Few artists can legitimately claim to be groundbreaking, but Talking Heads are one of them. Like Elvis, the Beatles, Bob Dylan and Radiohead (who took their name from a Talking Heads song), the band recorded some of the most memorable popular music of the past seventy-five years. In his song-by-song discussion of their work, American musician and journalist David Starkey looks at how David Byrne, Chris Frantz, Jerry Harrison and Tina Weymouth emerged from New York’s mid-1970s punk scene and quickly distinguished themselves as innovative musicians.
Led by the enigmatic and wildly original Byrne, Talking Heads’ list of classic songs includes ‘Psycho Killer’,’Take Me to the River’, ‘Once in a Lifetime’, ‘Burning Down the House’, ‘This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)’, ‘Road to Nowhere’ and ‘(Nothing But) Flowers.’ Two of their eight albums, More Songs About Buildings And Food and Remain in Light, are listed among Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums.
Drawing frequently on first-person accounts from members of the band, Starkey brings to life the composition and recording of each song, pointing out hidden patterns in Byrne’s lyrics and ensuring that each member of Talking Heads receives credit for their contribution to this unparalleled body of work.
The author
David Starkey is an American writer and musician. A former Santa Barbara Poet Laureate and a long-time reviewer for the Santa Barbara Independent, he is also the author of the novel Poor Ghost, about a plane crash that killed most of the members of a legendary rock band. Toad the Wet Sprocket frontman Glen Phillips called Poor Ghost ‘the best band that never was.’) A lifelong musician, Starkey plays with various groups in Santa Barbara, California, including the Winehounds, and with drummer Eric Prothero, he records and performs as Falstaff Riley.
