Tina Weymouth

[Joebone]

Some history, folks...

When TH started out as a band, Tina Weymouth and drummer Chris Frantz were a couple...and still are, so far as I know. She didn't play bass at all but apparently had some native good taste, and learned over the years. As for the parts, they may have come from David Byrne, from Chris, from Jerry Harrison once he joined the band, all of the above, none of the above, or from the ether. But while she clearly was never "technical," I always got a kick about how her groove with the drums always seemed to have a decent lock...I guess you can work together and live together, after all!

[bassteban]

The second Tom Tom Club album rocked- I wonder how much of it she was responsible for?

[Holdsg]

Tina one of the innovators that got me stoked to learn bass (although I took 20 years to actually follow through and do it!) You can't imagine TH without David, but Tina and the drummer (sorry, spacing on his name right now) made David's writing and personality shine.

[Andrew Jones]

Oh my a thread started in 2000........


Love the Girl,,,

[sneha1965]

I always appreciated her funky playing and her selfless ability to serve the song. Looks like her side project may have out lasted the TH's.

[thunderstation]

Originally Posted by Munjibunga

OK, I'll try this one again.

Is Tina Weymouth any good? I can't tell ... I've been watching the Talking Heads' "Stop Making Sense" DVD, and it really bugs me the way the fingers on her left hand flail around like that. She seems to have a groove, but her technique is suspect. She was having trouble with articulating note lengths on a couple of the tunes. Help me out here.

In the interviews I've read, she talks about having very small hands and having trouble finding basses she can play because of it. She might look odd because she's compensating for that.
She certainly lays down a grrove, and is worth listening to.

[carl0s]

ready for another? It's only been 10 months.

I love Talking Heads :-)

Just jamming to Making Flippy Floppy right now

I really like the bass accompaniment of Heaven on the SMS DVD. Just acoustic guitar, vocals, and bass (and a little synth..)

[SactoBass]

Keepin' the thread alive!

Tina lays down a groove that just feels right. And she plays it so very well. No silly flashy juvenile "hey everyone, dig me" style, but rather doing what a musician should do, IMO, which is, make the entire band sound good.

[miles'tone]

I remember an interview with her where she explained a valuble tip Robbie Shakespeare told her. Which was, whenever possible, always finger the note you need on the lowest possible strings.
Always struck me as funny that she would need to be told this as this was way after talking heads (both the interview and meeting Robbie that is)
she's always struck me as someone who is just naturally able to groove without needing to analyse things too much.

[joe vegas]

Tina's a musical treasure from a vibrant era ... she holds it down but adds very cool, quirky timings, note choices and patterns that don't always lay where a "seasoned pro" would put them... hard to imagine TH with a crazy-chops player. i also dig that she's up in the mix on the albums, it makes the parts that much more counter-rhythmic and interesting.

[thunderstation]

old threads never die, they never even fade away

[repoman]

So, I open up a 12 year old thread of Tina Weymouth who I love and not one picture...not one, w.t.f....

[MeLikeDaLowNote]

Originally Posted by SactoBass

Keepin' the thread alive!

Tina lays down a groove that just feels right. And she plays it so very well. No silly flashy juvenile "hey everyone, dig me" style, but rather doing what a musician should do, IMO, which is, make the entire band sound good.

This nails it. Always did exactly what the song needed. Nice!

[ewe2]

Have been a Tina fan since day one back when '77 was released. When I first picked up a bass in the early 80's I was trying to learn her lines on that album and every one thereafter. I still regard Fear of Music as a high point: to me her bass sounds like a person talking, and if you didn't listen to the words on that album you'd swear most of those songs were upbeat just from the nutty little basslines.

[bassteban]

Like

[smallstoner]

Hi guys. I just wanted to pop into this 12-year-old thread to help answer the questions regarding whether it's Tina on 77. There's a thread on this subject from 2009 on electricalaudio.com that's worth reading. You'll learn that the rumor stems from claims made by 77 "producer" Tony Bongiovi to the author of This Must be the Place, a book about the Heads.

Anyway, into this thread comes none other than the venerable Ed Stasium, engineer on 77, and pretty much ends the debate. I'll quote his post here:

Re: The Talking Heads bass blasphemy
by Ed Stasium on Wed Oct 14, 2009 7:10 pm

A pal of mine informed me of this discussion....

This will be brief...I want to set the record straight about Tina playing on TH77. At the sessions Bongiovi would show up once in a while and when he did he would proceed to the lounge and read airplane magazines. Lance was there most of the time, I was the only person involved in the recording of the project who was there for every minute of the process. Tina played bass on the ENTIRE LP, Bob Babbitt did come in and overdub on one or maybe two songs but at the mixing stage I did not put Babbitt's bass up in the mix and the "producers" knew none the better! I seem to recall that I may have "Ghosted" Bob on the chorus (for effect) of "Love Has Come To Town" under Tina's bass for alas, I was WAY on the band's side.

David could not stand Bongiovi and did not want him present whilst he recorded vocals, David informed me of this and I was the one who broke the news to Bongiovi (who did not care). Jerry has since remixed all of the Band's LPs for 5.1 etc. and he would be the one to know (from the track sheets) which of the tracks Bob played on. But geez, it's been 32 years....c'mon!

Oh... and as for the Bongiovi quotes in Greg Milner's "History" My lovely wife Amy found the book and the first thing she did was read me several paragraphs and I choked on the tremendous amount of ******** squatted out by Bongiovi! Mr. Milner should get a truthful source for the addendum that should be added to that chapter. I manned any razor blade that was wielded on "Psycho Killer" (at the band's request), and there are no ****ing TYMPANI on "Sheena".

The only person who did not know what was going on during those sessions was Bongiovi himself.......I suppose I could go on but I must prepare dinner!

Drinks for my friends!.....cheers.....ed
Ed Stasium
newbie


Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Oct 14, 2009 6:18 pm

So there you have it. Pretty cool, I thought, but I knew it anyway. You can't tell me that's a seasoned pro playing those sunny, goofy basslines on "pulled up" or "don't worry about the gov't".

[Kmonk]

Originally Posted by Munjibunga

OK, I'll try this one again.

Is Tina Weymouth any good?

She is good enough to do more than 99% of the people who ever picked up a bass. Her technique obviously works for her.

[winston]

Was just listening to a live Talking Heads CD on the way to work today. I still love Tina's groove and playing after all these years!

[Lobster11]

I just came across this thread and had something I wanted to say about Tina. But then I realized, after reading the thread from the beginning, that the next post evidently is not due until sometime in 2015, so I'll wait....

[skwee]

Tina Weymouth: taste > technique