Over eight albums and two dwell data, Speaking Heads charted an unlikely course — shifting from a tiny punk membership in New York Metropolis’s East Village to the pop charts and even film stardom. David Byrne, Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth, and Jerry Harrison put their distinctive spin on the standard rock quartet, pulling soul music, Afrobeat, hip-hop, Krautrock, and different influences into their herky-jerky grooves. Alongside the way in which, they helped to invent what we now name “different rock” about as a lot as any band.
Speaking Heads formally ended 30 years in the past this 12 months. The breakup was contentious: In 1996, Byrne sued his former bandmates, making an attempt to cease them from performing underneath the title The Heads. The group has solely reunited as soon as, to play 4 songs at their 2002 Rock and Roll Corridor of Fame induction. And given the tales which have come out over time, together with in Frantz’s 2020 memoir Stay in Love, there appears little hope of ever seeing Speaking Heads again in motion. However right here’s a glance again at 10 of probably the most memorable moments within the band’s story:
10. Their first gig, opening for the Ramones at CBGB
The Artistics, the primary band that singer-guitarist David Byrne and drummer Chris Frantz shaped after assembly on the Rhode Island College of Design, was short-lived. However by the point they’d shaped their new trio with bassist Tina Weymouth, Frantz’s girlfriend, all three had moved right into a loft in New York, the place Speaking Heads made their dwell debut on the soon-to-be-legendary East Village membership CBGB.
On June 5, 1975, Speaking Heads staged the primary of 4 exhibits opening for the Ramones, debuting a handful of songs that would seem on their first two albums, together with “Psycho Killer.” By the tip of 1976, the 2 bands had been Sire Information labelmates, and in 1977, the Heads as soon as once more opened for The Ramones on their first European tour. At exhibits in Syracuse and Boston that 12 months, the Speaking Heads coated “I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend.”
9. The band data “Psycho Killer” regardless of awkward moments within the studio
“Psycho Killer” was the primary track the band wrote collectively, again once they had been nonetheless The Artistics. However the track didn’t take its acquainted bass-driven form till after Weymouth joined the band. It grew to become the standout on their debut album, Speaking Heads: 77, and the band’s first Sizzling 100 hit — unintentionally capturing the zeitgeist of the second that the Son of Sam murders had been terrifying New York Metropolis, years after the lyrics had been penned.
Speaking Heads: 77 was co-produced by Tony Bongiovi and Lance Quinn, who’d been assigned to the mission by Sire. Sadly, the band didn’t appear to be working on the identical wavelength as Bongiovi, who quickly based the legendary New York studio Energy Station and helped launch his cousin Jon Bon Jovi’s profession. Bongiovi tried to persuade Byrne to carry a carving knife whereas recording “Psycho Killer,” to get into character because the track’s murderous protagonist. Byrne refused. In keeping with Harrison’s liner notes for As soon as In A Lifetime: The Better of Speaking Heads, the producers pushed to launch an alternate combine with acoustic guitars and cello over the electrical model everyone knows at present.
7. When “Radio Head” grew to become one other nice band’s namesake
In December 1991, three years after Speaking Heads’ final album and 7 years after their remaining live performance, David Byrne lastly confirmed the band was over, telling the Los Angeles Occasions, “You would say [we’ve] damaged up, or name it no matter you want.” The identical month, British band On A Friday signed a contract with EMI Information and altered their title on the label’s request. Their new moniker, Radiohead, was an homage to the 1986 Speaking Heads observe “Radio Head.”
On the True Tales album, Byrne sang “Radio head, the sound of a model new world” over a Latin rock groove that includes legendary Tejano accordionist Steve Jordan. (Within the movie of the identical title, Tito Larriva of the Mexican-American punk band the Plugz sang the track.) Although Thom Yorke’s band would most likely be embarrassed to name themselves “the sound of a model new world,” Radiohead adopted in Speaking Heads’ footsteps — a boldly experimental band that additionally made platinum-selling hit data.
Issues got here full circle in 2019, when Radiohead had been inducted into the Rock and Roll Corridor of Fame, with Byrne giving their induction speech. “I used to be stunned and really flattered when Radiohead acknowledged that they’d named themselves after a track that I’d written,” Byrne stated. “However I needed to ask myself, ‘Why that track?’ I nonetheless haven’t been in a position to determine it out. In a sure method I don’t wanna know. This was a form of goofy Tex-Mex track that I’d written. Perhaps we’ll discover out — who is aware of. Fortunately, I’m an enormous fan of the group. They richly deserve this honor.”
6. Jerry Harrison completes the band’s lineup
One group that appeared to put the groundwork for Speaking Heads was The Fashionable Lovers, who married The Velvet Underground’s edgy proto-punk aesthetic to wry, wide-eyed views on modern life. The Fashionable Lovers broke up in 1974 after the collapse of offers with Warner Brothers and A&M, although their sole album was finally launched independently and have become an influential cult favourite.
Speaking Heads carried out as a trio for almost a 12 months whereas searching for a keyboardist and/or a second guitarist to spherical out the lineup. Harrison, who’d performed keyboards (in Fashionable Lovers) and guitar, was a perfect candidate. However after his disappointing Fashionable Lovers saga, Harrison was reluctant to affix till they’d a report deal in place. He got here onboard after the Sire contract was signed, changing into a secret weapon who fleshed out their sound completely. In October 1976, the Heads even coated The Fashionable Lovers’ “Pablo Picasso” throughout their efficiency at New York membership Max’s Kansas Metropolis.
5. Tina Weymouth turns into a brand new form of bass guitar hero
When Frantz’s band couldn’t discover a bassist, Weymouth discovered the instrument by taking part in together with data by glam rock artist Suzi Quatro. Issues had been typically contentious between Weymouth and Byrne, who made her re-audition to stay within the band once they scored a report deal. However her significance to the Heads sound is plain, beginning with the enduring bassline to “Psycho Killer.” (Weymouth, the one Francophone within the band, additionally helped write the French sections of the track’s lyrics.) It’s arduous to think about numerous Speaking Heads songs, from “Warning Signal” to “Crosseyed and Painless,” with out Weymouth’s inimitable sense of phrasing.
Though Patti Smith and Blondie’s Debbie Harry had been the highlight frontwomen of the CBGB’s scene, Weymouth reduce a novel determine that may quickly grow to be an archetype: the feminine bass participant in an in any other case all-male band. A number of years later, Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth and Kira Roessler of Black Flag adopted in her footsteps. And over the subsequent couple of a long time, it grew to become such a ubiquitous gender dynamic of alt-rock that it was generally sneered at as a cliché: Smashing Pumpkins, The Pixies, Superchunk, White Zombie, The Pogues, A Good Circle, the listing goes on and on. Weymouth additionally took heart stage in her aspect mission with Frantz, Tom Tom Membership, singing lead on the band’s timeless 1981 single “Genius of Love.”
4. The sleeper success of “This Should Be The Place”
Immediately, “This Should Be The Place (Naïve Melody)” is the second-most in style Speaking Heads track on streaming providers. Nevertheless it took a long time to catch on. Within the ‘80s, the closing observe to Talking In Tongues was launched as a single twice, underperforming each occasions. Because the follow-up to the band’s prime 10 hit “Burning Down the Home,” it stalled at No. 62 on the Sizzling 100. However because the band’s first actual love track, it’s grow to be a leftfield wedding ceremony staple and an indie rock commonplace, coated by Arcade Hearth, Iron & Wine, The Lumineers, Kishi Bashi, and lots of extra. On tv, the track has popped up in episodes of Northern Publicity, Gray’s Anatomy, 9-1-1, Trade, and Little Fires In all places, amongst different collection.
3. David Byrne powers by way of author’s block, arriving at a signature lyrical type
After the primary two Speaking Heads albums burned by way of nearly all of the band’s early dwell repertoire, they spent lengthy hours jamming instrumentals to create 1979’s Concern of Music. When Byrne had bother writing lyrics to those intensely polyrhythmic grooves, producer Brian Eno instructed he write out a “desk of contents” with themes for the album to handle. That listing of nouns grew to become the titles of songs like “Thoughts,” “Paper,” “Cities,” “Air,” “Animals,” and “Medicine.” Byrne would riff on every matter, arriving at a distinctly Speaking Heads type of lyricism — a mixture of blandly goal descriptions, non-sequiturs, arresting imagery, and piercing perception.
2. The band’s warped tackle pop music turns into pop music
Speaking Heads had been, from the start, each probably the most experimental and probably the most pop of the CBGB bands. At their earliest gigs, they’d cowl ‘60s bubblegum hits by the 1910 Fruitgum Firm and the Troggs. They scored their very own first Prime 40 hit by overlaying “Take Me to the River,” a beforehand obscure album observe by R&B hitmaker Al Inexperienced. “Burning Down the Home” arose after Byrne heard the title chanted at a Parliament-Funkadelic present. However Speaking Heads’ stiffly funky sound was at all times distinctive, as in the event that they’d sidestepped makes an attempt to grow to be an genuine blues or R&B band and as a substitute channeled these influences into one thing new.
Finally, although, Speaking Heads grew to become a part of the pop music firmament themselves, returning to the Sizzling 100 time and again in numerous types. Jay-Z and Memphis Bleek sampled “As soon as In A Lifetime” for 1998’s “It’s Alright,” Trick Daddy interpolated the obscure early Heads observe “Sugar on My Tongue” for 2005’s “Sugar (Gimme Some),” and Selena Gomez sampled “Psycho Killer” for 2017’s “Unhealthy Liar.” Moreover, Weymouth and Frantz’s Tom Tom Membership hit “Genius of Love” is likely one of the most-sampled songs in in style music, gracing large hits by Mariah Carey and Latto.
1. The best live performance movie of all time, Cease Making Sense
Speaking Heads, extra in style than ever in 1984, determined to cap their peak inventive interval with a live performance movie, teaming up with director Jonathan Demme, then finest recognized for 1980’s Oscar-winning Melvin and Howard. However Cease Making Sense was something however a traditional rock doc: There have been no interviews, and the band didn’t have interaction in stage banter or guitar hero poses. As a substitute, the superbly staged movie took a easy, putting aesthetic, letting the band’s deeply inventive songs and the enjoyment of performing them converse for themselves.
Cease Making Sense doesn’t have a plot per se. Nevertheless it does inform the story of the band in its personal indirect method, with Byrne performing “Psycho Killer” solo to open movie earlier than being joined by bandmates, little by little, till an expanded nine-piece lineup crowds the stage. It appears like all of the musicians are having the time of their lives, with Byrne because the present’s whimsical star, dancing with a lamp and donning his unforgettable “large swimsuit” for the previous couple of songs. In 2021, Cease Making Sense was chosen by the Library of Congress for preservation in the USA Nationwide Movie Registry.
