Talking Heads: 77

Performer: Talking Heads
Engineer: Ed Stasium
Producer: Tommy Bongiour; Lance Quinn; Talking Heads; Tony Bongiovi
Distributor: WEA (Distributor)

Notes: Talking Heads: David Byrne (vocals, guitar); Jerry Harrison (guitar, keyboards, background vocals); Tina Weymouth (bass); Chris Frantz (drums). Recorded at Sundragon Studios, New York, New York. Personnel: Jerry Harrison (vocals, guitar, keyboards); David Byrne (vocals, guitar); Tina Weymouth (vocals); Chris Frantz (drums). Recording information: Sun dragon Studios, New York, NY; Sundragon Studios, N.Y.C. Photographer: Mick Rock . When they burst out of the New York underground/CBGB's movement, the Heads stood apart from the pack because not only were they unlike anything that gone before, they were even anomalous to their contemporaries. A million miles from the detached irony of Blondie or the willful primitivism of the Ramones, the Talking Heads virtually invented geek-rock, setting the stage for everyone from the Violent Femmes to They Might Be Giants. Lyrically, David Byrne came off as the guy who thought too much about everything. Fortunately, he also happened to be a unique visionary, whose quirky, hyper-cerebral modernism echoed the work of poet John Ashbery and "serious" composer Robert Ashley. All this high-mindedness doesn't detract from the infectious rock & roll appeal of the tunes on the band's debut album, though. Their twitchy, preppies-on-amphetamines rhythms and semi-neurotic gestalt fueled tunes like twisted anthem "Psycho Killer" and the jubilant "Pulled Up." Byrne's high, yelping tenor was the perfect complement to the band's tightly-wound but kinetic rhythms, and 77 is an auspicious debut.

Spin (p.104) - "With his distressed falsetto, David Byrne is new wave's first definitive voice." Uncut (p.82) - 5 stars out of 5 -- "[The] remarkable cohabitation of painterly, arty ambitions and fascination with the lissom qualities of the groove can be seen from their very first single." Mojo (Publisher) (p.116) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "Their claustrophobic tunes of social unease, mathematical arrangements and front man David Byrne's self-conscious take on mundane events elevated them far beyond what would become new wave."

Proving you could rock despite having attended the Rhode Island School of Design, Talking Heads' innovative brand of downtown art-pop featured David Byrne's manic yelp, pointed lyrics about mundane subjects, and R&B-meets-Velvet Underground grooves, all without ever tipping over into pretension. The group began making twitchy pop in the punk era, but by the early-1980s the Heads had graduated to a dense, funky style incorporating a phalanx of additional musicians including Adrian Belew and P-Funk keyboardist Bernie Worrell. They made a slight return to their pop/rock roots before imploding at the end of the '80s, moving on to solo projects and production work.

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