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September 12, 2007
Retrohump: More Videos About Dancing and Grooves
Talking Heads - "Psycho Killer"
Old Grey Whistle Test, 1978
This was the first ever piece of footage I posted as part of our nearly two year Wednesday excavation project, known as Retrohump Day. That original post's vid has since shuffled off to clip removal purgatory, so it will hurt no one to revisit the performance by one of the very best live bands of all time, Talking Heads circa 1978-79. The Stop Making Sense contingent is strong in their revisionist lobbying, declaring that film and the band represented by it as some sort of definitive version. For my money though, all the supplemental guitarists and back up dancers and many bongo aided polyrhythmic expansions tended to bury what was a sleek machine. I'm certainly not saying that Byrne's dive into African textures wasn't a valid and rewarding creative direction, just that they were previously even better.
Some samples from my personal favorite of their Brian Eno aided discs, 1978's More Songs About Buildings and Food.
Talking Heads - "Artists Only"
February 1979, New York City
This clip, from an undetermined TV broadcast in early 1979, shows the Heads at their jittery best. I'm not sure a band before them had thought to combine stiff nervousness in demeanor and vocal delivery with such unbridled funkiness. This artiste's lament is one of their wittiest.
Talking Heads - "Warning Sign"
1978, Berkeley California
This rare amateur footage of the band shows them in a relatively relaxed state. Without a real expectation of being filmed David Byrne might have toned down his chicken head bobs in the slightest. The audio was obviously cleaned up and re-added but it doesn't take too much away. Compare this college campus gig with their set from Rome two years later (available on YouTube, but unembedable, alas). Once you add a prog guitarist in King Crimson's Andrian Belew, and start tacking on the percussion, you lose the charm of four design students in a room, inexplicably locked into an unflappable rhythm.
Note: Belew is pretty awesome, anyway. Check out his guitar handling of the spacey synth part from "Stay Hungry."
Extra:
Two cuts from the record that unimpeachably proves the band's late seventies dominance, The Name of This Band is Talking Heads. I could easily claim this to be one of the best live albums ever recorded, but there's really no need to qualify it. This is one of the best albums ever recorded, period. Both of these tracks are from a December 1978 Cleveland show that was not included on the original vinyl release, but is on the re-issued CD from a few years ago.
Talking Heads - "Girls Want to be With the Girls"
Talking Heads - "Electricity (Drugs)"
Extra Extra:
While I may be belittling the love given to Stop Making Sense ever so slightly, I would never dream of supplying anything but the most effusive praise for this connected peace of what-the-fuckery. David Byrne pre-emptively out Eddie Murphies Eddie Murphy.
David Byrne interviews David Byrne
from Stop Making Sense
Posted by Jeff Klingman at September 12, 2007 08:30 PM
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Comments
Thank you, Jeff. You have made my day! IMHO,you are spot on about The Name of This Band. I never understood why it languished out of print for 20 years. Its unavailability on CD was truly heinous.
Posted by: Magister Ludicrous at September 13, 2007 01:41 PM
holy shit I hadn't eer listened to Talking Heads that much but WOW DAVID BYRNE IS MY NEW FUCKING HERO!!! thanks for posting this video!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: andrea!!! at October 2, 2007 09:34 PM
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