Back in the 1970s and ’80s when such a thing was a realistic possibility for rock bands, scoring a big hit single was the goal for most. Talking Heads seemed bound and determined for a while to avoid such a fate, instead pursuing the sounds that intrigued them most, regardless of accessibility for the masses.
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This shared instinct within the band’s four members led them to make Remain in Light, the 1980 album that many consider their masterpiece. Here’s the story about how the band and their iconoclastic producer forged their unique path on this mesmerizing album.
Light-ing the Way
Talking Heads emerged from the wildly creative and varied New York City music scene of the late ’70s. They traded in a kind of anti-pop music, full of surprising rhythmic structures and unusual vocals, the latter courtesy of frontman David Byrne. Their first three albums, while impossible to categorize, were ridiculously captivating.
Behind the scenes, things weren’t so rosy. While a visionary artist, Byrne struggled to connect on a personal level with his bandmates (guitarist Jerry Harrison, bassist Tina Weymouth, and drummer Chris Frantz, the latter two being husband and wife). However, he got along well with producer Brian Eno, who had worked with the band on the 1979 album Fear of Music and collaborated with Byrne on the album My Life in the Bush of Ghosts.
The band reconvened with the idea of making a more collaborative record, with each member of the group bringing their musical ideas to the table. Eno came back as well, and he developed a method by which the band would create separate instrumental parts which could then be manipulated into different songs.
In an interview with this author for the book Playing Back the ’80s: A Decade of Unstoppable Hits, Chris Frantz explained how this process dumbfounded some of the people working with the band on the sessions in the Bahamas, including British engineer Rhett Davies:
“We knew Rhett and we liked him. But after a few days of basic tracks, Rhett quit. He threw up his hands and said, ‘Every time you come up with something that sounds like it might be a popular song, Brian says, “No, that’s no good!’”
Revisiting Remain in Light
You can hear the evidence of Eno’s and the band’s approach all over Remain in Light. Whether it’s the polyrhythmic racket of “Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On)” or the restless funk of “Crosseyed and Painless,” the individual, looping parts lock into the cohesive whole, powering each song forward with a fearless momentum.
In truth, “Once in a Lifetime” should have been a hit, with Weymouth’s nose-diving bass grounding all the floating elements around it. Other highlights include “Seen and Not Seen,” where you can either get lost in Byrne’s spoken-word observations or the subtle maelstrom of sound behind them, and “Listening Wind,” where the music saunters hauntingly along to back the tragic story within the lyrics.
Speaking of the lyrics, Byrne is at his free-associating best on Remain in Light. While narrative coherence isn’t in the cards, it’s what he evokes—the feeling of sudden displacement in “Once in a Lifetime,” or the futile efforts to communicate in “Born Under Punches”—that matters. Only closing track “The Overload” meanders a bit, but that’s a small quibble on this otherwise flawless record.
The band’s next album, Speaking in Tongues (1983), gave them their breakout pop hit in “Burning Down the House.” By that time, some of the fissures in the group were starting to blow wide open; they’d break up after Naked in ’88. Remain in Light presents them at their uncompromising best, taking us as listeners where we didn’t expect to go, and giving us a thrilling ride to get there.
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Photo by Rob Verhorst/Redferns
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