TALKING HEADS, FEAR OF MUSIC @ 45

 

Released on August 3rd, 1979, the third LP from Talking Heads, Fear of Music, turns 45 years old today. While being one of the bands darkest and most introspectively paranoid albums, it also signalled a change in direction towards a more rhythmically complex and engaging form of dance music.

At the time the band started recording demos for the album, they were working without a producer and conscientiously focusing on more dance inspired rhythms from disco, Afro-beat and funk influences. However, their initial recording attempts proved unsatisfactory, sending the group retreating back to their home base at Chris & Tina's NYC loft, where they'd previously rehearsed before they were signed to their record deal with Sire. It was at this point that they brought producer, Brian Eno, back into the fold to help them get focused, especially after his successful work on their previous album, More Songs About Buildings and Food. Eno came up with the idea to take advantage for their home base sense of comfort and booked a mobile recording facility so that he could wire up Chris & Tina's loft, which is where they recorded the basic bed tracks for the album. The remainder of the album was recorded at a variety of NYC studios in the area, including the Record Plant and Hit Factory.

Eno played a crucial role in helping the band to push their more experimental leanings, crafting unique processing effects throughout the album's songs and bringing in guest musicians like Robert Fripp to add some flourishes to the instrumentation. As previously stated, they were moving into a much funkier groove, with tracks like I Zimbra telegraphing where the band would head on subsequent albums with their Afro-centric sense of poly-rhythms.

Thematically, the lyrics were very much focused on a kind of dystopian alienation, with song lyrics portraying characters racked by paranoia. Songs like "Air" even took that rebellion against existence to the point of rejecting the very atmosphere that surrounds us. Other tracks explored other states of discomfiting separation, like "Drugs", which perfectly captured the sense of disconnection from reality when someone's had a little bit too much of some mind altering substance or another. Even "Heaven" literally had "nothing" happening in it. Everything was out to get you on this album. "Animals" couldn't be trusted and even the musician's companion, the "Electric Guitar" was an adversary you should "never listen to". It's perhaps the band's most neurotic album ever. The album's packaging reinforced this bleakness, coming as it did in a plain black sleeve with an embossed pattern that resembled metal plating used in factories.

Critically, the album was extremely well received and has continued to garner accolades, often being referred to as one of the group's best and most adventurous records. Commercially, it also did well, though its singles weren't quite as successful as those that preceded and followed the album. This was my gateway into the world of Talking Heads and it has remained my personal favourite of their catalogue ever since I picked it up when it was originally released. It's one of those records that never seems to lose its charm and constantly rewards repeat listening, revealing new details with each encounter.

TALKING HEADS: 77 @ 45

 

September 17th marks the 45th anniversary of the debut LP by Talking Heads, 77, which was released on this day in, of all years, 1977! While the band came along in parallel with fellow CBGB scene makers like the Ramones and Blondie, they cut a distinctive path of their own, which made it clear that the NYC scene was about far more than three chord thrashing, not that there’s anything wrong with that!

The band had been courted by numerous record labels for some time prior to finally signing with Sire Records to record their debut. The problem was that the group simply didn’t feel competent enough to pull off a satisfying recording and also felt their ranks needed to be expanded from a trio to a quartet, which took a bit of searching before coming across former Modern Lovers keyboardist/guitarist, Jerry Harrison. Lou Reed had taken a keen interest in mentoring the group early on after seeing them live a few times at CBGB. He even invited them over to his place for a critique one night where he advised them on adjusting some song arrangements, recommending a slower tempo for one song, and he cautioned David Byrne against wearing short sleeves on stage due to his excessively hairy arms. Lou nudged them towards his manager, who immediately offered them a contract, but the band were savvy enough to have a lawyer take a look at it before signing anything. He warned that the deal would leave them with virtually no control or cash from their efforts, so they respectfully declined, while tactfully maintaining their friendship with Reed. It was Ramones manager, Danny Hyde, who encouraged them to sign with Sire, in the end, stating that, while the label suffered from most of the same pitfalls as major labels, they were still more supportive of their bands in the long run.

Sessions for the LP started in late 1976, before Jerry had joined, but these were only preliminary efforts and proper work on the album wouldn’t start until April of the next year when the group had finalized its lineup. After two weeks, the basic bed tracks were completed and the final overdubs and vocal sessions happened after the group completed a short tour of Europe, which was an opportunity they couldn’t pass up.

Production on the album was a bit conflicted as one of the producers involved had proven somewhat difficult to work with. Tony Bongiovi was supposed to co-produce, but Chris Franz claimed he mostly talked on the phone, read magazines and talked about airplanes. He reportedly gave David Byrne a knife before recording vocals for Psycho Killer, telling him to “get into character”, but Byrne wasn’t into Tony’s approach to “method singing” and declined. David eventually asking that Bongiovi be removed from the session as he made him feel uncomfortable watching while he tried to record his vocals. The group made efforts to get a replacement producer while touring in Europe, but to no avail.

The album was released to consistently positive reviews across the board and immediately established Talking Heads as serious contenders within the NYC/CBGB new music scene. Defining the more intellectual spearhead of what would be distinguished as “new wave”, as opposed to the rawer, faster “punk” characterized by the Ramones, they became college radio darlings. David Byrne’s angular, jagged presence epitomized the character of the “power-nerd”. Critic Robert Christgau said of the album/band…

“Like Sparks, these are spoiled kids, but without the callowness or adolescent misogyny; like Yes, they are wimps, but without vagueness or cheap romanticism. Every tinkling harmony is righted with a screech, every self-help homily contextualized dramatically, so that in the end, the record proves not only that the detachment of craft can coexist with a frightening intensity of feeling, something most artists know, but that the most inarticulate rage can be rationalized. Which means they're punks after all.”

BRIAN ENO & DAVID BYRNE - MY LIFE IN THE BUSH OF GHOSTS @ 40

 

Another February anniversary of note is the Brian Eno & David Byrne collaboration, My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, which was released 40 years ago in February of 1981.

The album was recorded during a hiatus from Talking Heads between 1979-1980, following the completion of Fear of Music and prior to recording Remain In Light. The album was release after Remain in Light, however, due to the time it took to secure legal clearances to use the multitude of voice samples which were at the core of the project. While it was not entirely unheard of for experimental artists to use so-called "found vocals" (Holger Czukay had done it as early as 1969 on his Canaxis LP), no one had done it so extensively and with such emphasis as Eno & Byrne did for this LP, essentially turning these recordings into the lead vocals for each composition. Musically, the heavily African influenced rhythms also utilized a lot of sampling and looping and the entirety of this process became hugely influential in subsequent musical movements from hip-hop to techno to ambient and beyond. This was certainly one of the first albums I heard which used such techniques so prominently.

The work done on Bush of Ghosts was an essential paving of the way towards what would happen with Talking Heads' Remain In Light album following the completion of this project. Many of the compositional and technical approaches developed on MLitBoG were foundational for RiL. There's a clearly audible progression and connection between the two records, making them stand together as musical cousins, if not direct siblings. Though there was a tendency to downplay the significance of the album at the time of its release as being merely an indulgence for a couple of creative minds at loose ends between projects, time has born witness to the significance of this album as its influence has extended into popular music. Sampling, in our times, is ubiquitous and taken for granted, but back when this album was released, it was almost unheard of and certainly no one had attempted to realize its potential to the degree that was achieved by Brian and David.