An amateur recording of the early “I Feel It In My Heart” (1976) shows the loveliest Tina Weymouth with a short parted hairdo on her big bass guitar, which she played like nobody else – she always set the pattern for bass guitar playing in general. The nervous David Byrne sings this tender, desperate song about someone who would like to enjoy their work and be a sunshine to the family. He just needs to try harder, he thinks.
This set the tone that set Studies in Sociopathy at “77” (★★★★★). To the dry groove, Byrne sings about the hardships and joys of emotionally deaf people: “No Compassion”, “Tentative Decisions”, “Don’t Worry About The Government”.
On “More Songs About Buildings And Food” (1978, ★★★★★), the first co-production with Brian Eno, Byrne varied in sardonic songs like “Found A Job” and “I’m Not In Love”, expanded but the horizon is set with the cover version of “Take Me To The River” and the epic piece that started Talking Heads’ America exploration and that explains that satellite topography of the United States on the back cover: “The Big countries”.
“Fear Of Music” (★★★★1/2) isn’t as coherent as the earlier records: “I Zimbra” sets the African beat, the bizarre “Life During Wartime” intensifies the funk. “Cities” is one of Byrne’s most incisive and laconic songs, “Heaven” would almost be romantic if the piece didn’t have a nihilistic streak. The excerpts from the performance on “Rock/Pop in Concert” on German television, 1980, which are included on the CD/DVD version, are fabulous, where the Heads performed “Cities” and “I Zimbra” in a larger cast.
“Remain In Light” (1980, ★★★★★), the radioactive rhythm monster, had “Crosseyed And Painless” and “Once In A Lifetime”. Byrne’s and Eno’s texts have degenerated into stammering, formulas, panic attacks: “Facts lost facts are never what they seem to be/ Nothing there! No information left of any kind/ Lifting my head – looking for danger signs.” It all culminates in the tautological chant “I’m still waiting”. At the end there is the unreal beautiful, quiet “Listening Wind” and the eerily threatening, almost motionless “The Overload”. A record from which the 80s never recovered.
Speaking In Tongues (1983, ★★★★1/2), recorded without Eno, marks the band’s transition to popularity. It was amazing how the former art students suddenly became discotheque favorites with their hermetic music. The booming, slogan-like “Burning Down The House”, the bitchy funk of “Slippery People” and “Girlfriend Is Better”, the catchiness of “Pull Up The Roots” and “This Must Be The Place” paved the way for “Stop Making scythe”.
1985’s “Little Creatures” (★★★★1/2) was seen as a cheeky turn to pop, even to the “mainstream”, but it merely reflects Byrne’s interest in the American South. Even more “True Stories” (★★★★1/2), songs from Byrne’s film, blistering ballads, organ tea dance, gospel church service, country & western and rural swof. It’s Byrne’s “Cood Old Boys”.
Finally, “Naked” (1988, ★★★★1/2) is a swan song to civilisation, brilliant and intoxicating with wind instruments, percussion, African idioms, rai and salsa on the one hand. On the other hand, a depressive last hum: “The Facts Of Life”, “The Democratic Circus”, “Cool Water”. The end was a bacchanalian celebration and it was a dance of death.
When David Byrne started again with “Rei Momo”, he danced the mambo in South America. The psychopath next door had become a mood bear.
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