I just had to share some love for an album I've recently been reunited with:



This album is the real deal. "Burning Down the House" and all their big hits of the '80s are fine and well, but this album Breaks It Down.

The first song kicks your ass numb, so all you can do is lay there senselessly drooling and grinning like a fool to the rest of the album (which ain't a bad state to be in). "I Zimbra" has got to be one of the ten funkiest songs of the '80s, if not one of the funkiest songs of all times. It's the sound of someone losing control completely, going into conniptions of pleasure - if walking on hot coals were turned into music, it would be this song.

And it just goes on from there..."Life During Wartime"..."Memories Can't Wait"..."Cities"...and to top it all off, it's produced by Brian Eno.

This is one of those that there's just no reason not to own. Damn, it's nice.

Is that an 8-track!?!?!?

Just saw the dvd "Stop Making Sense" and now I'm a fan.

This will be my first purchase, Thanks

Slave2daGroove said:

DAMN, I gotta see that! I heard about it a few weeks ago from manki. I never saw it when it came out, but I remember the video they would always play on mtv. Same as it ever was...This is not my beautiful wife!

The beginning of Stop Making Sense is classic, where it starts out w/ just David Byrne and a boombox on "Psycho Killer," and adds a member of the band w/ each song until the whole extended group is on stage just in time for the Tom Tom Club's "Genius of Love". Bliss, I tell you!

First of, Anxiety, you're one of the greatest orgers EVER!!!

Fear of Music is in my top 5 of favorite Talking Heads albums. It showed that the band were moving towards a darker, more rhythmic, more soulful direction. This was their transistion into their African-rooted funk and dark Joy Division style New Wave. But they didn't want you, the listener to feel gloomy, they wanted you to get up and shake that thang. "Cities', "Life During Wartime", "I Zimbra", "Animals", etc. are just too cool. Also, the lyrics by my favorite new wave geek, David Byrne are just funny and cerebral. It's an awesome record.


Oh yeah, Stop Making Sense is one of the best concert flicks ever and I highly recommend it to everyone.


TALKING HEADS RULE!!!

Great choice Anxiety! I love the Talking Heads.The first 5 albums are classics,IMO.I could listen to this particular album from start to finish.From I Zimbra to Drugs.Anybody heard This Mortal Coil's version of Drugs? It's a shame none of their albums are remastered yet,WTF?? There's even a live LP thats not even on CD??!!

PhilG said:

Not anymore. I recently learned that Rhino will finally relese "The Name of This Band is Talking Heads" on CD.

totally agree - talking heads were a fantastic group ...

i am always amazed why they broke up , etc ... they were so good together ... so diverse ... and their songs were so original ...

dagodfather said:

Creative and artistic differences, you know how that goes.

Anxiety said:

Same with Vina, I'd only heard the MTV hits and wasn't familiar at all.

Then, as you've posted, it opens up with one musician at a time adding until the whole band is playing. Just amazing and what's more amazing is that I had this idea for my band and that's how I found out about this dvd. Bastids.

Whatever. There's points in the show where David is running around the stage and the whole show is an aerobic work-out. Just such raw/good energy and I loved it. Not so much because I could identify with the music but more so because of the energy that the band was giving. Some funk grooves were spotted but so was a ton of other styles.

Then I hear a Living Colour song and realize that between Bad Brains and The Talking Heads, Living Colour barely had one original thought between them (and I'm a fan?!)

Thanks for starting this Thread.

Ahhh try playing 'Drugs' at 45rpm instead of 33. You'll love it.

NWF said:

Cool..Hopefully they'll release the rest of their catalogue.
[This message was edited Tue Feb 3 19:35:40 PST 2004 by PhilG]

I have the "Remain in Light" album and "Stop Making Sense". I really like Stop Making Sense- but to be completely honest, Remain in Light actually kinda bores me. I've given it several chances and just couldn't get into it. Should there be any reason for me to give "Fear of Music" a chance knowing that I can't stomach Remain in Light?

I want to like this band... but I can't seem to go beyond "Sand in the Vasoline".

jtgillia said:

Oooh, yeah, definitely check out Fear of Music. I really love Remain in Light, and I do think it's a fitting companion for Fear of Music, but RiL is more artsy-experimental with a little bit of funk and pop, and Fear of Music is WAY funkier, with a bit of experimentalism thrown in. It's also a lot more stripped down and minimal in comparison, and the energy is completely off the meter. If you liked "I Zimbra" from "Sand in the Vaseline", just imagine that as a springboard for a whole album of that same kind of feel, only with dark moments and funny moments and everything in between.

Anxiety said:

collectorscum.com?

Much respect for taking the time to share your genuine musical enthusiasm.

“Fear of Music” is a fabulous record and an almost no-risk proposition for anyone who loves David Bowie, particularly his 3 mid-to-late 70’s masterpieces that were, just like “Fear”, produced by Brian Eno (“Low”, “Heroes”, and “Lodger”). The track “Heaven” in particular strikes me as something Bowie must have written. But every time I check the liner notes they confirm that it’s the other David, the one known as Byrne.

Not that these three Bowie and one Talking Heads’ album are sound-a-likes, because they are most definitely not. I just suspect that there is a strong overlap in terms of one’s musical and lyrical sensibility that would make it quite difficult to love one and dislike the other.

I still think the best place to start digging into the Heads is by snaring their first album, “Talking Heads: 77”. It’s a really low-risk purchase. At the very worst if this group isn’t your glass of lemonade, you’ve still strengthened your collection with one of the giant recordings of all time.

If you do fall for the Heads after listening to “77”, and you most likely will (wink), then it works great to just follow the rest of their collection through chronologically, in the end giving you a far better grasp on the musical evolution of one of the greatest bands to emerge from the late 70s.

NWF said:

Co-sign.

Isn't it a bitch; buying the Stop Making Sense cd and then it gets re-released, with extra material?

Brendan said:

Thanks!

Brendan said:

I always thought that Bowie's Lodger album sounds a lot like one of the Eno-produced Talking Heads albums. "DJ" in particular sounds like it could have been sung by David Byrne, and there are parts in that song where it sounds like Bowie passed the mic to Byrne! I think Eno had a lot of creative overflow during that period, and fortunately the results were all really fun and exciting.