Talking Heads

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Talking Heads was an American band from New York. David Byrne, Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth met at the art school Rhode Island School of Design. They moved to New York and played their first gig as Talking Heads in June 1975, supporting the Ramones at CBGB. Weymouth learned to play bass guitar for the band. The name came from the world of television: the image of a talking head, all content and no action. In 1977 Jerry Harrison joined on keyboards and guitar.

Music and breakthrough

The debut album Talking Heads: 77 produced the first hit, Psycho Killer. After that the band worked with the producer Brian Eno on More Songs About Buildings and Food (1978), Fear of Music (1979) and Remain in Light (1980). On those records the music moved ever further towards funk and West African rhythms, with Fela Kuti as an important example. Once in a Lifetime became a well-known song, partly thanks to its video. In 1983 came Speaking in Tongues with Burning Down the House, and the tour that followed was captured in the concert film Stop Making Sense by Jonathan Demme. After Little Creatures (1985), True Stories (1986) and Naked (1988), the band split up.

Influence

Talking Heads came out of the CBGB punk scene but sounded very different from the Sex Pistols: not furious, but nervous, clever and danceable. The staccato guitars, the tight rhythm section and Byrne's jerky vocals, with abstract lyrics, made the band one of the forerunners of new wave. They connected the art school and the dance floor.

Listening

• 
  Psycho Killer · Talking Heads, 1977
  Apple Music ↗

Discography

Studio albums

• 1977Talking Heads: 77
• 1978More Songs About Buildings and Food
• 1979Fear of Music
• 1980Remain in Light
• 1983Speaking in Tongues
• 1985Little Creatures
• 1986True Stories
• 1986True Stories Soundtrack (soundtrack)
• 1988Naked

In School of Rock

The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.

• Mixtape 4: When Rock Was Still Pop^NL Reader

Mentioned in other articles

• Postpunk GenreJoy Division from Manchester released their records on the local label Factory; in New York, Talking Heads showed that rock could be nervous, ironic and danceable.
• Sequential Prophet-5 TechnologyIt became a sound of new wave and synth-pop, from The Cars and Japan to Talking Heads, and later of Michael Jackson and Madonna.
• 77 AlbumOn 16 September 1977 the first Talking Heads album was released.

See also

• 77
• Postpunk
• Sequential Prophet-5