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Tina Weymouth

#41
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!
 
#43
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.
 
#46
Munjibunga said:
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.
Click to expand...

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.
 
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#47
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..)
 
#49
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.
 
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#50
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.
 
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#54
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.
 
#56
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 [Invalid or Expired Link Removed] 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 [Invalid or Expired Link Removed] 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


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Joined: Wed Oct 14, 2009 6:18 pm
Click to expand...
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".
 
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