setting that Fripp and Byrne were exploring was mind blowing for the day. Common enough now but in 1980 it was like whawuzat ?

Funny how David Byrne wanted her ousted from the band when they signed the first record deal.

She plays interesting stuff. I personally just like to watch her sway her hips.

Wow ..... thanks for this thread, spent the last hour listening to some Heads music that has been ignored for years.

Saw them in 1980 (when did I get so old ...) and they were doing a midwestern college campus tour. I thought it was outstanding, some people still did not get it yet.

I had a front row seat in Philly for the Stop Making Sense tour back in ..what was it ...'83? I was a teenager. What a wild show!

I just bought the '77 and Remain in Light 5.1 mixes and have been listening to them alot lately. Jerry Harrison did a terrific job remixing them.

The heads were disgustingly creative and way ahead of their time.

Busta Jones was the bass player. the Fear of Music and Remain in Light Dual discs each have two videos from a German concert, that has both Busta and Belew on them!

Busta lays it down on the Remain in Light stuff.

Wasn't 'the band' at point in time using outside/session musicians?
I recall Alex Weir(Brothers Johnson) playing guitar...can't recall offhand who was playing bass(IIRC, Tina was playing percussion + some keyboards at this time).

Yeah, it was a big band - the basic four-piece plus a bunch of other people on backing vocals, percussion, guitar, etc. Although as I recall, Tina is the only one who plays bass throughout the show...

The film starts off with David Bryne playing a solo rendition of Psycho Killer on acoustic guitar, with other members of the band gradually joining in with each new tune. By the end of the show everyone had joined in, and it turned into one great, big groovefest... :bassist:

MM

The heads were disgustingly creative and way ahead of their time.

I'll buy that...

MM

The film starts off with David Bryne playing a solo rendition of Psycho Killer on acoustic guitar, with other members of the band gradually joining in with each new tune. By the end of the show everyone had joined in, and it turned into one great, big groovefest... :bassist:

groovefest is a great way to describe it!

I remember the show I attended, there were folding chairs set up in the first 8-10 rows and everyone was relatively reserved during Byrne's opening. Then as the show went on, people slowly began to get up and dance a bit, followed by more band members arriving, more dancers, chairs being tossed aside, more and more people dancing ....until the whole "pit" was one big groovefest. Toward the end of the show the booze was flowing, the band (and audience :p ) were smokin' and the whole thing was just really infectious and surreal. ...wow. I'd say it was one of the coolest shows I've ever witnessed.

Yeah Busta Jones was the main bassist and Tina did some bass , percussion , and keys. I read somewhere that they also had a horn section. Man I wish i couldve been around to see a show of theirs. Im 15 and I recentyl discovered the TAlking Heads and I love how they blend funk and the artistic punk stuff. Im really wanted to get Stop making sense album & DVD. Also someone mentioned King Crimson , was their first album with Fripp , Belew , Levin and Buford like a TAlking heads album? Also are there any other groups who pull off the art-funk and African rhythms similar to what The Talking heads did?

Also someone mentioned King Crimson , was their first album with Fripp , Belew , Levin and Buford like a TAlking heads album? Also are there any other groups who pull off the art-funk and African rhythms similar to what The Talking heads did?

No, King Crimson goes wayyyyy before that (late 60s). However the period with Belew, Bruford and Levin is my favorite lineup. If you like the Heads, you'll like that lineup of Crimson. I think the recordings they released were:

1. Discipline
2. Beat
3. Three of a Perfect Pair

...was there another? Also, check out some of Adrian Belew's solo stuff like Lone Rhinocerous and Twang Bar King. And the quartet Belew was in called "The Bears" was very cool. ...their first album is really excellent creative (albiet poppy) stuff.

being both a crim and talking head I recall seeing both live early 80's

the crim disc to get is live - Absent Lovers
Levin is criminal on it

the new heads boxset is great or buy the first 5 albums all indespensible! Byrne's Catherine Wheel is great too with incredible bass lines

Tom