Talking Heads
 

Feel free to file this thread under 'pointless'... but I just love them very much...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVIKF03KkVM

"the name of this band is talking heads..."
greatest introduction to a gig ever...................

talking heads are one of the best bands ever

when they were good, they were really good.

when they were bad, they were really popular.

SPEAKING IN TONGUES was their last solid release... and even that has two or three interchangeable/filler tracks on it. The first four albums are where it's really at.

And I agree with PaulyBee. Rhino's reissue of "The Name of this Band..." is probably the best Talking Heads release on the market.

my mum loves them and saw them when she was in the 20's and she said they were great live too.

i have a love hate thing with them. some of the stuff they did was so appaling i cant even bare to think about it but they did do once in a lifetime which pretty much redeems them in my book.

While The Name of This Band is Talking Heads double album and the Stop Making Sense motion picture makes it readily evident that they are great live, it's also true that (and here in this thread is a testimonial from screamingskull's mother), they are great live most of the time.

I'd like to improve my collection of Talking Heads material, if possible. Noticeably absent from my collection is the Rhino 2003 3-cd "Once in a Lifetime" and Collected Videos dvd. But, hey, I have the BBC "Once in a Lifetime" documentary which is pretty out there.

Talking Heads
all studio albums
Once in a Lifetime BBC documentary dvd, vcd x2
Stop Making Sense dvd, vcd x2
Stop Making Sense soundtrack (Sire, 1984)
The Name of This Band is Talking Heads lp x2 (Sire, 1982) expanded reissue cd x2 (Rhino, 2004)
6/??/74 CBGB NYC
??/??/75 Matthew Kaufmann Sire Demos 'Psycho Killers' ep
11/??/75 CBS demos, CBS Studios NYC
10/09/76 Max's Kansas City NYC
1/21/77 The Rat Boston
1/22/77 The Rat Boston
3/31/77 CBGB NYC
??/??/77 CBGB NYC King Biscuit Flower Hour FM sbd
(broadcast February 1978)
1/13/78 Onkel Poe Hamburg, Germany FM sbd
5/10/78 My Father's Place Rosyln, NY (B&W, semi-pro) svcd, dvd x2
8/21/78 Punch & Judy Theater Grosse Point, MI x2
9/13/78 Park West Chicago FM sbd
11/12/78 Texas Palladium Dallas sbd 'Heads in Dallas'
12/??/78 UCLA 'Electrically' x2 (Beacon Island Records, 1979)
3/15/79 The Agora Cleveland, OH Live on Tour 1979
6/??/79 Sydney State Theatre Sydney, Australia Triple J FM broadcast
6/30/79 Roskilde Festival Roskilde, Denmark
7/08/79 Nihon Seinenkan Tokyo FM sbd
8/24/79 Berklee Performance Center Boston pre-FM sbd
7/??/80 Heatwave Festival Toronto, ON 'Byrned to a Crisp'
8/23/80 Heatwave Festival Mosport Park Bowmanville, ON
12/??/80 Transbordeur Lyon, France
12/16/80 Palasport Bolgna, Italy x2
7/04/82 Werchter Festival Belgium FM sbd
8/05/83 Performing Arts Center Saratoga, NY
8/07/83 U.S. Show Warner Bros. showcase NYC sbd
8/19/83 Forest Hills Tennis Courts Forest Hills, NY
8/20/83 Cape Cod Coliseum South Yarmouth, MA sbd x2

Awesome, thanks !

I guess I need this Rome '80 video. I could snatch it off of youtube, but I'd rather trade for a good copy of it.

The other night Laurie Anderson was on PBS' "A Gala Night at Alice Tully Hall" and I recorded her two *new* songs to VHS. Where I really fucked-up was I taped Philip Glass who came on before Laurie. What I ended up doing was accidentally taping over (I was too high) Talking Heads on SNL. I still have "Take Me To The River" from the end, but lost the best "Artists Only" ever. boo-hoo...can anyone help me rectify my mistake?

Sounds like we're all mostly in agreement on that. Though I'd replace "bad" with "mediocre". There's one great song on Speaking in Tongues - "Naive Melody" and one frat boy theme song abomination. True Stories isn't horrible per se, just way substandard for such a great group. Oddly, the movie is rather brilliant despite the soundtrack being a yawner and woven throughout it.

The True Stories movie has only rare moments of pleasure. It's a horrible failure, but might have been better if the music were better, yes.
Little Creatures and True Stories (the album) are decidely weaker than the rest of their output, but they are by no means bad though. Speaking in Tongues, yes, is the beginning of the gradual decline, but it's still a good album. Naked (their last) is still, for the most part, great.

I pretty much love the Talking Heads.

one of my favorite bands. more songs is always going to be one of my top albums. and remain in light is one of the beautifully layered, brillintly produced albums, ever.
i have the name of the band... on vinyl which sounds great. and i bought the stop making sense VHS for like 2$
and naked also has some great songs. nothing but flowers has some of my favorite lyrics in the world...
and tina W was one of the most top notch bassists around
and quite a looker at that...

I love every album up until Speaking In Tongues (though I decided to keep that album for Naive Melody alone). Fear Of Music / Remain In Lights are my favourites, I love Eno's work around that era.

Talkin Heads are fuckin cool

They're one of those bands I never give enough credit to, largely because I've always found David Byrne quite irritating.

One of the seminal punk bands of their time and far better than a lot of 'cooler' examples from that era I could mention.

'Naive Melody' might actually be my favorite song of theirs. 'Slippery People', 'Swamp' and 'Making Flippy-Floppy' are all great too. The rest of that album is enjoyable, but not mind-blowing like their previous work.

As far as NAKED goes. The song 'Blind' makes me want to die... I hate it with every ounce of my being, and I have since I was a small child.

'Nothing But Flowers' is great though :)

"Once In A Lifetime" is a classic choon, I must say.

I really love some of their songs but, for some reason, I find it hard to fully engage with them. There's something a bit clinical about them or something. Something I can't quite put my finger on. Same with Roxy Music, for example, although I much prefer Talking Heads.