Talking About Talking Heads

Source: NPR

Talking Heads was one of the largest alternative rock bands of the 1970s and 80s. Their lead singer, David Byrne, became a household name with his iconic performances and more specifically, his iconic suit.

I grew up on Talking Heads. Whenever I got into my Dad's car, instead of hearing the early 2000s pop of the era, 1980s alternative rock would be streaming through the speakers. The radio would be tuned in to "80s on 8" and would play any variety of The Smiths, The Clash, and, of course, Talking Heads.

I resented it at first. I wanted more than anything to scream along to the newest pop song and roll the windows down as the generic beats and lyrics blasted from the speakers.

But I learned to love it. I began listening to more and more alternative rock as I started to get older. I especially started listening to Talking Heads and discovered a whole new genre and era where music had more freedom and genre was more of a fluid term.

With the re-release of the documentary "Stop Making Sense," marking the 40-year anniversary of the Talking Heads iconic tour, I wanted to revisit some of the sounds that defined my childhood.

Source: A24

Speaking in Tongues is a perfect album in my eyes. It's interesting because when they were asked about the writing process, Jerry Harrison mentioned that this album alongside Remain in Light was written as an ensemble as opposed to Little Creatures and others which were primarily David Byrne's writing.

My personal favorite song from Talking Heads is on Speaking in Tongues which explains a bit of my bias. "Burning Down the House" though is so impressive since they were able to make a hit out of literal gibberish.

The song began as a jam session where one of the members just kept chanting "Burn Down the House" which Byrne eventually shifted to burning down the house and the first recording is completely different from the final product. Byrne just started chanting and saying random syllables and decided to eventually fill it with coherent words though some parts of the song are still indecipherable, at least to me.

The build-up and the eventual beat drop are so exciting in the song and the nonsensical lyrics are just hilarious to listen to. And the lyrics having no tempo is enticing to listen to, especially since there's the assurance with the instrumentals that there is a coherent tempo but it just gives Byrne more freedom to experiment with tempo and pronunciation.

I'm looking forward to the re-release by A24, coming out in theaters for this weekend only. I will likely update this entry with my opinions on the documentary, I never saw the original so I'm excited to see it and see how it's different from the original release, if it is at all.